Most Rewarding

I have been doing something that I absolutely love for the past 7 years now, that is coaching baseball.  I played baseball at Assumption for a year before I decided it would be better for my academics and my life after college if I give up playing the game that I have loved my entire life.  Growing up baseball was everything to me, I played 4 years of AAU baseball and we traveled to various tournaments throughout the country.  I have played as far south as Florida and as far west as Arizona for the best pastime out there. 

Baseball helped me get into college, but I decided that it wasn’t going to define me and there was going to be more to college than that, but I never lost the love for the game,  Then a wonderful opportunity fell into my lap my sophomore year, an assistant coaching position at the high school I went to.  I immediately fell in love with coaching and have been doing it ever since. 

With anything, there are certain highs and lows, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.  There are good experiences and bad experiences and there are good parents and there are bad parents (hint: the good parents don’t complain to the coaches ever).

This past summer I was given even a greater opportunity and was offered a head coaching positioning for a 15U AAU team.  How many 23 year olds can say that?  I was a little over a year out of college and just learning to finally do some things on my own and that opportunity fell in my lap.  I couldn’t say no.  So immediately I called up my family and told them the good news.  I then started scrambling, I need assistant coaches, I need to schedule games, and everything is now on my shoulders.  No more just being an assistant coach and not having to shoulder the load of everything.  Luckily I have a few friends that have played baseball just as long as I have and agreed to be assistant coaches for me.  I am still trying to put that schedule together, but we are getting there.

The biggest challenge for me was trying to plan everything and not too much in a single practice and not overwhelm the kids.  I was trying to teach discipline and strong work ethic but also to mix in a little fun, because remember they are 15 year olds and can be distracted really easily.  I am also lucky and so far it seems that I have very good parents that have let me do things my way.

We have been practicing for a little over a month inside and I am already seeing tremendous strides for the team and they have increased their work ethic tenfold.  I no longer need to always tell the kids when they are doing something wrong, a lot of them realize it and try and fix it.  My voice appreciates this and there is no greater joy when you see the kids finally start to “get it”. 

I hope everyone gets the chance to coach one day as it is just a tremendously rewarding experience.  Not only will you get great joy out of seeing the improvements from day 1, you will also have a great deal of respect for the coaches out there.  It’s not as easy as some make it seem, there are ups and downs, but to me there is no parallel.

-The Boss

Posted in: Coaching,Matt