Soccer Dad: A Father, a Son, and a Magic Season

by W.D. Wetherell

A father's true story of his high-school-age son's winning soccer season. Soccer Dad is simultaneously the candid reflections of a devoted father and the enthusiastic observations of a diehard soccer fan. When Matt enters his senior year of high school, it is not without myriad parenting concerns on the part of his father, author W. D. Wetherell. What is his role in shaping his son's future? What will life be like when Matt is away at college? And what of Matt's soccer season?—Is Matt's success in soccer just setting him up for disappointment later in life? With the pensive eye of an artist, Wetherell follows his son's team from field to field and win to win and ruminates on topics ranging from soccer's esoteric appeal in America to the conflicting emotions of a parent sending his youngest child out into the world. Reflecting on his own experiences both as a participant and a spectator, Wetherell offers a paean to the sport of soccer and the joys of parenthood. Updated and revised with a new chapter that brings Soccer Dad fully up to date, this is an exciting new edition that readers will enjoy for years to come.

Genres: Sports, Soccer, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2008

About the author

Walter D. Wetherell is the author of eleven previous works of fiction and nonfiction. He has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two O. Henry Awards, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and, most recently, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Strauss Living Award. He lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with his wife and two children. His latest novel is A Century of November.

Reviews

[skketch · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚🏆⚽NOVEL THOUGHTS⚽🏆📚

A proud dad first, W.D. Wetherell uses this memoir to document not just his son Matt's final high school soccer season as his team goes for the unprecedented three-peat for the New Hampshire state championship but also reconciling the "empty nester" he will be once his son flies the coop following his sister's exodus 4 years earlier. He goes down memory lane as he recalls his son's first venture into the world of youth soccer, through his camps and training as they crisscrossed New Hampshire, Vermont and sometimes NY and Connecticut following the circuit with his various leagues through his childhood and into the spectacular seasons of his sophomore and junior high school years winning the state title both years. His description of the beauty of New England and the many towns his son's teams would play in was also a pleasure to read about.
Wetherell puts into words what most parents feel as they stand on the sidelines of whatever sports arena, cheering their young athlete on.... that sense of pride, the gratification of a win and even the bummer of a defeat as well as the bond between other parents and fans and knowing that when it's over, it's only the memories of those days that live on.
As Matt's senior year progresses, he is trying to hone in on what school is going to give him the best opportunity and maybe soccer won't be a part of it anymore or maybe it will. Either way, Matt has had a glorious soccer life, filled with autographs from professional players, posters and movies and articles galore about the sport. He has learned discipline, integrity, teamwork and sportsmanship through his years and these qualities make him a standout especially during a troubling episode of cheating that occurs at the hands of another sports team at the school and gains negative national attention for Hanover High School. The ongoing investigation is a thread that the author weaves throughout the book as it going on concurrent with the soccer team's run for the 3-peat.
The final chapters share the outcomes of the semi-finals and then finally a short play by play of the teamwork that went into that final victory which sealed many of these young men's soccer life.
Wetherell has an easy writing style and an enjoyable wit which makes the story that much more a pleasure to read. He even credits the combo of certain food items brought to the stadiums as the magic mojo for the wins in the last part of the season: a turkey sub, specific potato chips and a blueberry coffeecake totaling $5.97! Hey whatever works!!
This is a terrific book for any parent of a student athlete to read and they will easily see themselves in these pages.
Oh and I have on good authority that Matt ultimately chose Haverford College in PA and did play soccer for them!

[Lucas Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is delightful

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have two sons who played high school soccer and a 3rd son (with Downs Syndrome) who played adaptive soccer. So i had a high level of interest in this book. And, I felt some deja vu in several of the anecdotes that Wetherell related as I attended darn near all of their matches over the course of their playing careers from kids soccer through their senior years.

Yet I found this book failed to fully satisfy me.

Maybe Wetherell was too close to his subjects and the team. It would have been interesting to read the reactions of the other players (and maybe their parents) to certain games and the culmination of their high school soccer careers. I would have been interested to read the explanations of fans, coaches and players on other teams about their perceptions of Hanover's team. And it would be really fascinating for an author to probe the rationales of highly partisan and vocal (or demonstrative) opposing fans. But that likely would require a more objective author and one skilled in asking others diplomatically oblique questions in order to elicit honest responses.

Wetherell's an unabashed fan and I suspect it would have been difficult to deploy a more objective lens. And, he's a novelist, not a reporter -- so the conceptual framework employed by Kidder or John McPhee might not be familiar or comfortable. But I think it would produce a book that would be more compelling to this reader.

Finally, I thought my soccer fandom ended the last year of our youngest son's career in Adapted Soccer. But I received a renewed lease when our older son coached at a local private high school. I'll admit I received some baffled looks from other parents who'd ask if I had a son playing in the game and I'd reply "sorta, my kid's the coach." But it gave me a lot of pleasure to watch my son in a different soccer role and to see the kids acquire new skills and tactics and enjoy the game. So, to Mr Wetherell and other Soccer Dads: there may be another opportunity on the horizon!

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know why I put “Soccer Dad” on my list – the title and the price. But I don’t think I really knew what I was getting into when I bought it other than it was about soccer. That seemed like enough of a reason for me.

But W.D. Wetherell‘s commemoration of his son’s final season of high school soccer ended up justifying my decision even if I had moments where I wanted to just give up.

Read more here

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a soccer mom and wife, I spend an inordinate amount of time on the sidelines. I enjoyed this account of a father chronicling his son's senior year, three time state champion season. While I agree that the writing itself is not stellar, the sentiment expressed from father about son is heartwarming .

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. My own son recently had his High School Soccer season and this book tells the story of the realationship of a boy and his dad during the final soccer season of high school.

[Perry Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a hard core soccer Mom, I thought this book was great. It is a real inside story for a Father and his son, the soccer player and a fabulous season.
It will ring most truthfully for parents who been on the sidelines, cheering on their players from the U8 all the way to college.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at a soccer season in New Hampshire. Enjoyable, but not remarkable.

[Ashleigh]

I wasn't in the mood for this book I guess. It was well written but kind of slow.