Starting Out

I just recently started my first coaching "job" working with the Stillwater High School special education kids. I will be working with the varsity boys on their 3 on 3 team. It will be a real challenge for multiple reasons. The first and biggest reason is that I have never coached before.I grew up around sports and my father was a coach, so I had plenty of time to see how a coach acts. Knowing how one acts and actually being one are two completely different things. The second reason is the actual kids I will be working with. Special Needs kids is a group that I have not worked with much, but since Amanda and I moved to Stillwater, I have become more active in due to Amanda working with them. To be honest, I never really had an interest in special needs at all, but after Amanda and I went to the state Special Olympics and I saw how much fun the kids were having and how much it meant to them, it really sparked an interest in me. Afterwards Amanda and I both said we wanted to become more active.

Which brings us to the present and my first coaching job. I am really excited about getting the chance to work with a group of kids that just want to play a sport and be like "normal" kids. Last year the team did not really have a coach and they boys did not have much direction. I was told that they mainly just did what they wanted and one of the higher function kids told the others what to do. They did not win any games and had a lot of difficulty competing against the other kids who did have a coach to help them. The lady that works with all the special needs kids in the Stillwater school system really talked me up to the kids and she is the one that brought me in to coach them, so I would like to thank the school special olympics coordinator twice over. Thanks for giving me this chance and thanks for also talking me up so much to the kids that they are so excited just to have me there. It is great to see them every morning just light up when I walk into the room to get them and head to the gym for practice. It is great knowing that I get to have that kind of enthusiam from kids that are just happy to have someone work with them.

I am really looking forward to my first coaching job and the challenges it will bring. It is going to be a great experience and I cannot wait to really get it going.

I swear the next post will be shorter, not trying to write a book or anything here, but those of you that know me well know that when I get to talking, sometimes I do not shut up. See? I even made that sentence way longer than it needed to be. . .