I wrote about it last year…and I’m going to touch on it
again…. I’m not sure what “sports season” is more memorable for me with my dad,
considering he pretty much was my coach for all of them (minus track season which
I considered was my dad/coach break). Somehow,
he still had a lot of opinions for me and he secretly talked to the Coach
Haught’s more than I probably know) J
A friend shared some pictures he’d found going through a media
stick, and they really brought back some good memories. (And some NERVOUS ones) from the State
Tournament in 2001. I think I can still
feel the need to just want to throw up prior to running out on the Civic Center’s
gym floor surrounded by seats filled with our loyal fans. Looking back…that is one of my best sports
memories…ever.
You never really appreciate a feeling until later in life
when you realize just how special it truly was.
I still feel many days I never actually showed how much I as a person
appreciated the fan support/special supporters we had through high school. It always added to the excitement of the game,
and it brings back a tough thing for me to talk about that I think is a reason
I’ve hid from it a little bit. I am a
little disappointed in myself for this too.
Flipping through the news channels the other night and the girl’s state
tournament coverage was on, I couldn’t help but think it was just yesterday our
team was battling in those games. I
think I’m sometimes scared of my feelings I will feel going back to a high
school game, and it shouldn’t be how I am.
I don’t spend as much time as I may type about on here “looking
back”…I use a lot of “looking back” moments to justify ways to handle the “now”. I know a lot of who I am today is because of
those moments, and when I’m trying to figure out how to handle a situation I
try to evaluate things in the past, the outcome, and maybe how I should alter
to get a different outcome now. You talk
a lot about STUFF when shooting 100’s of shots.
I probably try too hard with these 2nd to 5th
graders I coach now…trying to get them to embrace understanding more outside
the game of basketball J
I am going to regret sharing this story…as it may be painful
for my dad to know I even said this…I made the ref swear to secrecy… BUT…. My little team lost last weekend…(I
know…devastating)… nobody wants to win more than I do…. HOWEVER…. The ref was teasing me about finally losing a
game…. And I hesitated and said you know…. (after making him swear he wouldn’t
repeat I said this)… We needed to lose that game….We needed to lose….Practices had
started to get too “easy”…. They wouldn’t listen to a lot of specifics of
things that they needed to work on because “Coach we’ve been winning” (pretty
much for 2 years for some on the team)…. These kids were so mad…I heard every
excuse in the book why we lost and none of which was their fault (if anyone
witnessed the 40 lay-ups that were missed and so forth you’d know why we lost) J…. My kids didn’t know how to lose. It’s not an easy thing to accept…but it’s
just as important to know how to lose…as it is to win. Tempers were flaring, fits were being thrown,
pouting, blaming…. It was rather ugly….and I was a little disappointed. How do you teach a kid “to lose?” Who wants to teach a kid to lose?...NOT ME…..
But yet…. We don’t always win in life…nothing will ALWAYS go
your way…and at some point it has to be accepted so that when something even
more serious doesn’t go your way….you don’t just give up.
I didn’ t really intend for this story to come full circle
such as this, but…. Dad had a temperature 2 weekends ago of 105 (yes…you read
that correctly)….. He slept for pretty much 2 solid days, wasn’t really eating
much of anything if at all… it was truly the weakest moment I’ve ever seen my
dad….I left the house with the worst feeling I’ve ever had through this…I’m not
even sure if I said a word the entire way home.
How he keeps on fighting I will never truly know. How he refuses to never give up….I’m not sure
no matter how many long runs I reflect and think about things, I will ever
know. I just hope I never lose the
desire to be a fighter like my dad.
