Kickin' It With Dad

by Christopher R. Ford

  Up comes Adrian with a smile on his face like he already knows what’s happening.

  “Sooooo. What’s up?” He asks.

  “Say hello to our two new team members.” Coach says.

  “Yes!” Adrian exclaims while all I really wanna do is yell out “no”!

  Adrian and Billie both thank coach and all three of them turn to me. My turn to say thanks but the blank expression filters into my brain and I just realized, I can’t remember the coach’s name. I wanna do a facepalm.

  What am I even doing here?

  “Welcome to the Panthers.” Coach (whatever-his-name-is) proudly announces. “First practice is next weekend!”

  One week ago I had never even watched soccer and now I’m on a soccer team? Seriously, what’s happening?!?

  “Now with y’all on the team, this season is gonna be so lit!” Adrian says putting his arms around Billie and myself.

  I’ll admit, his excitement is a bit infectious but I’m still too shocked and confused to let him get me hyped just yet.

  “We should all get together to practice before practice.” Billie suggests.

  It’s a pretty good idea and all but I gotta get with my dad first. I’m gonna need a practice before the practice before practice so I don’t embarrass myself.

  I agree to get with Billie and Adrian the day before practice which gives me a little less than a week to get ready. Finally, my dad pulls up, I quickly say goodbye to my friends and hop in my dad’s car and we take off.

  As I sit in the car, I’m trying to figure out how to explain this to my dad. We’re very close and I know I can tell him anything but I still feel embarrassed when I get myself into these situations and have to tell him about them and ask for help.

  “So…” He starts, breaking the silence. “How did it go?”

  “Uhhh…” I stop, think, and take a deep breath before finishing my answer. “I accidentally made the team.”

  He doesn’t say anything at first. Is he mad? Uh-oh. He turns to me and literally laughs out loud. This isn’t funny!

  “I had a feeling this would happen.” He says once he finally stops laughing.

  Wait! What does he mean he had a feeling this would happen? That I’d end up being on the team? And if he thought that, how come he didn’t share that with me beforehand? Ugh!

  “Billie accidentally made the team too right?” He asks and I nod. “You guys do everything together so why would playing soccer be any different?”

  Hmmm, that’s a good point. But I still feel like I was tricked and I tell that to my dad.

  “Well I’m sure Adrian was more hoping you’d all somehow be able to play together rather than masterminding anything.”

  That’s another good point.

  “And hey it worked out.” He continues.

  That point? Not so good. I mean sure it worked out for Adrian and even Billie since she’s apparently the Kid Sydney Leroux (she’s another great soccer player I came across when I was googling Messi).

  “Don’t worry.” He says, cool and calm as ever.

  But all I do is worry. I’m a professional worrier. He should know that by now.

  “I’ve got a plan.”

  Of course! He always does. I should know that by now.

  “We’ll start practicing ASAP.”

  Cool! That’s exactly what I was thinking! Good stuff dad!

  “I can teach you everything I know.”

  What?!? I think.

  “Huh?!?” I say.

  My dad simply laughs. “Oh you didn’t know? Your old man’s got game on the pitch too!”

  “The what?” I ask. “This is soccer not baseball.”

  He laughs again but this is no laughing matter!

  “The pitch is what we call the soccer field.”

  We? Who’s we? Ah never mind, I don’t have time to worry about that. I need to worry about getting good at soccer, like yesterday! He’s looking at me now, I think he can sense my panic and confusion.

  “Relax. Back in the day I was known as the Kid Pele.”

  I don’t know who Pele is but I doubt my dad was ever as good as him. I hang my head. I’m in serious trouble here.

  “Boy stop trippin’ you know we got this!” He says to me confidently.

  “I don’t know about this one dad.

  Baseball and basketball, I’ve played and I know about. I don’t know anything about soccer!”

  “How quickly you forget.” He says jokingly while shaking his head. “We both know how this is gonna go. You’re worried now but you’re gonna work hard, NOT quit, you’ll do your thing and everything is gonna work out in the end.”

