This is my first year coaching, and I’ve taken the girls vball team under my wings. And I love it. Lovelovelove it.

Ten Reasons Why

10. I love teaching, but sometimes, I don’t think I’m so great at teaching. I love hanging out with the kids, and I love the cool stuff I teach (ie Latin and Spanish) but sometimes that gets overridden by a really cool story I start telling and can’t seem to stop, or kids raising their hand and wanting to tell a joke or show a secret trick, and all of a sudden, I’m declaring my room to be a Bieber-free zone and its time to switch classes and I haven’t assigned homework. Sometimes I feel like I might be a better camp counselor or friend than a teacher. I would much rather shoot the breeze with the children than assign them things that make them grumpy, and then I get grumpy bc they are grumpy, and then I have to grade their grumpiness. So the thing about coaching is that I get to  hang out with kids that I love, and teach them about something they want to learn about! Its genius!

9. Volleyball is a fantastic sport. Its the perfect combination of fast and slow, suspense and satisfaction, teamwork and individual skill.

8. Girls volleyball is perfect. We get to be super hardcore (ie you can break someone’s nose hitting at them hard enough, we dive all over the ground) but we also get to wear ribbons and make up cheers and be silly.

7. I get to leave school early to go have practices and games :)

6. There is something incredibly cathartic about getting to slam a ball at kids over and over again after a day at work filled with “I forgot my pencil/homework/permission slip/planner/brain.”

5. I get to yell and be loud and enthusiastic, and its a good thing.

4. I love carrying a clipboard.

3. All the planning and organizing involved! STATS! I love taking stats, looking at stats, consulting rule books, highlighting players, creating practice plans, making the team lineup, packing my gym bag every night. It is fantastic.

2. I get to wear a sports bra and coach’s shirt and pony tail to school almost every day! Heck yes!

1. Watching my players learn and grow together as a team has been the most rewarding experience. They LOVE each other, they want to learn from me, and I have them incredibly well-trained. Whenever a ball drops during practice, they automatically get down and do push-ups without me having to say anything any more. They are not longer afraid of the ball no matter how hard I hit at them. They hustle. They are sad when practice is over and ask for “just ONE more!” They are starting to break their bad habits, and when they slip back into them, it just takes one look from me and they’re like “oh I know I know I won’t do it again I’m sorry!” and they keep coming back for more, challenging themselves and wanting to get better. I LOVE it.

We have a home game tomorrow and Thursday….looking for another win! If we do, we get to take a “victory” lap at school in the mornings during the K-5 Flag and Morning Prayer time. : )

I love my job. I love life. I’m happy.