So, yes - I'm a day late. Had to decide what post to publish this week after an interesting weekend to say the least. This is what I decided on, the others will get a little more polish and they'll eventually find their way on the blog.
I have to say that my first two seasons as a coach were close to horrible. The first was tough because we didn't really get anywhere close to a win until the end of the season, but both were made even harder by having parents who were just tough to manage. Yes, I said managing parents was tough. Some parent's expected their kid to play more than the game situations warranted, others wanted their kids to play when clearly something else was going on (i.e.: nauseousness, headaches, sore muscles). There were so many emails to the directors that I just knew I was going to get told that my services were no longer needed. But, we live, we learn, we adjust, and we move on.
Going forward, I started having parent's meetings to let parents know what my intentions were and give them an opportunity to work with me to resolve issues in the best way for their kid and the team along with the programs' parent meetings. So far that's worked out pretty well and it's made the last few seasons exceptional. I have parents volunteering for all kinds of things, stepping up to help me out when tournament times are crazy, helping make sure all the kids are ready and at team meetings. They are actively involved with the team, actively involved with helping me to help their kids and it's amazing. I had written about not seeing a lot of spirit and support for our games a while back (not even sure it was on this blog or a failed attempt of years past) and it just seems like after that things have gotten better. I know the kids enjoy hearing the cheers, and it just pushes me to keep on a higher level.
This past weekend, the 11U team managed to gets it's first win of the season, and while they came out excited, eager, and energized - I could see and feel the energy just continue to grow as the parents got more and more involved. Every good defensive effort was met with applause and cheers and everyone knew the other kids name. Tim's mom was cheering for Tom and vice versa (not their real names by the way), which was something I never really saw much of my first year. Whenever a kid made a great pass, there was encouragement. Whenever a kid turned the ball over I wasn't the only one pushing him to keep playing and saying that he'll get it next time. It was awesome. I had a pretty rough morning that day with the 13U team missing out on a win due to a bad sub rotation (I'm still a little mad about that) and these kids and parents literally flipped my outlook on the rest of the day. It was great and I'm really looking forward to seeing that energy continue as the team continues to gel and improve.
It's so much easier to prepare, coach, and stay focus when the parents are on board with what you are trying to achieve, and you aren't having to get caught up in bleacher politics and unrealistic expectations. Its great having the feeling that the parents have your back, even when you lose a close game. After that close loss in the morning, a couple of the 13U parents heard me tell the boys that I lost that game for them and they attempted to divert the feeling from me to some team aspect of the game we didn't do well in. In my first year I could never admit to that even if it did happen because I just didn't feel that connection with the parents like I do now. This season will be a good one, and I feel that is attributed mostly to the feeling I've got another great set of team parents. It's still early though, so parents, please don't go all "Harvey Dent" on me (for you not into the DC Universe, Harvey Dent is the villain "Two-Face" from Batman who is bipolar/schizophrenic) and turn on me for no apparent reason.
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