My daughter Kylie has been playing soccer this Fall, and it’s been a learning experience for both of us. She’s only 6 years old, and has never played any sport before, but she said she wanted to play soccer this year so we signed her up. The kids on her team, both boys and girls, are ages 6-7 and most of them played soccer last year, so she’s a bit behind the curve.

At the first practice i went to, i found myself being a little more vocal than i had intended to be. Kylie was having a great time out there, but she wasn’t ever where she was supposed to be. Additionally, she didn’t seem interested in taking the ball from anyone, which is very nice when you’re playing at home, but kinda defeats the purpose when you’re playing soccer. So naturally, i found myself “loudly encouraging” her with shouts of “KYLIE, GO GET THE BALL!” or “KYLIE GET BACK ON DEFENSE!” or “KYLIE, DONT BE AFRAID TO GRAB A LITTLE JERSEY AND TRIP HIM THE NEXT TIME HE GETS BY YOU, THAT PIECE OF DIRT!”

After the first practice I introduced myself to the coach, and I asked him if he had a problem with me helping to “coach” my daughter from the sidelines. “It’s your kid,” he said, “as long as you’re not contradicting what I’m saying, you can do what you want.”

I thought about that all week. It’s my kid…I’m her dad. And here I am auditioning for the “obnoxious parent yelling from the sideline” role. Between Kylie and my son Parker, I figure I’ve got another dozen years of sideline parenting ahead of me. Perhaps now was the time to decide what type of sideline parent I would be.

The next practice I tried a different approach. I just sat there and watched. When Kylie would run up to the ball and then not kick it, I said nothing. When she would wander all over the field, I said nothing. When she would be responsible for letting the other team score, I said nothing. Honestly, it felt so much better. When Kylie would come off the field, I’d always give her a high-five and tell her how good she was doing, and then maybe give her something to think about the next time she went out there.

But no yelling. No screaming and no yelling.

This weekend is the final saturday of the season. I’m coaching the team because her coach is going to be out of town. It should be a blast. Last week I helped coach practice and one of the girls had a breakaway all alone and suddenly realized her shoe was untied so she just stopped running and tied her shoe while a swarm of kids came over to take the ball. It was hilarious.

Oh and one last thing. During last saturday’s game Kylie actually kicked the ball near the other team’s goal. Towards the goal actually. And as it was rolling towards the net, i saw one of her teammates lining up to kick it right in. He was going to score instead of her. Only he completely whiffed. And the ball kept rolling…and rolling…until it rolled right into the goal! She scored! Her first goal of the season.

Her coach, knowing how far she had come since the beginning of the year, said he got chills when Kylie scored. I opted for tears and a big smile myself.

And yelling. lots of screaming and lots of yelling.

full day today…

…up to write at 6am

…kylie’s soccer game at 9am

…read a book with kylie at 1030am

…played baseball with parker at 11am

…cut the grass while erica worked on some landscaping at 1130am

…cleaned out the entire garage with erica at 1pm

…washed the cars at 3pm

… played football with parker at 4pm

…now tonight matt and kendra are coming over for dinner and hanging out.

…later tonight, the Red Sox.

i think i’ll sleep pretty hard tonight. good to have a nice full october saturday sometimes.

Kurt Warner wants his family and friends to pray for his torn ligaments (in his non-throwing arm). Some media members think he should shut up because he’s already been blessed enough. Got an opinion on this story? I do.

It’s why i launched a new blog last week, Prayers for Blowouts, that will take a look at these frequent collisions of sports and faith. The site will be about sports in general as well, not just when faith comes into play, so if you’re into sports I think you’ll enjoy it.

Take a look around and if you like it, subscribe to the feed (and if you have a blog, I’d love to trade links with you.)

Does the world need another Sports blog? No. I know it doesn’t. But as I’m focusing on the collision of sports and faith, I hope PfB will be the first place you come when you see stories like this one as I’ll be covering it extensively, giving my opinion (which hopefully you respect), and looking for y’all to share your thoughts in the comments.

thanks, bryan

Update: Since I’ve already received a few emails wondering if Prayers for Blowouts has anything to do with the book I’m writing, the answer is Yes.