Wednesday
I must admit I made myself sore and I’m afraid to disclose it to my little
basketball team. I definitely felt like
I was my father on Wednesday with my little basketball kids. We were working on a special defense trap to
pull out for Saturday’s game and I realized I never actually showed them how to
“properly” slide on defense. They were doing so well at being a terrorizer regarding
“in their face” I forgot to show them otherwise. So I couldn’t get them to grasp the concept
of the diagonal stance of defense to push them into a trap. Then it hit me…the dreaded defensive slide
drills……and I was my father in the split of a second. “LINE UP”.
Realizing this was the first time
they had done this I was going to have to lead by example showing them how (and
that pretty much meant showing EACH ONE OF THEM SEPERATLY how). That’s all fun and games until the next day
when I realize just how sore I am because I haven’t used “basketball muscles”
in quite some time. I feel bad that I
found it funny when they were “hating” the burn in their legs and voicing it
through the drill….”COOOOOACCCHHHH”
There was a little bit of massive confusion with what to do, but I think
they did very well (it was certainly the quietest I have ever heard them at practice). It also helped me discover something to pressure
them with when they have their “Wild Wednesday” spells of craziness. I’ll be sure to update how the defense goes
after Saturday’s game. So upon the mini
workout for myself at practice, I did do a shorter run that day of only 20
minutes due to daylight slipping away on me while promising myself a longer run
for the next day.
Thursday (yesterday) I laced up
my shoes heading back on the road, and was out to tackle 50-60 minute run. It’s not that I was avoiding the trails due
to getting lost, but this rain isn’t a trail’s best friend. My first vent for the blog however will be…. Is it really all that hard when driving on a
wide country road (no lines) without another vehicle coming from the other
direction to slightly slow down and move over?
I get so aggravated sometimes over a little bit of common courtesy. I realize I’m running “on a road” but I also
move off the road when I hear your auto approaching my direction, but it’s
still a nice gesture to acknowledge me.
Ok….I’m done with that, I suppose instead of road rage that is a slight
case of runners rage.
With March Madness at a high,
basketball is still on my mind. I can’t
help but laugh at just how much dad put up with being completely surrounded by
girls. Dad and Davey always wore “wind
pants”, I think some refer to them as plastic pants J Apparently, it was their good luck charm even
if the other coaches waere in dress suites. We would tease them about the swishing
sound they made. If you’ve picked up on my sense of humor and
sarcastic self, realize there were several of us in my senior class likewise. Between dad (oh wait sorry Coach…you’ll begin
to understand it’s a very confusing situation) and Davey (Dad’s assistant
coach) putting up with us, as well as giving it back as we rightfully deserved
it always got us through even some of the more difficult days of practice and
road trips. Between pranks and
seriousness there always was the perfect balance at getting the most out of the
players and that is a trait hard to determine between a head coach as well as
an assistance coach to make work. I
think it took even several years for dad and me to find our “happy balance”.
Speaking of being sarcastic (here I
go being random again), we were having dinner at our house one evening. Dad was giving me a talk about learning when
he’s my “coach” and when he’s my “dad”….however he kept discussing specifics of
games and things to work on etc. I
slightly looked at mom and said, “Well mom, you should have warned me this evening
that you invited Coach to dinner”. That
might give you a general idea of some of the tight spots mom got placed in over
the years of playing the middle person J
There were times I wanted to quit (I’d
even folded up my uniform once and placed it on his bed to prove a point) because
it almost seemed too aggravating to be worth it. Dad once said listen, “I have to pick on you
and call you out sometimes so people don’t think I favor you, you are my
daughter”. I quickly would respond with
TRUST ME DAD….NOBODY WANTS TO BE ME in practice. Through the years we did develop an understanding
and even if I thought he was my biggest critic I would later learn he was also
my biggest fan, he just didn’t want me to know it at the time and make it
easy.
In the below picture that I label
LKC Championship, I remember we all pulled out a great game with a little rough
start. I ended up making some 3’s that
tallied a total of points to 40….I’m saying that because as we were walking off
the court and I was between dad and Davey (sorry I don’t think I ever referred
to him by his last name McCullough or coach) Dad put his arm around me and said
“You know….if you had made that lay up….you would have had 42” That my friends is dad in a nutshell J His voice tone wasn’t being mean, he merely
was stating a fact of there always being something that you could have done
better. That is when Davey knew he had
to play the nice guy and joke back so I didn’t get mad and they had such a
great balance, even if it was balancing me and dad J At the time that may sound a little bit hard,
and I probably rolled my eyes like every teenager does, but I look back at so
many instances and realize even if something was “great” it can always be
better, so never stop working at anything, even a simple layup.
2001 LKC (Little Kanawha Conference) Champions
2001 Regional Champions
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