[Val]

After a wet spring (the only rain we've had has been on 3 of the past 4 Sundays), I had my first "spring" practise, and it was brisk and windy, so I only had 4 girls out, but in the round of phone calls I made, I got several nice compliments from mothers of girls I'd had two years ago and who'd had poor experiences the last couple of seasons. That alone was enough to keep me going. I had another girl who had never played soccer before last season and who'd made nice progress, but who I would never have expected to want to play, come running out to me at the end of the practise explaining that she couldn't come because of another committment, but she wanted to stop by and say hi. So lots of positive feedback. My blast e-mail to all 71 girls who played last year goes out tonight.

The small number was all right because I was able to introduce a couple of drills that I want to do all spring/summer like 1v1s in a narrow channel and passing around the triangle to get the girls comfortable on receiving the ball on their back foot. My high school helpers have not materialized, so the girls will have to be demonstrators.

And I was so glad not to have to go the tournament I so agonized over. It was frigid, low 40s and windy, and we're 50 miles south of the tourney location and we got an inch of snow that morning. Not really how you want to have to play your inaugural matches.