It’s hump day and that meant that I was on the barbecue for the evening at baseball. The association still needed volunteers to put on condiments, so Emma joined me today and is on deck to help out next week as well.
Before barbecuing though, a new coach in the Junior division who was also kind enough to join our executive team as well, enlisted my help. She was all by herself the week before and felt a little overwhelmed. This is the first time she has ever coached, and she wanted to have a meeting with families and ask for some help.
I know how it feels as the only official coach for our team, but the older kids pretty much take care of themselves. Another base coach would help and thankfully my wife takes care of the scoresheet, but in the younger divisions you really need 4 volunteers – most of which are to keep the kids inline on the bench and out on the field.
This coach had gone to the trouble of creating a new batting line-up sheet, and had written her own ‘letter from the coach’ to set the ground rules for the team and her expectations to ensure a fun season for the kiddos. I loved this because it’s exactly what I used to do after I had had a few experiences with challenging parents and kids alike.
The chat went well, and we at least had a new scorekeeper by the time I headed back to the canteen to chef up some burgers and dogs.
I know how she feels. Twice I put my name down as an assistant and twice, I ended up being the head coach of divisions my child had just moved up to. Both instances were steep learning curves.