Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Night one
Man I suck at ladders and bags, most remember not to swear in from of players.
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Okay, I'll share a fun coaching story, I have lots of these but this was my first day all by myself.
I was brought in as a coach initially because a friend of mine was volunteering and they just didnt have enough people, so I was assisting him on his third team with the idea of replacing him as head coach because he was over-extended but my Police checks were still going.
So one day he tells me that hes going to be late for a game because he was coaching one of his other teams across town. No problem, I got this. But it was my first game going solo.
Now, I'm 21 at this point. Playing Men's league and rec and coaching, so I was pretty intensely into the game.
One thing that most of us know now is that with time and experience we learn to tone it down, even out the emotional rollercoaster. We may still lose it on a bad call or bad play from time to time, but less often and less intense.
This was my first day on my own taking a team that hadnt won a game that year, I got to set the lineups, warm them up and explain the game plan.
Its early in the first half and two of my players got a breakaway. I'm talking 2 on 0 (except goalie) and its our opportunity to take the lead for the first time!
First player shoots and hits the post but it goes directly to the second player who shoots and hits the crossbar but it goes right back to the first player who proceeds to shoot it over the bar.
I'm on the sidelines, and the parents kind of know me, but not really yet.
And I'm screaming my head off with obscenities.
"Are you MF'ing kidding me?!?! What are the goddamned MF'ing odds of that?!?!"
And so on and so forth. While right behind me my friend the coach walked up and tells me...
"You gotta relax man, first of all, their parents are like 10 feet away, they saw and most definitely heard that, and you're going to kill yourself with the stress."
It was a valuable lesson really, I was a kid and I wanted these kids to win so badly that I lost my focus.
The funny part was though, that they saw that desire and they wanted to win for me too and that was something that was hard to balance because while we want to win, it wasnt the primary focus at that level.
The moral of the story is: "Swear in front of the children."
They love it. They're kids, they swear like sailors on shore leave when adults arent looking so it kind of endears you to them.
But make sure their parents cant hear you. Thats an important lesson as well.