Show me the money…wait, there is no money, except what I’m going to shell out. My daughter is moving into Academy U11 soccer. For all you neophytes who don’t know what this means (and I didn’t until last week), it’s one step above Recreational ball and one step below Select. Mother of God, you’d think we had the next Olympic gold player here. I’m looking around for Jerry Maguire to negotiate a deal. Oh, yeah, that’s right, Jerry Maguire isn’t real, it’s just Tom Cruise before he lost his dignity, and apparently his mind, on Oprah. But, I digress. :doze:

There are club evaluations, tryouts, phone calls from clubs and coaches, conferring with other parents. Where will she get the best training? Will she know girls at this other club? Will she learn more on the B string at a higher ranked club or the A string at a secondary club? Should she show up for tryouts more than one night at her first choice, or should she hedge her bets and attend an alternate on another night?

Let me make it clear here–my daughter isn’t the next Mia Hamm. She’s a good athlete (God knows, that didn’t come from this quarter) who brings height and a powerful kicking leg (nope, didn’t get that from me either) and she really needs to work on her skill sets.

And this isn’t just pushy parents being crazy. To quote The Girl, “Soccer is my life.” Forget pressure on these lousy kids — let’s talk pressure on the parent. Great, like I want to make the wrong decision that might ultimately ruin the game and scar The Girl’s psyche. :crazy:

Quite frankly, it’s making my brain ache — always a bad sign. :confused: For Pete’s sake, I even dreamed about this the other night. Now that is the height of annoying, when I’m dreaming about soccer clubs, ooops, gotta get this right, it’s futbol clubs, for 10 year old girls instead of dreaming about me lounging on a sunny beach being served by a cabana boy. That’s just wrong.

I’m giving my brain a futbol half-time…until tomorrow night… and getting back to work on this book where my heroine cop is undercover as a dominatrix. :P

Jen