I have to say, I'm not a fan of autumn. Maybe I used to like it but now it just seems like a stop gap between summer and winter. Once it's too cold to swim in the pond? We look forward to skating on it. Until then, we've got soccer.

I tend not to talk to many people at the soccer fields where my girl plays rec league soccer. I listen to them talk to each other but I'm not much of a joiner. Her team is undefeated, mostly due to two superstar little boys that play virtually the entire game and score eighty percent of the goals.

Although the coach's son did tell my daughter that his dad said the best three players on the team are 1. His son, 2. Another boy, M and 3. My girl - she was tickled pink but I'm not at all into the coach confiding in his kid about who's good and who's not plus it's blatently obvious because these kids get WAY too much playing time, my daughter included.

But apparently, rumors are swirling about our team - that we've been sneaking another player on the field and playing with an extra kid out there and stomping all over the competition. Last week we played a team that's coached by my daughter's dome soccer coach. The parents were falling all over themselves to make sure we could hear them complaining about us. And then, when we won, the parents on OUR team were falling all over themselves to make sure they were heard congratulating themselves (the kids were still on the field) about beating the other undefeated team with the super loud coach and wasn't it good that the super loud coach finally lost while our super quiet coach got another win.

The whole time I'm thinking, dudes - our coach kind of sucks. Do you not see him short shifting your kids so that mine (and his) can play more? Have you heard him congratulating a kid on a goal and then telling the kid that he didn't even see it? Did you go to the practice that the kids just stood there for twenty minutes while he explained to three kids how to do one drill (and yes, I did too time it - I'm used to hockey and my husband used to ask me how long the kids were waiting in line during his practices)? He doesn't sub the kids, doesn't tell them to pass and rarely tells them where to play. Plus I have to deprogram my daughter before her dome games so she doesn't pull the same moves during her indoor that her rec coach praises her for (Take it all the way, C! Just GO!)

I know, I know. Knocking the volunteer coach is bad form. Mostly, I'm stunned about these parents who are so worried about getting a win in U8 soccer. I mean, it's an eight week, rec league soccer program. If they get this worked up at soccer they'd probably couldn't handle the excitement of youth hockey.