  He’s always so confident in me and so far he’s been right about this stuff but I…I just don’t know.

  He looks me right in the eyes and simply says “You got this.”

  “We’ll see.” I reply and we drive off.

  “Wake up! Wake up!”

  It’s the next morning and I’m awakened by my dad who’s in my room and in my face a little too excited so early in the morning.

  I groan, mumble a “no” and try and turn away from him.

  “I thought you wanted to get a jump on practice?”

  “I do…in like three hours…” I reply.

  Don’t get me wrong, I want to practice. Scratch that, I NEED to practice. But at this very moment, what I really need is more sleep.

  Unfortunately my dad ain’t having it as he informs me to meet him in the backyard in five minutes.

  Eight minutes later (hey I had to eat some cereal for energy), I step into the backyard. And to my complete surprise, it looks like a mini-soccer field…I mean pitch out here! The grass has been freshly cut and there’s a goal against one of the fences. The pitcher’s mound and the basketball hoop are still here but yeah, this is a legit soccer pitch and it’s kinda cool!

  “You ready to do this?” My dad asks. He’s rocking a faded soccer jersey I’ve never seen him wear, a striped headband and some tight short shorts which I never wanna see again in my life. I have to hold back a laugh just to say yeah.

  “Let’s start out with some running.”

  I’m about to yell out “what?!?”

  “Just kidding.” He finishes cutting off my thought before I can say it out loud. “I know you’re the goalie.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I know everything.” He replies while I roll my eyes. “And luckily for you, as I mentioned earlier, I used to be the Kid Pele so I’m an expert goal scorer and the perfect person to help you get your goalie skills on point.”

  I want to roll my eyes all the way out of my head now but I manage to keep it together. Honestly, even if he’s not that great, I need all the help I can get so I’ll play along.

  “Ok what’s first?” I ask.

  “Glad you asked!” He starts. “We start…” He pauses dramatically before continuing. “…with your mind.”

  Huh? What’s he talking about now?

  “I’m talking about getting your mental game right before we get to the physical of course.” He says reading my mind.

  Well if we’re just doing mind stuff then…”Couldn’t we have done this inside?” I ask him.

  “No, you have to be in the environment. You remember visualizing right?”

  Oh yeah visualization! That’s the tip my dad gave me to get me on track playing baseball and basketball the past couple of seasons. It’s where I close my eyes and envision what I want to do. Making the perfect pitch. Sinking a free throw. Succeeding. Winning.

  When I visualized on the pitcher’s mound it worked and when I visualized at the free throw line it worked too, so coming out to the backyard to do it for soccer makes sense. I walk over to the goal and start checking it out. It’s just a small goal, the top of the bar is about my height but it’s really wide so making saves won’t be easy, just like in real life.

  “Okay, close your eyes.” My da
d starts. I close my eyes. “See yourself in front of the goal protecting it, ready to

  make a move…”

  Okay I’m ready!

  “Keep your eyes focused on the player and the ball. Anticipate. And as soon as he kicks it, move!” Got it!

  “Now open your eyes.”

  I open them. I see a ball alright, headed right at me! There’s no time to move and the ball hits me in the shoulder and bounces away.

  “Hey, what’s up with that?” I ask my dad totally confused.

  “Just turning your vision into reality.” He responds. “And before you get mad, check it out, you made the save.”

  More like the save made me. I might have to work more on my visualization later…and by myself. But anyway, “what’s next?” I ask my dad.

  “Let’s keep it basic. I’ll take some shots and you try to stop them.”

  “Oh you’re gonna give me a heads up this time?” I comeback immediately. Got ‘em!

  “Ha, ha, ha. You’ve got jokes now?” I sure do.

  But now it’s time to get serious. I reposition myself in front of the goal, right in the middle. I’m not sure how to stand so I just kinda bend my knees and put my arms out like I’m playing defense in basketball.

