Soccer Is Life Mother’s Day , But Like Every Day For Soccer Moms, It’s Still Soccer Day
Judging by the lifestyle of a wife of 20 years, mother of four, and full-time member of the working class, Claudia Hartanov slept in last weekend.
She didn’t get out of bed until nearly 7 a.m., the exact hour her body clock triggered into soccer Saturday madness. check. Three soccer matches today (thank goodness for the twins, those two-for-ones are priceless). First up, Farwell Elementary field, followed by Otis Orchards Elementary field.
Tyler’s U15 Premier team is scrimmaging at Valley Christian. Hey, ya can’t be everywhere. Right?
Gotta make the homemade waffles, she reminds herself. Maybe a load of laundry on the side.
Organized chaos has found a way of running a calm course in the Hartanov household. Not once has chef Claudia added two cups of Tide instead of Gold Medal to her batter.
Look up the term “soccer mom” in President Clinton’s book of labels, and Hartanov’s mug shot and bio jumps off the parchment. Age 42, wife of Tom, 47, and mother of Tyler, 14, Travis 11, and the 9-year-old M&M boys, Michael and Morgan.
But there is no Knots Landing cul-de-sac in the Hartanov’s gravel-street neighborhood. Their five-bedroom house sits on seven acres of land about 30 minutes north of downtown Spokane in the Mead-Mt. Spokane school district.
Most people only fantasize about their dream house. Tom, a general contractor, and Claudia built theirs from foundation to finishing touches. Now, there’s a garden to cultivate, a scaled-down soccer field to groom, two dogs to care for (one due to deliver Memorial Day) and neighbors’ horses to feed.
It’s suburbia with a homespun spin.
By 9 a.m., Claudia already fed a half-dozen boys and her husband, (she waited until last and ate standing up), shipped off her oldest soccer player, and painstakingly entertained a reporter and a photographer.
Tom, meanwhile, conducted the traffic flow, constantly reminding everyone of the time. Twenty minutes before the first match, an army of eight piled into the ‘94 Chevrolet Suburban. The ‘76 Suburban, in which muddy shoes are more tolerated, got the morning off.
Finally, it was time to start the day.
“It’s kind of hard to carpool because we don’t live in a neighborhood or near where there’s a lot of carpooling,” said Claudia, while enjoying a rare ride in the back seat. “So initially, we were doing a lot of the driving back and forth, back and forth. But we’ve kinda hooked in with four people.”
By day’s end, the Hartanovs will have traveled close to 65 miles and stood on the sidelines in an annoying rain for more than 2 hours. Their generous contributions to youth soccer in America will have been met. And they certainly don’t travel the path alone.
The Spokane Youth Sports Association reports 5,135 boys and girls, ages 6 to 17, are enrolled in the spring season. The Spokane Valley Soccer Association lists nearly 4,000 players, beginning with youngsters under 5 years old through age 19. In the town of Post Falls, 480 future Alexi Lalases and Mia Hamms play.
Throughout America, watching Junior’s recreational soccer game has become a prerequisite to passing the good parenthood test. Come rain or shine.
And on this dank and dreary Saturday morning, Tom and Claudia both leave home without umbrellas. Tom is hoodless and Claudia is cold all day. Neither brings a folding chair.
“I’m not a sitter,” explained Claudia, a necessary personality trait of a first-grade (Colbert Elementary School) teacher.
First up, the M&M boys’ match, one of several from the Spokane Youth Sports Association being played at Farwell.
Tom coaches the young Colbert Elementary third-graders. Claudia works the sidelines. She socializes a lot, but stops to cheer on cue. The name of the twins’ team escapes her.
“They’re the Golden Gorillas. … or I think they changed their name to the Maroon Baboons,” she said.
Regardless of the details, the Gorillas/ Baboons went ape, 7-0.
A couple gulps from juice boxes and a mouthful of Atomic fireballs and the twins are off with a teammate for an afternoon at his house.
The twins’ pick-up arrangements are made. For the rest of the Hartanovs and Travis’ teammate/passenger Kohl Crecelius, there’s more soccer on the docket. The weather is deteriorating, the distance from home to the next match is farther, yet they trudge on.
“Sometimes you have snow,” said Claudia, with arms folded underneath her jacket while pacing the sidelines at Travis’ U12 Select match. “Yeah, we’ve stood here and watched the team in snow,”
Travis’ team did well in the May rain, beating another Valley Soccer Association team 4-3. The match marked the end of his Select team season. Much like his older brother Tyler, a Mead Junior High eighth-grader, Travis will carry on the tradition of Premier level soccer.
Their personal backyard soccer field has paid off. But there are still dues to pay, like practices three times a week - both boys at different fields.
“You basically have no day to catch up,” said Claudia.
Between qualifying tournaments, summer tournaments and the fall schedule, it looks as though there won’t be any vacation days or holidays.
This weekend, the Hartanovs choose the divide-and-conquer method to their boys’ activities. However, they were forced to break the family-of-six tradition of opening their Priest Lake cabin on Mother’s Day.
Tom and Tyler boarded a team bus for a tournament in Boise. Claudia carted the twins to their Saturday morning game. The rest of the weekend was to be spent at the lake with three sons.
“I’m (going) crazy about it,” said Claudia. “But Michael and Morgan really wanted to go to their game.
“You’ve just got to figure this is a season of your life that you need to support your kids and be there. It won’t last forever. And I’m sure I’ll miss those soccer days.”
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