Posted: Sep 14, 08 3:25pm

I needed to have groomed a back-up team captain. My team (which I was "drafted" to coach by several parents of other players,) is an eighth grade girls field hockey rec-league team.

Despite having several completely unexperienced players, we made great progress during our half dozen pre-season practices. But then my best player (who happens to be my daughter,) and who I was counting on to be our on-the-field coach sprained her knee and was ordered to sit out the first game.

Well the bottom line was that our teamwork and execution was ragged at best, as poor Jessie (my injured daughter,) screamed herself hoarse yelling encouragement and instructions from the sidelines.

It didn't help that it was 95 degrees and over 105 on the artificial turf. The girls gave it their best effort, but we lost the game 1-0.

Having once thought that my eight subs were too many to easily work into the game, in the second half I couldn't find 10 players at a time who weren't already totally "out of gas" We'll have better results next week.