  “You ready?”

  I clap my hands like let’s do this.

  “Visualize. Trust your gut and go with your first instinct.”

  Ok got it! My dad stands in front of the ball and starts trotting towards it, here we go. Quickly, in my mind, I see him kick it and see myself making the save.

  He kicks it. It’s heading to the top corner to my right. Ok time to move!

  Swish!

  The ball hits the back of the net.

  That was actually a pretty good kick…And I was way too slow.

  “You gotta be quicker son.”

  Gee thanks for the tip dad.

  “I visualized. What happened?” I ask him.

  “Well that’s just step one.” He starts as I wonder what step two must be.

  “Step two is anticipating.”

  “Ok so how does that work?”

  “What you do is figure out what’s going to happen, where they’re going to kick the ball before they kick it.”

  Now that just seems impossible!

  “So…I just guess?” I ask meekly.

  “It’s high-speed pattern recognition. Looking at telltale signs to accurately guess where the action is headed. It’s all about information processing.”

  Uh those were some really big words and if we’re being honest, I didn’t understand any of it.

  “So…I don’t guess?”

  My dad smiles but shakes his head as he approaches me.

  “It’ll take time but you’ll get it.”

  I sure hope he’s right I think to myself. He asks me if I wanna try again. I nod. He steps back and shoots again…and scores again. This time it’s low and to the left. That was another good kick too (maybe he did actually play when he was younger).

  Two kicks (and two scores later) I’m getting pretty frustrated. So frustrated that I think I should quit trying to be a goalie and actually play another position that involves running (and that’s how you know I’m not feeling this goalie stuff)!

  “One more.” My dad says and I moan my response. “You don’t wanna end on an odd number.”

  “But four is an even number.” I respond.

  “Hush boy! You know what I mean.” He retorts jokingly.

  I do, I just don’t wanna do it, this whole “practice” has been embarrassing enough already. But I can tell from the determined look on his face that we’re doing one more whether I want to or not so let’s get it over with.

  I watch as he approaches the ball. He’s moving towards his right. Ok, that might mean he’ll kick it in that direction which would be to my left. Ok, last time he kicked it to the right he went high so maybe this time he’ll go low. Ok, no more time to think, time to react!

  Just as he’s kicking the ball I lunge to my left (and by lunge I mean I awkwardly kinda fall over towards my left). I hit the ground just as the ball is arriving and I’m able to reach out my arm just enough to scrape the ball and send it rolling harmlessly away from the goal. Wait, that’s a save! I mean it wasn’t pretty but it wasn’t a goal!

  “Nice save!” My dad tells me as he helps me back up to my feet. “Thanks dad.”

  “I saw the wheels turning in your head, you were thinking, anticipating, and it worked!”

  “It did finally. But one out of five still isn’t that great.”

  He looks at me encouragingly.

  “Like I said, it’ll take time but you got this.”

  I hope he’s right.

  CHAPTER 3

  WE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE?

  Well it’s time for the first practice and I’m not very excited. I’ve been working on my visualizing but sometimes that turns into me visualizing how to get out of this. Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with anything good, so now I’m in the car with my dad and we’re pulling up to the park.

  “I guess this is it.” I say solemnly.

  “You’re going to practice not the firing squad.” My dad replies with a laugh.

  “I know but still…”

  “Just go out there and have some fun with your friends. You got this.”

  I sigh then nod and exit the car. I do get to hang out with Billie and Adrian which is always good. They make anything tolerable even practicing for a sport I didn’t even wanna play that they may or may not have tricked me into playing. I probably shouldn’t think about that part though…

  “Yo Ronnie!”

  Adrian is first to greet me with Billie right behind him. They’re both their usual excited and confident selves. “You ready to do this?” Billie asks.

  “I guess.” I respond and Billie and Adrian both laugh.

  “That’s the excited Ronnie we know and love.” Jokes Adrian.

