The spring travel soccer season was well under way, with the sixth game scheduled for Winchester, a thirty to forty-minute drive from our house in Concord (depending on traffic). Because I had driven to games in Winchester many times, I knew where the soccer fields were and the quickest way to get there. On this particular Saturday, however, Janice, the mother of Hunter's best friend and teammate, Nicholas, wanted to drive them to the game. Since Taylor's soccer game that day was in the opposite direction from Winchester, I was only too happy to oblige Janice's request.
When we had received the game schedules earlier that spring my husband and I had divvied up the driving chores. Every other Saturday, if it was an away game, I would drive. There were ten Saturday games, five home, five away. Because Hunter and Taylor were on different teams, that meant ten away games, ten home games that season.
So that we both got to see Hunter and Taylor play, and so one of us would always be at each of their games, we planned to each attend one of our sons' games each week and switch off the next week. Because the parents of our sons' teammates knew that we always attended their games, we usually ended up driving a mini-van full of players to away games.
I was looking forward to having a Saturday free to do something other than go to a soccer game, which, when all was said and done, usually gobbled up a 3 ½ hour chunk of the day for an away game, an hour less for a home game, assuming everything went smoothly, which wasn't always the case. Sometimes games started late because the previous game ran late, or the referee didn't show up on time or at all.
Hunter and Nicholas needed to be to the field to loosen up and practice at 12:30 p.m. for the 1:00 p.m. game start. This meant Janice needed to pick up Hunter no later than 11:30 a.m., which would give her an extra ten minutes cushion if there was extra traffic. I confirmed the plan with Janice on the Wednesday before the game.
Game day came and, at 11:30 a.m., Hunter was outside in his uniform kicking the ball against a wall. When I looked outside at 11:40, he was still there. As noon approached, Hunter became a bit concerned. I told him not to worry; that Janice and Nicholas would be pulling in the driveway any minute.
Hunter had been on time for every game and practice so far that season. With good reason: his coach made late-arriving players run two laps around the field and sit out most of the first half as punishment. At 12:00 p.m. I called Janice at home, hoping that she wouldn't answer because she was already on her way. No answer. Fifteen minutes later, with Janice nowhere in sight, Hunter and I had become concerned. Had there been an accident? I told Hunter we would wait 15 more minutes and, if she didn't show up, I would drive him.
At exactly 12:30, my porch bell rang. It was Janice. She was in a panic. She asked whether I had a pair of size seven soccer shoes, because Nicholas couldn't find his anywhere. "I ran up to his school but the door was locked," she said. I told her that I probably had a pair up in the attic, but it would take a few minutes to retrieve them. I looked at my watch and then at Janice's car. Nicholas wasn't in it! I asked why. She said that he had already left for the game with his dad so he could at least show up on time and warm up until she got him some shoes (in other words, he knew that he would be punished by his coach for showing up late so he made sure to get to the game on time).
I said, "Janice, do you know that the game is in Winchester, forty to fifty minutes away, and that Hunter should have left with you guys fifty minutes ago?" She gave me a look as if to say, "What the heck are you talking about? Was I supposed to drive the boys???" Suddenly realizing that she had agreed to drive Hunter, she turned bright red and, trying to save face, said, "Oh, if I hurry, we can still get there before it starts."
I knew that wasn't going to happen. I told her to take it easy on the way; that it wasn't worth getting into an accident. She pulled out of the driveway and drove off. Dazed, confused and without the shoes she had asked me to find! Five minutes later, she pulled back into the driveway, flung open the car door and ran up to the porch to tell me what I already knew: that she had forgotten the shoes. Since I kept all of the boys' old soccer shoes in their original boxes (they barely get broken in) in the attic, I was able to quickly retrieve a pair of size seven Adidas and hand them off to her like a runner handing off a baton in a relay race. As she ran towards the open door of her car, I called out, "Janice, don't rush! He can be late!" She gave me a wave that said that she would be okay.
Hunter was late, of course, arriving midway through the first half. After running three laps around the field, he was relegated to the bench for the rest of the half. Nicholas was on time, didn't have to run laps, and was allowed to play as soon as he laced up our spare pair of soccer shoes.
I tell this story not to place blame, but to show how stressed out we all can become, and how a failure to be organized has the ability to negatively affect the sports experience for everyone in the family - parent and child.
Links:
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Home-Team-Advantage-Critical-Mothers/dp/0060881631/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215363021&sr=8-1