Viewpoint: Maybe It's Time to Coach Again

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the approaching new year or not but Lori and I have been reviewing where we are, and where we are headed. One evening last week she made an off-hand remark that I should start coaching again. My response was something to the effect that I was waiting to coach my grandkids.

That comment, though, made me think about some of the coaching I had done and my mind pulled up a special memory. My daughter, Amber, was I believe a freshman in high school in Eugene, Oregon. I was coaching a YWCA basketball team about this time of year.

In one particular game only six members of the team showed up. We were playing one of the better teams. Having been beaten very badly by them once already during the season, I remembered that they were a very deliberate, slow, patient team.

At the time, my daughter and Kim, another member of the team, had a little bit of an ongoing spat. I’m not sure anyone even remembered why they were at odds, but they were. 

Being aware of the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses I decided that despite my small numbers and two locked in a feud, our only hope of winning was to full court press on defense in an attempt to disrupt their precision; and to run on offense and not give them time to set their defense.

So, I did a little math and told the girls how long they would be on the court before they could sit down for a few minutes. I shared the rationale that it was the only chance we had to beat this team, and further explained that, regardless of personal issues going on, the team had to be put first. The whistle blew, and we ran, and ran, and ran.

Three of the girls were pretty small and three of the girls were a little larger, but all six of the girls were gasping for air every time they got a few precious moments on the bench. In addition to coaching I continually monitored the clock, giving the person who had been out on the floor the longest a little time to gulp in oxygen.

I would like to report that we had an upset victory. Actually, we lost by a narrow margin. The girls were exhausted, but as we did after each game we took a look at the game and how the things in that game had ramifications in life.

We talked about the tremendous amount of improvement over our first loss to this team. The loss became a victory when we looked at how far we had come in our development as a basketball team.

A switch flipped at some point about mid-way through the first half and I could tell the girls believed they could beat the better team. We talked about the fact that obstacles in life would always exist and it was possible to overcome them, and that attitude had a lot to do with this

We learned when you give all you have, win or lose, you leave the arena: sports, faith, business, marriage, friendships, with your head held high.

Most of all we talked about how it was possible to put aside differences for the greater good. Kim and Amber, two of the faster players, were tenacious on defense and fed each other the basketball on fast breaks. Of course, after the game they went back to their spat but they had put that on hold during the game. Oh, that politicians could do the same

Maybe it is time to coach again.Viewpoint: