It’s not a nation wide advertisement campaign, not even as notable as being accepted into the gifted class of your school, but I was somewhat recognized this weekend for my efforts. Having coached my son’s flag football team for the last 3 seasons, I have been given the opportunity work with a lot of great kids. Last season was by far our most productive both in wins and in improvement of the fundamental skills of the game. All of the kids had a good time & it is reflected in the fact that they are all returning next season. I guess this fact was not lost on the owner of the league either, since he asked me this past Saturday if I could assemble a team of at least 5 kids to play in a newly developed league he has that is struggling in a near by town. I assumed he made this request to all of his current coaches, but later found out otherwise. As far as I know I am the only one he asked this of. It is short notice, but fortunately I have been able to throw together a group of kids for a team and even though we will have a total of 1 hour of practice before we take the field for Saturday’s game, we should do just fine. What appealed most to me when he made the offer was that I could let both my sons play on the team. I had the opportunity to coach both of my boys the first season, and as much fun as it was I have some regrets that I hope to be able to make amends for in the coming weeks. On top of having my boys on the team, there is also no charge for any of my players to play. They have to supply their own jersey & flags, but since they all have played in the league before, that is a none issue.
My wife looked at me with a mix of hatred & disgust when I told her I was going to coach this team (then again it may have been her attempt at "bedroom eyes" due to her shear lust for me in that moment). She has been to so many practices and games, that the novelty has long since worn off, but I’m still pretty excited to get a chance to coach a new mix of kids. Even more interesting for me is this league has a 5 on 5 format. All of my prior teams played 6 on 6, so that is what I am used to prepping for. Since financially none of the parents can complain about play time for their kids, that pressure is removed as well. It hasn’t been easy to balance fair play time with winning success in the past. I am more likely to play all the kids evenly & possibly lose rather than leave the stars on the field all game. But parents want wins, and seemingly at any cost. There are few other coaches with my philosophy that I have played against. Many teams seem to run their top player all game every game, no matter how far ahead they are. Don’t get me wrong, I usually have a couple players who get more carries than the rest, this seems to be unavoidable. But I review my stats regularly to see who I need to give more play time in the next game. I won’t keep boring you all with my coaching philosophy. I just wanted to toot my own horn on the only platform I have at my disposal. Now back to cubicle 53090 and my endless paperwork.
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