Sean's Shadow Spiel

Dear Shadow Family,

Welcome to the new soccer year!  We welcome back familiar faces and greet new ones; and sadly say good bye to old faces.  Tryouts really are the worst of times in many respects; we hate to say "no" to a player.  This is one of the few negative by-products that occur in sport.  It is one that none of our coaches enjoy.

We now press forward with this paradox of sadness and excitement as tournament season starts soon.  For our club, tournaments are seen as an opportunity to improve.  We seek to find games that will challenge us, push us to be better, and yet allow for a chance at success as well.  Success is not necessarily winning, though we all would like to do so.  Success is being able to try a new move in a game, to connect a sequence of passes, and the like.  Winning, for us, takes a priority at the older age groups and usually only really becomes a focus around state cup time-and that success we did have this year with two teams reaching the semi finals, a couple of teams reaching the quarters, many teams advancing out of the first round and one team winning it all!  We also saw success in seeing our oldest players move on to college soccer; no one in the last few years has placed more players in collegiate programs in our area than our club.  We even had one player called into the U20 National Team camp this spring!

So, to the new players and parents, we think you have found a great place to play competitive soccer.  You have already helped to make us a stronger club, so thank you.  I ask that you now look forward to embracing the club, your team, and your child as we mark out a season together.  Please know things will not go perfectly, but do know we will try to do right by your child.
To all, seek to enjoy watching your child play.  They are only young once and time goes by very quickly-my oldest is now a sophomore in college.  Yikes; time moves by in a blink of an eye!  Encourage your child and help make their sporting activities something they look forward to. 

I recently was able to travel back to the Midwest to visit my ailing grandfather; at the same time I was able to take in some sporting activities.  My brother's teams were playing in Chicago (U18 and U16).  Next to the field he was going to play on was a game being played by 8 year olds, so I went over to watch-I always enjoy watching kids play.  Almost always, that is.  I did not stay 5 minutes as one of the parents sat behind the goal and constantly told his "red" team everything they had to be doing-"Go forward"  Where are we Red?  What are we doing Red?  Red, go to goal!  Cross it!  Shoot it! What are we doing?!  Where are we?!  Go!  Get back!  What are we doing?!"  I kid you not.  Only one person had fun that day and it was this guy.

On the flip side, I was able to attend a Special Olympics track meet that my Uncle Scott participated in; he has for many years as he has Downs Syndrome.  This was the first one I had seen, however.  What a great event!  And it really serves as a reminder of what sport should be-even for the spectator.  What I liked most was seeing the athletes compete.  They tried their hardest and they smiled while doing so.  The fans (and here's the lesson for us parents) just cheered them on.  Once they started the event, no one in the stands shouted at them about what they should be doing; they just cheered-and at the end, each athlete was congratulated for doing their best. 

The moral to the story?  Well, there's a couple I think.  First, encourage your child; encourage them to work hard and do their best and when they try to do so, congratulate them.  I do not care how old they are; that's all they really want from their parent.  Second, enjoy watching them play.  Sit down, sip your Craven's coffee and take great pleasure in seeing your child play; and while you are at it, take pleasure in your child's teammates and encourage them also!  I find few better things than watching a child have fun; let's all make it a place that allows for that to happen. 

Go Shadow!

Sean
Sean Bushéy
Technical Director

P.S.:  I would be remiss if I did not thank all of the volunteers that helped almost 800 kids through our tryout process.  We tackled a new program (U11s) with spirit and vigor and we carried it through till the end of the month.  Just an incredible amount of time was spent at pulling this off-from pre-tryouts to tryouts to team meetings.  Wow!  The club has grown and has become stronger-and is a better place because of first the kids, second the coaches , but just as importantly good people putting in a great amount of time to make our club a great place to be, so thank you!!!