Husband, father, manager, coach. All titles that I hold, all titles that I embrace. I’ve been managing people for 28 years, married for almost 22 years, a father for 18 years, and now a coach on and off for about 8 years. I’ll be blogging in this series about my thoughts, experiences, stories, and observations on coaching. In my years of growing as a leader some of my most rewarding moments have come in the role as a coach.
As one who has grown up enjoying playing and watching sports at what my wife might tell you is an unhealthy amount, when I became a father, I looked forward to getting into coaching. I’ve coached several seasons, off and on, of soccer for both of my daughters and my son. My favorite sport to coach is basketball and I’ve now got 2 seasons under my belt coaching my son’s team here in the local community league. Both sports I played at various levels growing up.
This spring, though, I took a leap in an entirely different direction. My son decided that he wanted to give flag football a try. Though I have never played organized football, I have logged thousands of hours on my couch, barstools, and even in stadiums watching, cheering, analyzing, and agonizing over my favorite teams. So, I went ahead and signed him up and per usual I noted that I would be willing to assist. Well, as it seems is almost always the case these days there was a lack of volunteers, and I was approached to head up a team of my own. Being the good dad and one to not shy away from a challenge I hesitantly agreed.
Being as this was not my first rodeo as a coach, I knew that I needed to come together with a plan. Knowing I had never coached football my first call was to a friend’s son who played on the local high school team and rope him into helping the Munster 10u Black, Pop Warner team that I’d been given the reins too. As luck would have it a couple of other dads stepped up to help once the first practice came around.
The first game was a rough one as we only had one practice before our first game. We were shut out and I was feeling a bit shell shocked. If I’ve learned anything it is that you must keep the kids heads into practice, keep them engaged, and keep them having fun. To do this you’ve got to have an organized plan of action. So, I delegated out offense and defensive coordinator roles and we got things rolling. I took the role of overall decision making, assigning positions, and substitution patterns. It was a quick season of only 6 games in 5 weeks that we ended up 3-3. Our offense took off and the kids really had fun. One thing that I learned is that in football it really does take a team of coaches to cover all the bases.
The season ended with us playing the best team in the league, who was undefeated by all blowouts, on their home field. We ended up losing but it was a close game. We had a play from the 15-yard line with a chance to win it as time ran out. I am proud of the improvement those kids made. Both my son and I had a blast with this new sport and I’m pretty sure that we will be back at it again next spring.
Coach Justin