Soccer Mom Meltdown

Tonight, 100 girls and their soccer moms found out who they would be spending their Saturdays with for the next three months.
AYSO, American Youth Soccer Organization, has a "Balanced teams" policy, which means that teams are formed based on players' skill level- Each team in a division has some advanced players, some beginning players, and some in-between. Because players improve each year, and leave or join the league, new teams are put together by the board each year.

Madison's team is the Meteors, and for the first time in 8 years, her uniforms will be a non-florescent color- red and black. Red is Madison's favorite color, so +1 for the Meteors. One of Madison's good friends from school is on her team, a girl I adore, +2!
It's all going so well... it doesn't take long for the other shoe to drop. We have no coach. The other soccer moms and I sit and visit, asking each other vague yet pointed questions about how much experience their girls have, what teams they were on before (At this point, most of the girls have played together at least one year.) What we are really trying to figure out is: Are we going to be any good?
And then Anna comes. Anna, who Madison played with when she was 10, who my husband coached, who has incredible soccer skills. And she's on our team! Oh, we are going to be good alright.
All we need is a coach.
I'm out, I referee. My husband works weekends, so he isn't available for games. Someone else's dad is coaching another team. Another mom is on the board, she can't coach. We each mumble our excuses, some of us text or call our spouses to see if they can do it.
No one can do it.
Anna says her brother can do it. He's 17. He practically coached her team last year, she says. I remember him on the sidelines, coaching. I thought he was an out-of order spectator. Someone says we would have to check with the director. The director says okay... and now we have a 17 year old coach.
I can smell the steam coming out of the ears on the lady next to me.
"Don't you have to play for the high school team?" "Is that allowed?" "How old are you?" "Will there be an adult there? I mean, there has to be an adult at practice, right?"

I wonder if her problem was that he is young, or that he is Latino, but not out loud. I just tell him thanks so much for stepping up, because I want to be the Cool Mom. The director assures us that we will have an official adult coach, but that he knows Anna's brother will do a good job for us.

It's going to be an interesting season... Go Meteors!