Monday, October 09, 2017

Volleyball Coach

Thursday, September 28, 2017

I have never been an athletic person. My ignorance of most things sport is legendary. When volleyball coach, Traci Kopetsky, approached me to coach volleyball for a day I knew that I was the last name on her list. It may have been a very long list.
She asked me to take over for her on a Tuesday so that she could spend the evening with her 6-year-old for his birthday instead of away with her volleyball team.
She rolled out the list of duties slowly:
  • Coaching
  • Away game
  • Traveling there on a bus so we would leave 10 minutes before school ends
  • Returning to school afterwards on a different bus
I told her that there were too many parts to the adventure and declined. The next day, I had decided that it would be a grand adventure and agreed.
When the announcement to get the bus came, I was excited. I left my class with a sub and went to the door where the bus was due to arrive. No bus was there.
The girls were excited too. I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to get their names fast enough for the event so I settled on the generic name for all of the girls -- Emily.
Unfortunately there is a girl on the team named Emily so I decided that her name would be Sarah.
The bus did not arrive until 3 minutes after school ended. I didn’t need to leave so early at all.
We boarded the bus. Before we even left the parking lot, I started the singing. We started with traditionals “The wheels on the bus” and progressed to “100 bottles of pop on the wall.” Apparently “beer” is inappropriate in 2017.
When we actually arrived at our destination we started with warm-ups. Knowing nothing, I stood back as the girls took the lead.
The match began and I played more cheerleader than coach. I believe that my main reason for existence in this situation was motivation. I believe that children should focus on the fun, teamwork and compassion of sport over the desire to be victorious.
I cheered for every Emily (and Sarah). I cheered for every action whether it was correct or arrant.

The crowd, refs and players didn’t know what to do with me. I was definitely not what they expected to see on this autumn afternoon. Go experience sports, you never know what you’ll see. There might be a former mascot acting like the coach.

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