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Remember, it's just a kid's game
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Coach and son
Whether Charles Barkley likes it or not, athletes are often our heroes, and even our role models. Go to any Little League park and you'll see a 10-year-old who bats like Ichiro, drive by an outdoor basketball court and you'll find teenagers sticking their tongues out as they drive the lane, a-la Michael Jordan, and go to a Pop Warner football game and you'll see kids trash talk after a tackle like Lawrence Taylor once did.
It's the men and women who coach, though, who often leave the greatest impacts on our lives. I owe my love for sports to some great coaches. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Mr. Hicks. Thanks, Mr. Quinn.
I hope that I've followed in these men's footsteps. Since my Freshman year in college, 1987, I've coached baseball, basketball and soccer for teams from Little League through High School Varsity, and I'm still surprised every game at how much fun it can be to coach and mentor kids, and how doggone funny kids can be.
Here are a few of my favorite coaching yarns.
*In '87, I was a first year coach and didn't know how to react when my second baseman, Cory, responded to my request for him to take the field with one word: "MEOW!" Despite Cory's strange communication skills, he went on to become homecoming king and is now a husband and father. I wonder if he has any cats?
*While coaching a 10-year-old baseball team, I went to the mound and told our pitcher, "Don't throw this big kid anything good. We have a base open. If we walk him it's no big deal." The first pitch the pitcher threw was over the middle of the plate and was clobbered for a game-winning homer. The pitcher came off the mound, looked me square in the face and said, "I thought I could get him with my slider."
*While coaching my daughter's soccer team, one player was about to execute a throw-in when she stopped to tell the referee how much she liked her cleats.
*In the early days of Little League, players coached the bases. With a runner on first, the opposing team threw a wild pitch and the crowd started chanting for the runner to GO!" The third base coach got caught up in the excitement, sprinted home and slid in safely.
*An opposing team ran this play against us, and though I didn't think it was funny at the time, I do now. A runner on first broke toward second, took a few steps and fell down in pain. Our catcher held the ball, and everyone on the field looked at the fallen boy and started toward him to offer assistance. At this point the runner got up and jogged into second. BRAVO!
*Another opposing team tried to position one of its fielder's near the backstop because the pitcher was so wild! Sorry, that's against the rules.
*While coaching fifth grade basketball, I begged my team not to shoot so many three-pointers. "We can make them!" they cried. "Really? What do you think our shooting percentage is from behind the three point line?" I countered. The guesses came in: 30%? 40%? The players couldn't believe when I informed them that their real percentage was actually 2%.
*While coaching high school baseball I told a kid name Jerry, "You know, Jerry, you really hit low pitches well, but anything above the belt you can't touch. I want you to look for low pitches. If the first pitch comes in low I want you to swing at it." "I can't swing at the first pitch, coach," Jerry argued. "Why?" I asked. "Because Ted Williams never swung at the first pitch," Jerry explained.
*We're down by one with two outs in the last inning, runners on first and third in a 12-year-old traveling baseball game. I tell our batter, a big slugger, "I'm going to have the runner on first steal on the first pitch. Don't swing." "But what if they throw him out? We'll lose," the slugger responded. "Trust me. They won't throw it to second, and if they do our runner knows to get in a run-down until the tying run scores. But, they won't throw the ball to second and you'll get a hit and win the game. Remember, don't swing. In fact, just fake bunt so the catcher has to stay back." When play resumes the first pitch is thrown and my slugger.......BUNTS! Yes, our mini-Babe Ruth bunts right back to the pitcher to end the game. The next night the slugger rebounded with a game-winning walk-off homer. In the five years I've coached him, the slugger has never bunted again.
*In 20+ years I've coached one player who played minor-league baseball and another who was a quarterback for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I've coached kids who have hit three-homers in a baseball game, have scored three goals in a soccer match (my daughter!), and have hit nine three pointers in a basketball game (my son!).
Now comment with your favorite coaching stories!
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