  “Under promise and over deliver right Ronnie?” Billie follows.

  “Something like that.” I tell them both.

  It’s not working so far but hopefully their positive vibes start to rub off on me as practice goes along.

  Coach G gathers us up. There are a couple of new kids that weren’t here for the tryouts but the squad is still looking thin. Then all the way from the parking lot, we hear the bass from a car pulling up. It’s crazy loud and everyone watches as a brand new, super clean truck on the biggest rims ever pulls in sideways taking up three parking spots!

  Billie and I all look at each other totally thrown off. The passenger door opens and out hops a kid I’ve never seen before. He’s tall with dreads with gold tips. He’s wearing all new everything from his shirt, to his shorts to his gold cleats. He strides confidently towards us, and as he gets closer, I see he’s even got muscles! I look down at my scrawny arms. Uh-oh.

  “Who does this kid think he is?”

  Asks Billie completely unimpressed. “So he did decide to show up.” Adrian replies more to himself than to us.

  “You know this kid?” Billie questions Adrian.

  “Yeah I know him.” Adrian replies getting more and more annoyed. “That’s

  Rich. He’s the goalie. Sorry Ronnie.”

  Oh there’s nothing to be sorry about.

  If he’s here to be the starting goalie I’ll gladly let him have it. I’m not exactly a real goalie anyway.

  “Is he any good though?” Billie asks.

  “He’s the best.”

  Yes! That’s what I wanted to hear! Ronnie you’re in the clear! I almost smile but I gotta play it cool so I just try to look as unbothered as Billie and Adrian as Rich walks past us and up to Coach.

  “Sorry I missed tryouts, I was at the World Cup, you know, literally at the finals.” He turns towards Billi,

  Adrian, and I. “You probably saw me on

  TV.”

  Okay that was a little extr
a. All three of us exchange funny looks. I think I’m starting to see why Adrian has a problem with him. Coach on the other hand doesn’t really react at all, he keeps it moving and starts practice.

  We go through some stretches to start, nothing too serious.

  “Let’s start out with some running.” Coach announces and I accidentally laugh out loud.

  But no one else is laughing. Oh he’s serious? But I’m the goalie, the backup goalie in fact. I should be exempt from any and all running right? I really REALLY wanna ask him about that but I don’t have the guts…So running it is. Sigh.

  Someway, somehow, I survive two whole laps around the soccer field and real practice finally begins. Coach tells Rich and I to head to the goal post, we’re gonna work on our goal keeping and everyone else is gonna work on their goal scoring. I’m not sure exactly what to do so I take a couple of steps towards the goal but Rich cuts me off.

  “Yo thanks for filling in at tryouts but this is the real deal so stand back and watch how a REAL goalie does it.”

  Real goalie?!? I’m offended! Sure I just said I wasn’t a real goalie but still!

  But I do stand back though and get ready to watch. He better be good. My skepticism is quickly eliminated. Rich puts on a show stopping Adrian, Billie, and everyone else that tries to score on him. He’s moving before they even kick it and he always guesses correctly. His anticipation is light years ahead of mine. He actually did show me how it’s done.

  Now it’s my turn and even though I was just shown how to do it, apparently I didn’t pick up any of it. I manage to block the first shot (cool) and the second shot misses wide (nice), but then Billie and Adrian score back-to-back on me (not very friend-like) and I give up two other goals. So yeah, I’m definitely riding the bench this season.

  After practice my dad picks me up. As we start heading home, he turns to me. I know what’s next.

  “So how did your first practice go?”

  I proceed to fill him in on what went down at practice, specifically how Rich The Rich Kid (as I’ve decided to call him) appeared out of nowhere and saved every shot in sight and how I didn’t perform nearly as well.

  “But it’s cool dad.” I explain. “I didn’t really wanna play anyway. I only tried out because Adrian asked me to and I only made the team because they didn’t have enough players. Now I don’t have to worry about doing anything. This is perfect!”