2 months before the football season will start and already tired about looking at the agenda.

We do have 2 sons, both do play football. With football, I do mean the real football. The sport played mostly with the feet and a ball. So for the Americans reading, don't get me wrong but American football is played mostly with the hands and ... euhm ... not really with a ball. I had to consult chatGPT for this. And they do admit that an American football isn't really a ball, but did get to name due to the sport where it is used. (The same is valid for a rugby ball.)

But I am drifting. As a parent we do encourage our kids to perform at least one sport. Besides being healthy (we could argue about that) they do learn some valuable lesson by practicing a sport. They do learn to loose and win, or taking quick decisions and so on. When practicing a team sport, they also learn how to be part of a team and you can win or loose a game due to an action of a team mate. And in most cases this is a better stress release than gaming, which I don't consider a stress release thing but more the opposite.

Due to the fact that we encourage them, we are in our opinion also obliged to support them. This comes in different ways.
From playing Uber to washing clothes, supporting them while having a match and so on (just being there). Last season was a little bit easier with the oldest recovering from an ACL injury. So no practices or games we had to attend but on the other side 2 or 3 times a week a visit to the physiotherapist. So we are pretty happy that he can join his team when the practices do start. On the 11th of August we hope to have a last appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, who hopefully will declare him healthy again.

The youngest son, does play at the lower level. He isn't a real footballer, while in fact he is better than he does think, he is just happy to be there and doesn't have the drive nor motivation to get better. We don't have any problems with this. The only thing I do ask from my sons is that when playing a match they try to do their best. Nothing more, nothing less.
So he does practices twice a week and will have a game during the weekend. When playing at home, this is at Sunday morning at 9.30 a.m..
The away games aren't that far away.

The oldest son, does play at the highest level the club is allowed to offer (inter-state). If we do look at youth football in Belgium there are 4 levels:

• regional level
• state level (depending on the license)
• inter state level (depending on the license)
• elite level (only for the professional teams)
  He does practice 3 times a week and has one game during the weekend. Depending to the group there teams is put into, away games can be more than a one hour drive. His home games are on Saturday morning around 10 a.m.. Away games are unknown and could vary in time and day.

So if we do combine this, we do have 5 practices per week and 2 games during the weekend. Some of these games are played at the same time, so the wife and I will both join on of our sons. We do change this on a weekly basis. For me it is easier to go to see the oldest one play. This is 11 vs 11, while the youngest play 8 vs 8. So looks more like the real football.

So busy enough one would say. But the oldest one didn't agree with this. He will be starting his coaching career! He agreed to coach a Under 8 regional level team. So another 2 practices per week and an extra game during the weekend. I do think that he will like this. He is great with kids (while being only 14 himself) but I do think that he does underestimate the parents. Not really needed to be there during their home games, but we will have to drive him to the away games. Also I do want to be there during the practices and their first games of the season, to see how he does it.

So we are suddenly at 7 practices per week and 3 games during the weekend. When I did enter of all of these into our agenda I quickly understood that we won't have a free weekend until the second one of December.

But we are happy to support them and to see how they develop. It will for sure be interesting to see if the oldest can reach his level of play before his ACL injury. He hasn't played for 16 months now. Changes are 50% I guess. But regardless of that it will be great to see him back on the pitch!
It is about being supportive regardless of their quality of play. It is about spending some time with them and so on. Also there were some valuable lesson in it for me. There is no use of discussing their game with them when driving back home. Just enjoy the ride back home!

Cheers,
Peter