I forgot about how much ego is involved in youth football. I went to a practice today to help a coach clean up a play and watched moments of the practice devolve into machismo…. between the adults. The problem was that each coach has a different idea of what to do and each wants to be right. Add on to that a sense of responsibility and you find yourself front row to an argument about where a kid should line up on the field.
I tried to help the best I could and talk through the situation with them, as requested. I have a certain amount of football knowledge about the problem they were trying to solve and I helped as well as possible. However, the real issue is that the kids were watching that lack of cohesiveness and recognizing what must have looked like a staff that was not locked in and didn’t entirely know what they were doing or what the plan was.
My kid noticed. He gave me what I’ve come to know as ‘the look’ and checked out on things for a while and other kids checked out as well.
Coaches are teachers and teachers have a responsibility to be the people we look to for guidance and basically to know how to act. That responsibility can neither be taken lightly nor ignored.
Some Thoughts:
- My eldest is convinced the world is ending. He isn’t entirely wrong. He cites all of the crazy happening in the world and suggests that this is a sign. Maybe.
- Trump is a sign of something…