Opening Day

Softball season officially starts today with Nikki’s first game. We have been able to practice three times and look as good as any 3rd thru 5th grade team can look. I love the start of softball as it has been an important part of my life for 32 years. OK – sadly I can’t tell you how many years I’ve been married but I can tell you how long I’ve been coaching. Of course gone are the good old days when I was young and single and was not only a head coach of the Hanson 13 – 17 year old travel team (8 years) but also Hanson Girls Softball League President (7 years) and North River Girls Softball League President (4 years) concurrently - and could spend endless hours plotting and planning rosters and schedules and practices and game lineups. Now I am an assistant coach (and with family schedules and commitments, only a part time assistant at that) for Nikki’s team with a new head coach I barely know. So the dilemma is how to be the helper and not let 32 years of experience make me sound like a know-it-all? I don’t want to sound like I’m telling the guy how to coach HIS team, and I don’t want to see him spend a lot of valuable time negotiating the learning curve when I could lead him through it much quicker. See – just explaining it makes me sound like an egotist. I feel guilty over any amount of time I invest in preparation, and worry about offending him. Last year worked out good because Nikki’s coach Gordon had been an assistant coach for me 8 years ago in Little League. So last year even though I wasn’t even officially his assistant – he gladly put me to work with the pitchers whenever I was able to be at the games or practices. Now Gordon is the Carver Girls Softball League President. He tried to convince me to be a Head Coach, but the time commitment is still just too much. But he promises to have a spot for me whenever I am ready because he feels I would be a good influence in the league. I read the list of league guidelines and rules and philosophy that Gordon put together. I think he plagiarized every philosophy I ever espoused when he and I coached together (I was flattered, and he is welcome to steal any ideas I have ever expressed) – so I guess that even if I never get to be a head coach again, I can be happy thinking I did influence the league in an indirect way. Maybe I will figure out how to influence a new head coach in a similar way.

Anyway – although surrounding circumstances have greatly changed (jobs, bills, school, supper, yard work, graduations, band, 4-H, etc.... can all wait until tomorrow), it’s officially softball season, the sun is shining, we’ve not lost a single game, and I am eager to get onto the field. Play Ball!