This Is Why I Do It

See this beautiful lady (yes the boy is adorable too)? She used to play for me almost 15 years ago. I know...it's hard to believe I've been coaching since I was 10! :) Rachel was one of the first group of athletes I coached and I could not be more proud of the woman she has become. Coaching is a tough job....similar to being a parent. You love your athletes but you have to push them to reach their potential. If you are not hard on them then you are not doing your job...in my opinion. They definitely don't always understand you all the time, just like my own kids but a good coach has their athlete's best interest at heart.

You don't always make the parents of your athlete's happy and sometimes you finish a season and you have a player that downright just doesn't like you. It comes with the career. I will say that in all my years of coaching, I have been very blessed to have many athletes come back to visit me. Whenever they do, it means so very much to me.

Thanks to facebook, Rachel and I got back in touch and she came to watch Logan play baseball. Now they WERE undefeated until tonight but I think I will still let her come again. :) The reason being is because our one player who has never actually made contact when at bat, hit the ball and got a single!! Before he took his first swing, I explained to Rachel that he hasn't ever hit the ball before. She said "Well he will today" and sure enough he did. So his good luck charm may return whenever she likes.....of course I would've let her anyways!

Now she didn't want me to post any pics of her when I coached her but since I posted that picture of me in the hat looking like an ugly man, I should at least get to post one old one....orw two :) This was a picture of me, Rachel and the rest of the team when they surprised me for my birthday. I still have that volleyball blanket and I love it!! It is weird seeing me without my wedding ring on and I don't even want to talk about the shorts I was wearing...yikes.

Here I am giving my best coaching advice on how to block. They seem real interested don't they...yea....not so much.

But at least it's better than this current coaching picture. Nice face huh...wonder what my libero was thinking. Oh I don't want to know! I love my job and I am blessed to get to work with wonderful kids that turn into grown women (which makes me feel so old).
Rachel coming to Logan's game meant a lot to me and the kids thought it was very cool. When I tucked Logan in tonight, he told me, "Mommy, Rachel is so nice." Looking back at all the hard losses and mad parents....a visit from an old athlete is why I do it.