Just Takes One

With Spring soccer season coming to a close, I felt the need to broach a certain subject: TEAMWORK. I've been in charge of organizing snacks & drinks for the girls' games for many years. I've tried a couple different methods of assigning snacks & drinks to parents, but the one that works best is to list out the game dates/times, and ask the parents to give me two or three games that work best for them and which they'd prefer to bring. On the whole, parents are very willing; most of them usually tell me "Doesn't matter; you put me where you need me" (which really makes scheduling easy). But, occasionally, there's one parent who doesn't want to, or can't afford to, participate. The not-affording, I get. The not wanting to, I don't. Seriously? How hard is it to go pick up a box of Capri Sun or snack crackers? The worst offender was this year... To make it worse, he was an official assistant coach. Here's how that all went down: About two weeks prior to the first scheduled game, I sent out an email blast, introducing myself, and asking for game dates and if they preferred snack or drink. I specifically said, in that email, that we had 16 girls and only 7 scheduled games. That works out to 7 snack families and 7 drink families; leaving out two families. I decided that the main coach's family and the family of the girl who broke her arm shouldn't have to provide drinks or snacks for the girls, plus I said I'd bring snacks for the first game (Princess' friend, KB's, family said they'd bring drinks). I got a response from 12 families. I waited a couple days, and sent another email to those four who didn't respond (one was the parents of the girl with the broken arm, one was assistant coach "Jackhole"). I got a response this time from three of those four... Jackhole's response was "I'm an assistant coach, and I don't think I should have to provide anything." My third email to him (separate from the third one to the others) stated that I need all parents to help provide snacks & drinks, and why I left out Coach and broken-arm girl. Then, I sent a fourth email to everyone, assigning each family to a specific game, and a drink or snack for each girl. Jackhole (assigned drinks for one of the last games, btw) sends back, "I'll see what I can do." Um, excuse me?!? What part of "we're a team, it's called teamwork" do you not understand, ASSISTANT COACH JACKHOLE?!?! I talked to Coach about it, but said that I was going to see what happened when I sent his reminder email (which I send two days prior to each game). The Thursday prior to our Saturday double-header, I sent the reminder. Remember, part of the reminder is "If you are not able to provide for the girls, please let me know so I can assign someone else..." I got ONE response (I sent email to four families -- two games, snack & drink for each); one of the moms said, "Great! See you there!" Saturday morning came... no Jackhole, no Jackhole's daughter, and no drinks. Snack parent brought theirs, but Jackhole didn't show, and didn't even have the courtesy to send a "sorry, we're not going to be there" email to me?!? Luckily, all but one girl brought their waters. I spoke to Coach at the second game, and he had a theory about the whole thing, but was super-irritated and said, "I'll talk to him." Apparently, he kind of called him out in front of the girls after the second game. His first response was, "Well, I'm an assistant coach, I bring waters for the girls' practices in case they forget theirs, I shouldn't have to provide drinks after the games, too." Coach kind laid into him a little, and he then said, "Well, I'm taking my kids to get fro-yo after this game; if anyone wants to come, I'll pay for theirs, too." We didn't take him up on it, as we had plans that afternoon... I'm curious as to who *did*. Regardless, I complained (and I think Coach did, too) about Jackhole's lack of teamwork & commitment to the team, and I don't think he'll be assistant-coaching again. Let this be a reminder to you all -- sports isn't about winning & losing a game. It's working as a team to make the girls' experiences be the best they can be! Side note -- I wonder who's going to take over as SNACK PARENT next year (most girls are moving up to Select!), since my daughter has decided to do cheerleading?