I coach or help coach many of my son’s sports teams, ranging from little league baseball, to basketball to flag football. I’ve been doing this for several years now, and even though he’s now 10 and in his 4th year of playing these sports it’s amazing the amount of work, and restraint, it takes to organize 10-12 boys for practice. EVERY TIME.
Below is a synopsis of what a typical “team meeting” sounds like.
Coach: OK guys, everybody in…take a knee.
Coach: Guys – let’s come in. Riley – get off of Peter and come huddle up.
Coach: Riley! Peter! Let’s go!
Coach: Ok guys… (Hand raises).
Coach: Yes Andrew?
Andrew: What time is practice over?
Coach: In one hour. OK, today we’re going to work on….(laughter). Robby, take your glove off of Riley’s head.
Coach: Today we’re going to work on fielding fundamentals.
Tommy: My brother plays for the Majors Pirates and he’s hit 2 home runs before.
Christopher: My brother plays Majors too.
Coach: I’m proud of your brothers. Hitting home runs is nice but you also need to be able to field the ball. So today we’re going to work on how to properly field grounders and fly balls.
Andrew: Today in school, my teacher, Ms. Davis, brought a turtle to class. It was about this big (holds hands out) and had stripes on its back!
Riley: I have a turtle! His name is Bonkers.
David: I asked Santa for a turtle but my Mom said Santa couldn’t bring it because it would need water and it wouldn’t have any water because Santa has so many toys on his sleigh and so many kids to delivers toys to so a turtle wouldn’t be able to get water and would die of thirst.
Coach: Looks at David puzzled.
Riley: Santa can’t deliver any live pets. Only Pet Rocks. I got a Pet Rock in my stocking last Christmas.
Rohan: I had a Pet Rock but my little sister lost it. She also lost my favorite Pokemon card.
Tommy: I have Pokemon cards! I just got a Zekrom EX with 180 life power!
Coach: Guys! Let’s focus. This is baseball practice. We’re working on fielding today. Who can show me proper fielding position?
Several hands are raised.
Coach: Ok. Christopher, shows us how you field a ground ball.
Christopher: Coach, I just have a question. Can we have a water break?
2 vienna dads 