Well, it's almost May already. I mean it feels like just yesterday I was ringing in the new year, and now I've got the fifth month of the year breathing down my neck. Which means I need to start trying to pull a 6th grade fall team together, and start trying to make a decision on what I'm going to do in the winter with rumors of two possible coaching openings within our program. At least that's what I was thinking. I get the feeling some of the players and parents may have made that decision for me in their minds.
It's great to see players and parents wanting me to work with them some more, or based on a siblings experience, or through some other means that has led them to believe that my approach falls in line with their goals. I can't lie - it's cool to hear parents talking with one another and hear them say that they feel I'm a good coach and they can't wait for their kid to play for me. It's even cooler to hear one parent sell me to another parent. I know I've got a long way to go before I consider myself a great coach, it's good to hear that people feel I'm on the right path. That kind of support makes getting home after 10 pm four nights a week worth it, because I'm only going to continue getting better with all the exposure and coaching I'm getting this spring.
The winter season is looking like it may be a little tough, as the 4th grade team was made up of mostly 3rd graders. I've had a couple of parents ask if their kid could play up again and stay on "my" 5th grade team for two seasons. I was also given the idea to try to see if we could field a 5th grade AAU team to see if we could draw out some more kids. Both approaches have their pros and cons, so its not a decision I can just make in my sleep, and depending on how well we can recruit, it may turn out to be a wash anyway. But the big wrinkle in all of this is that my Fall 6th grade team from last year has made it very clear that they'd love for me to come back and coach them again considering the success they had at the end of their 5th grade season and throughout their 6th grade season. Another good possibility although it too has its downside.
There are so many different ways to play this upcoming summer and fall in preparation for the winter. At some point, I need to sit myself down and figure out what is not only going to be the best approach for me in terms of progressing my coaching career, but for the kids. As I said earlier, I know I have more growing and learning to do, so the last thing I want to do is take a good group of kids and end up "wasting a season" of their development. I also know that I still haven't won my league championship, which I'd really love to do. I'm also in the process of trying to build a coaching philosophy/identity, which also weighs into which direction I could go. Maybe one day while I'm on the road we'll really weigh this out. For now though, I am going to just keep working on helping the spring teams get to Nationals and learn as much as I can.
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