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Go Kick Something!
You know your soccer league is seriously failing PR-wise when you have people walk up to your table at a festival and say either (1)"Oh, this town's finally setting up a soccer league?" or (2) "We've got a soccer league in this town??"
*head-desk*
In a way, that was GOOD, because it proved the point THO and I have been trying to make for several years that not enough people in our small town know we exist.
"Ridiculous!" some of our older board members would scoff. "Everyone knows there's a soccer league in our town! It's the evil POP WARNER FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL that's stealing potential players from us!!"
Yeah. Right.
See, when I'm standing outside the elementary school, waiting for the Impossible Son, I can't tell you how many times I hear this opening line. "I wish there was a soccer league here, really, because my little Bobby/Susie just loved playing soccer when we lived in (insert name here)."
And there are many times when the second parent would just nod sympathetically or agree and say, "Yeah, soccer would be great."
This is the point I would usually turn and say, "Actually, we do have a soccer league in town, and it's been around X number of years and we have registration for the next season in (insert month here)."
It was fortunate one of those nay-sayers on our board was working the table today when yet another group of people came trundling up with a joyful, "It's true! It's true! You are forming a soccer league! Oh, that's wonderful, that's just what this town needs, and it's so good for the kids, too!" and on and on and on, hardly letting us get a word in edgewise, and saying it was too bad we were only starting up and probably only beginning with the U-6, U-8's, because they had some older children who loved to play, babble, babble, babble...
Whereupon our esteemed board member blinked, then said, "We've had soccer here for years! Where the heck have you been??"
And I swooped in with, "Yes, we play U6 all the way up to U18, and while we are a small league, everyone involved is very enthusiastic!"
Hilarious!
The best part is, we are probably going to have far more kids playing this spring than we have in the past, which is all kinds of YAY for us, and makes sitting in the freezing cold tent today worth it!
My husband insisted on what has become an annual Dickens tradition for us and got me a pair of Christmas themed earrings. *laughs* Let me see, one year, it was this plump little wooden Santas. Another year, it was colorful little recycled Christmas lights. Then there was the bells with holly sprigs. Last year, the kids helped him pick out two; pear-shaped Santas with dangly legs and little icy blue snowmen on silver jingle bells. This year, he got me a pair that look like little hard candies made of glass. Very cute, very pretty. He said it's gotten to the point where he doesn't feel right if he doesn't buy me a pair of Christmas earrings at Dickens, a very worthy tradition if you ask me!
And now, off to bed with Auntie!
*head-desk*
In a way, that was GOOD, because it proved the point THO and I have been trying to make for several years that not enough people in our small town know we exist.
"Ridiculous!" some of our older board members would scoff. "Everyone knows there's a soccer league in our town! It's the evil POP WARNER FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL that's stealing potential players from us!!"
Yeah. Right.
See, when I'm standing outside the elementary school, waiting for the Impossible Son, I can't tell you how many times I hear this opening line. "I wish there was a soccer league here, really, because my little Bobby/Susie just loved playing soccer when we lived in (insert name here)."
And there are many times when the second parent would just nod sympathetically or agree and say, "Yeah, soccer would be great."
This is the point I would usually turn and say, "Actually, we do have a soccer league in town, and it's been around X number of years and we have registration for the next season in (insert month here)."
It was fortunate one of those nay-sayers on our board was working the table today when yet another group of people came trundling up with a joyful, "It's true! It's true! You are forming a soccer league! Oh, that's wonderful, that's just what this town needs, and it's so good for the kids, too!" and on and on and on, hardly letting us get a word in edgewise, and saying it was too bad we were only starting up and probably only beginning with the U-6, U-8's, because they had some older children who loved to play, babble, babble, babble...
Whereupon our esteemed board member blinked, then said, "We've had soccer here for years! Where the heck have you been??"
And I swooped in with, "Yes, we play U6 all the way up to U18, and while we are a small league, everyone involved is very enthusiastic!"
Hilarious!
The best part is, we are probably going to have far more kids playing this spring than we have in the past, which is all kinds of YAY for us, and makes sitting in the freezing cold tent today worth it!
My husband insisted on what has become an annual Dickens tradition for us and got me a pair of Christmas themed earrings. *laughs* Let me see, one year, it was this plump little wooden Santas. Another year, it was colorful little recycled Christmas lights. Then there was the bells with holly sprigs. Last year, the kids helped him pick out two; pear-shaped Santas with dangly legs and little icy blue snowmen on silver jingle bells. This year, he got me a pair that look like little hard candies made of glass. Very cute, very pretty. He said it's gotten to the point where he doesn't feel right if he doesn't buy me a pair of Christmas earrings at Dickens, a very worthy tradition if you ask me!
And now, off to bed with Auntie!