2:38 PM
Matt
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
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
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