The soccer season's first weekend was approaching, and Brian and Martha Gibbons looked at the calendar and spotted a conflict ... or two ... or three ... or four.
Brian's and Alex's (it's short for Alexandra) teams would be in a tournament in Ocean City, and Megan's team was playing in Richmond, Va., and - egad - Colin's team was going to New Jersey. Whew, only Drew's team wouldn't be playing. And Kathleen, well, at 4, she's not on any team, yet.
Parents, those of you with one or two kids playing sports, stop complaining about your complicated lives. Meet the Gibbons family of Columbia, which includes six children under 15. Five of them are soccer players, four are on premier-level travel teams and one - that's Drew, 6 - is in clinic ball.
"We talk a lot by cell phone, and some days, we leave home in the morning and don't see one another again until night," said Brian Gibbons, 42, president of a Baltimore shopping mall development company that, among other projects, is trying to fix Hunt Valley Mall in Baltimore County.
For the record, this particular Gibbons weekend went fine: Rain canceled Colin's New Jersey tournament, so Dad took him with Brian, Alex and Drew to Ocean City. Mom went to Richmond with Megan and Kathleen.
`It all works out'
"Somehow, it all works out," said Martha Gibbons, showing a black, three-ring binder that is the key to keeping things straight. It is where she tracks not only games but practices upon practices by the dozen.
She drives a lot. And last fall, Alex, at 14 the eldest, became a high school freshman, which added complexity. She made the varsity team at Notre Dame Prep, which is about 40 minutes away in Towson if Beltway traffic flows normally, which it almost never does.
The Gibbons kids don't play just soccer, either. They just play it the most. Basketball is the wintertime sport of choice, and one boy is trying baseball this spring. The older ones all have tried or are participating in swimming, summer lacrosse, tennis and golf.
Hairy scheduling problems notwithstanding, none of the Gibbons, parents or progeny, expresses regrets.
"I like it a lot," said Megan, who is 11. "I like the friends and going to games."
Brother Brian Jr., who is 10, agreed, noting that as he has gotten older, he can't score as easily and that's a challenge he likes. And Colin likes learning new stuff, he said, proud of scoring and an assist - both left-footed - in a recent game.
Both parents, drawing on personal experiences as athletes, note benefits from sports.
"There's physical fitness, learning to work within a team framework, learning to take responsibility," said Dad. "I've felt that sports certainly have helped me in my life."
Said Mom: "Sports helps them with confidence, with self-esteem, and it keeps me from having to tell them they can't hang out in the mall."
Then, there are implicit lessons in time management. A Gibbons house rule is that homework must be completed before any sports practice can begin, and on nights before tests, studying after practice is mandatory, too.
Drawbacks? Martha Gibbons wonders about soccer requiring two seasons, saying, "You don't really get to learn other sports."
"I get upset when coaches get too worried about officiating," said Brian Gibbons, who still plays pickup basketball regularly and coaches in a Catholic Youth Organization league for St. Louis School in Clarksville, which the younger children attend. "Not all are like that, but just dealing with that kind of thing helps teach children how to deal with adversity."
Parents were athletic
Neither Gibbons parent ever played soccer, although both were athletes in high school and college. The couple - each with seven siblings, by the way -met at the University of Maryland. Brian was a tennis player good enough to win multiple Maryland singles titles and get a college scholarship. Brian even beat Pam Shriver in tennis once, in 1978, when he was at Loyola High and Shriver played for McDonogh.
Martha was a basketball and softball player who ran cross-country when she got older.
"I'm the one who started them in soccer," she said, when Alex turned 5. "I saw all the kids around Columbia playing soccer, and I just sort of knew it would be fun - all the running."
Colin, about 18 months younger than Alex, started next, "and they just followed one another after that," said Mom.
There are other benefits, the parents said.
Friendships abound
"We've gotten to be really good friends with some of the other parents on the various teams," she said. "And we have to rely on them sometimes for rides, because that's the only way things can work out."
Brian Gibbons, because of his development and legal expertise, has become closely involved in negotiating finances and with contractors who will build the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County's Covenant Park. All the family soccer players compete for SAC/HC teams, and Brian coaches Drew's clinic team.
Now, if the Gibbons family can survive this weekend. Because of rain makeups, competition started Friday night. And by the end of today, weather permitting, all but little Kathleen will have competed in a total of nine soccer games, plus one in basketball and another in baseball - and Mom and Dad can stop talking by cell phone again.
