Spring has sprung and after a hectic week following spring break, it seems like the kids have started to settle back into the typical school routine. For the first day since starting my new job, I had every one of my kids attend class in both blocks today. It was a bit of the ol' too good to be true (I had a student leave at the afternoon break), but overall I was pretty excited about the situation overall.
Things around the house have been pretty hectic lately. I'm still coaching, and we're into the final two weeks of our club season. Our guys are playing pretty well (placing 5th in the province at the most recent tournament), and they seem to be gelling as a team. I'm still struggling to become a voice of authority with them, because many of them still see me as the inexperienced friendly guy who helped coach them last year. I was very open about my inexperience with them last year, and some of them take this to mean that I don't know what I'm doing. Although I'm the first to admit I am still figuring things out as far as the coaching goes, my knowledge of the game is fair and I have a lot of playing experience. Being young doesn't help either. And both of these factors have played a role in players not wanting to listen to me as an authority figure when our head coach is absent.
The same has gone for parents... being young and inexperienced, I'm an easy target for disgruntled parents who think either their kids are the centre of the universe and expect me to believe the same, or that I'm simply incompetent and I couldn't coach a team to save my life. Just the other day, I ran into one of my player's parents... being congenial, I went up and made small-talk about him being at my schooling selling his wares (high school study guides), and it didn't take him long to launch into some heavy criticism about the way the team is being coached and the fact that his son (who is used to being the premiere player on the team) is splitting time equally with another player who plays the same position. In essence, he was mad that his kid wasn't on the floor at all times. He was especially critical of our most recent tournament (where, ironically, our team and the other setter had their best performances of the season so far) and that a number of parents were upset with the way we were running things. I found this doubly-interesting because of the fact that our head coach was away and myself and my buddy (one of the other assistants) were left to run the team. I explained to him that a) it was really late in the season to start bringing such things up and b) if he had any concerns that our head coach would happily discuss them. So, I emailed our head coach explaining the situation and he set up a time to meet with Mr. Parent. Did the parent show up? Nope. We had two practices on the weekend, and he was supposed to meet our head coach before the first. No show. He didn't show up for the next one either. There was no explanation or excuse. Just an absence. Like I said... I'm an easy target being young and inexperienced, and people who are willing to lose it on easy targets aren't so willing to face confrontation when it would be with a man of a similar age with 25 years of coaching experienced under his belt. Needless to say, I'm not too surprised. His kid is definitely one of the ones who has a problem listening to me. Hmmmmmm.
Other than coaching, I'm supposed to start playing spring league volleyball this week... I won't make it though, because Paul Brandt is in town and K is a big fan. Thus, I'm taking her for part of her birthday present. Then, on top of these two things, I also signed up for a 3 month trail running clinic that is set up to prepare us for THIS... a 25k trail race in June. So, I'm punishing myself for having a lazy winter by being a glutton for punishment. We run twice a week with a group and then have a training schedule set up for us on other days. Have I actually done more than one of the activities on the training plan other than the organized runs? Well, not yet, but I have high hopes! If I get out tomorrow, I'll be happy that it's a good start.
So, coaching, playing, and running (along with the normal obligations of teaching) are overwhelming me a bit, but I only have 2 more weeks (and travel-weekends) of coaching left and the other obligations are physical and not mental (as well as recreational), so I should be okay. Still... I have this tendancy of overloading myself from time to time, so for now I'm not going to do much else... just run, work, and play some ball.
K's busy too... she'll be starting a new job (well, same job, new advisors) in the next month, and she's off to LA for a cousin's wedding with her mom in May. Then we have my little sister's wedding in July, and some camping to do in the meantime. The sun has started shining pretty consistently and the mornings are warming up, so it's just a short while longer until summer's here to stay.
And it couldn't come quickly enough.
T
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