Weekly update #7: "Playing catch up & unexpected responsibility"
So as expected, the first week back after a long vacation was pretty hectic. Now I know, I must be cautious when making blanket statements like that because there are those that don't even get vacations & work incredibly hard. However, when you're a work from home parent in particular, there's always so much to catch up on & you have to balance your to-do list, with the needs list of your children. It would definitely be so much easier to tackle the weeks duties without the responsibility of being a parent, but it also forces you to plan accordingly.
The highlight of the week was easily my son's birthday. We celebrated with his Colorado cousins before we left, but we threw him a small birthday dinner with his two San Diego cousins and my mom on his actually birthday last Saturday. For the past 6 months he has been wanting these turtle cupcakes that he saw a picture of in my daughters princess cookbook, and his awesomely talented baking mom fulfilled that request. I almost feel like we had a party just for these cupcakes 😂
My wife started her school year prep almost immediately upon returning home, which always includes lots of computer time, phone calls, meetings during the week, & typically leaves me with the kids. While that was an expected part of my week, along with my own emails & phone calls setting up some photo & video shoots for the month & prepping for a few shoots over the weekend, another item on my "daddy-to-do-list" was to look into a local soccer league for my oldest to start playing in the fall. This is actually something that I've looked forward to for a while considering I love sports & I love a good excuse to take pictures of my kids. I figured one day it would be fun to have my kids play a sport & I can get the chance to be the "picture-dad". While every team typically has that parent, I still looked forward to doing it. Well, I did some research, found a league & boy did that phone call turn out differently than I anticipated.
Basically my conversation with the local league commissioner played out like this...
Me: "Hi, my name is Dan Coronado & I'm just wondering if your league is still accepting players for the fall?" Commish: "Well yes we are, but there will be a late registration fee & practice does start next week. What age group would your kid be in?" Me: "Well, my daughter turns 5 in October..." Commish: "Ok, that would put her in our girls U6 division, but that group has a waiting list because we don't have enough coaches." Oh boy, not enough coaches... I think you can guess where the conversation led to from there. Basically I got put in the scenario where if I wanted my kid to play I had to step up and play coach too. So what did I do?
Yup, thats right... girls U6 rookie coach right here. As Andy Mineo & Wordsplayed say in their new album, "I do it for the kidz."
So I already had the busy week, & I just made it even more complicated by accepting the position of not just coach, but head coach of a sport I never even played. I always appreciated soccer growing up, and one of my best friends, Terry, always played competitively & taught me a few tricks over the years. I also learned how to do a flip throw-in that can be seen in this music video from 2004 in Australia: "Beautiful in White" Antiskeptic music video (a young Dan Coronado seen starting at 2:23) Soccer just never became my thing. I played amongst friends, & I've even subbed in for some friends in an indoor league in Australia a few times when I visited on vacation. I definitely love competition & a sport where a lot of running is involved, but I'm not really a fan of a sport that shys away from physicality. In lacrosse or football, if someone starts playing a little rough, you can remember their number & wait for your opportunity to get them back... LEGALLY. In soccer, you have to either play dirty or just suck it up. Lets just say the few times I have played, there have been a few colorful cards flashed my way. So this will be interesting. We start practice this week & I've been thrown into online courses, had to make several phone calls & eagerly anticipate the rest of my background check to clear so I can get my roster & start calling parents & basically say, "So yeah... we start practice tomorrow." I also already had my first coaching fail. I didn't get back to the Division Rep in time to let her know what colors we wanted for our team, so we're now stuck with the color orange. I've never been a huge fan of orange, but to make things "worse" I'm such a creative, & a little bit of a colors-must-match sort of freak & my daughters cleats are this chartreuse, yellowy/green color, & basically the worst color for orange. I find this all pretty comedic really, & its one of those times that I have to just laugh at my quirkiness. Also, in the future I'll know not to get her cleats until after we know our team colors if this sort of "issue" is going to bother me that much.
It will be interesting to see what team name the little girls come up with, but I'm excited that my daughter's cousin, Zoe, is going to be playing on the team. Zoe's dad Charlie is also going to be the assistant coach, & seeing that Charlie is also quite the creative dad, hopefully we will get to take turns shooting photos of our kiddos running around the field. At this age, my main coaching goals are to have fun, run the right direction & pass to the right team, learn not to use hands, & stay injury free. I think if we can manage that, it will be a good season, & if our girls end up liking soccer, hopefully another parent will step up next go-around so I can just do my picture thing 🤓 That's all for this recap. A few meetings are in the works that could help move the video end of the Creative Dad Network forward, & I'm excited to share more about that, hopefully by next week.
