Golfdom, April 2015

Keystone Light Keg Keeping up with The Jones I look at all the kids and the parents on the sidelines and I marvel at how successful this league is especially for a town of 6000 Kids are lined up waiting for each game to end so they can take the field SETH JONES Editor in Chief Te chasm between golf and soccer S pring is here meaning that on Saturday mornings you can find me on one of three soccer fields at Laws Field in Eudora Kan I coach youth soccer My daughter Evey plays on a 1st 2nd grade team while my son Boyd is enjoying his first taste of organized sports as a 3 year old He plays for a kindergarten pre kindergarten team So this season Im enduring my first experience at back to back practices and games I started playing soccer in kindergarten but my earliest memories of the sport are from 2nd grade when my dad threatened my coach Yeah I know I was a lousy athlete until maybe 10th grade when in my mind I became an all star and my 2nd grade coach was fine with me sitting on the sideline most of the game I dont remember if this upset me but it clearly upset my dad Boyd I look at all the kids and the parents on the sidelines and I marvel at how successful this league is especially for a town of 6000 The parking lot is packed Kids are lined up waiting for each game to end so they can take the field The National Golf Foundation recently announced its numbers for 2014 a net loss of 128 18 hole facilities from 2013 to 2014 Im an optimist a glass half full kind of guy but I cant help but wonder how many soccer practice fields we lost in the same span especially as I look around town trying to figure out a new location to hold a practice because the league schedule is booked solid We have great programs to get more people including kids into golf But the best program to this day is a parent taking their child to the golf course I coach soccer because I have fond memories of my dad coaching me I have no memories of playing golf with my dad because we never golfed together Evey wont remember it but I have photos of her in a jogging stroller at a 9 hole course when she was a newborn I take her to the local driving range I want her to have fond memories of the game I think that is a key to her wanting to keep the game in her life Because when you have great memories you want to make more of them Email Jones at sjones@ northcoastmedia net As we all walked to the parking lot after a game snacks in hand my dad unexpectedly confronted the coach about my lack of playing time The coach snapped at him My dad a military man and an imposing figure didnt take kindly to it The exchange as I remember it went If you dont like the way Im coaching you come out here and do it yourself with my dad responding I will and were going to kick your ass Not a highlight of my childhood but a moment I look back and laugh at now Dad did honor part of the exchange and coached my soccer and basketball teams from that point until junior high How much ass did we kick Debatable but it improves over time My earliest golf memories take place at a much later age As a college kid my roommate and I came out to Eudora to play a now deceased little public course called Eudora Riverview It flooded all the time the clubhouse was the owners home the concessions were on the honor system and shirts apparently were optional My old friend John Wake and I took Clark Throssell out there We drove my 64 Impala to the course and crushed a few beers in the parking lot after our round Thats a fond memory But still I was an adult coming late to the game Theres a wide chasm between my early soccer memories and my early golf memories When Im out on a Saturday morning coaching soccer 6 Golfdom April 2015 Golfdom com