I coach a youth field hockey team (or just hockey as they call it over here). The girls are aged around 11-13. It's such an interesting age for girls...for the most part, they are completely self-absorbed at times, have a tough time focusing (even during a game), are more interested in how they look and scattered. But not always and not all of them.

Yesterday we had our one and only day of games. We were playing a group of young ladies from a local British school. Let me tell you, it was not pretty! The girls on the other team have seen the game and played in PE since they were able to run around. My girls on the other hand just began to learn the game this spring. We only had about 10 practices in total...have you ever tried to learn a sport? It takes a while. But on the good side, they had a lot of fun learning something new & we may be able to get them to play in the senior teams (high school age). So we'll build up this sport to make it better.

A cool thing that happened is that a large number of parents showed up. And they brought treats. Cup cakes, oranges and fruit bars were exploding all over the place...juice dribbling down their faces which were caked with chocolate icing. It was good to see the kids NOT dieting at their age but enjoying treats while they still can!

So we lost and tomorrow is our last training session. I'll miss them...while they can be almost like typical teens, they also can be utterly sweet & look up to a grown adult woman who pays attention them. It's nice to be a mentor of sorts...even if it's just about athletics.