And his Dad coached.

I fell into coaching more or less by default this year. As most of you know, I have no great soccer skills, quite the opposite in fact. My dad reminded me during the year that when he had coached my soccer team some 25 years ago, we didn't win a single game all season. There was much hooplah when we managed a tie.

Nevertheless, when signing Andrew up for the summer soccer season, I let myself be talked into coaching. My protests about not knowing much about socker, or coaching were to no avail. I was clearly a warm body who planned to be at every game...in the eyes of the Oakville Socccer Club, that it more than enough qualification to be a coach.

Looking back, it was a lot of fun. Its true that an affinity for soccer doesn't help much with 4 and 5 year olds. For much of the season, my main objective was to make sure that the kids were shooting for the other teams goal, and tying shoelaces on the field, and shouting at the goalie to stop picking grass because the ball is coming.

If they are looking for a warm body next year, I will probably be there. for the 6 and 7 year olds, I may actually have to learn something about strategy and position. The 5 year olds just seem to like swarming the ball like bees.