Coach

I love to compete. Athletics have made me strive to do my best and give it my all. For the past four years I have been the asst. coach at Matheson, with Mageras leaving the school the reins fell to me. I enjoyed being the asst. I liked being a part of the team but not having full responsibility. I may not have gotten credit when we won, but I also didn't get blamed when we lost. Now I am the one in charge. I didn't realize how big a difference it was until this week when we started practice and all the boys were looking at me for guidance. That's when I knew. I am still not sure how I feel about all this. There are parts I really like other parts I'm not fond of, but it is different. Now I find myself going over lineups in my head, considering the best defense and offensive schemes for us to run. I can see why coaches obsess over sports. It is the very nature of coaching that makes you get the most out of your players and come up with the best schemes/plays for your team.

We have a great group of kids on the team. They are hard working kids, all respectful, and all want to succeed, and will listen. I don't have any win loss goals, I guess I am taking a page from Coach Wooden's book when he said he just wanted his team to play to their very best every game. That's what I want as well. Instilling excellence is hard with a bunch of jr. high kids. They are immature, cocky, and unskilled. I believe I can motivate and I hope I know enough to teach them properly--I do know that this team will compete.

We finished tryouts and had our first practice. Next week we get into our defense and offense. Next week I have to be stern yet encouraging, tough yet fair. In order to get the most out of these kids they have to pushed harder than they thought they could handle. That's what being a coach is all about, getting players to see the potential you see, getting them to be tough enough to dig down deep when things don't go our way, learn how to win and lose graciously(although I don't want to do too much losing), and with these boys they need to learn how to play the game right.