Hold Your Tounge

Am I bitter?

Can I let go?

Am I turning into one of those old fogies who always says, "The kids now a days have it so easy," or "When I was younger..."? I just can't help it. Whenever I talk to my students in school they all tell me that I sound just like their parents. So I guess I've answered my own question.

In order to break myself of that habit I have come to a major life decision. If I decide to watch my children do athletics, I won't coach from the sidelines. I know, I know, I know how crazy it sounds but I am going to pledge now that I will try my best not to coach from the sideline. Even if I am in the stands muttering like a mad man who talks to himself, I am going to keep my thoughts to myself.

I bring this up because I had the fortune of scouting a varsity basketball game tonight. It was at the local high school down the street from my house. When my son, Jack, and future unborn child grow up, that is where they will go. I couldn't help but think my son will play basketball there even though most kids, including myself, want nothing to do with the sports their parents want them to play. I saw Jack running up and down moving the way I moved and responding to things the way I would have. Obviously I was dreaming. It's nice to have dreams even though we live in the real world.

Anyways, I sat in the crowd scouting the away team. It was so hard to watch the home team basically give the game away. Observing the home team continually play bad basketball was torture. I know they were capable of playing better because I watched them play better against the varsity program that I am apart of.

The coach did a number of things well:

• The coach of the home team kept saying all the right things to motivate his players (which worked until the players got tired).
• The coach called out the mismatches (which the players did not take advantage of).
• The coach made great adjustments at halftime (which worked until a starter got into foul trouble and the bench screwed it up worse than Tony Allen playing through the whistle).

That's when I heard some of the parents who moved me to my opinions on coaching from the sidelines. Most of the moms yelled things to their children like, "Go Johnny, just shoot it!" And Johnny would shoot a shot that did not coincide with the coach's game plan. That lead the other team  down the court and to an easy basket. Or another dad would yell something like, "What are you thinking? You can play better than that Johnny." And guess what Johnny would do, Johnny would do something out of character that he has no business doing and screw up worse than Julian Wright.

I just sat there and shook my head at the awful basketball being played. I couldn't do anything to change the game. First of all, none of the kids playing were my related to me so they wouldn't have listened to me anyways. Secondly, if they were capable of making a change they probably would have done it. Finally, voices from both sidelines could be a wee bit distracting. After all, when I was coaching I yelled at parents who were sitting behind the bench that took it upon themselves to assist me in coaching just their child. And yes, I did it more than once, and I'd probably do it again if I needed to.

So, I guess I'll just have to either be bitter or let it go because lots of things are out of my control. I've had my time in the spotlight and there are to be no more curtain calls. So, I just need to sit back, enjoy the show and be supportive (by muttering to myself if need be).