CDAPBA, here I come!
My life is about to get very interesting... on top of a job in which I travel a fair amount, a one-night/week commitment to my ice skating passion & Christmas Extravaganza preparation, a one-night/week commitment to football/Game Night with my F&T guys, I've added another commitment to my life. I'm going to coach a 3rd/4th grade intramural girls basketball team this year.
Meet the new head coach of the CDAPBA Thunder! I spent two hours last night sitting with 2 other coaches "drafting" our teams. It was pretty crazy... serious discussion about individual players and which players would be best suited to play on certain teams.
The experience (hopefully) should be loads of fun. I love kids and basketball, and it should be fun to get back on the court and hopefully inspire some young players; however, the infamous head of the league, Jim, might be the death of me. I am amazed that this league has been going smoothly for 21 years now with Jim's incredible un-organization. We're sitting there at the beginning of the session, starting to draft the teams, and Jim tells us that we're two coaches short - "Does anyone have a cell phone I could borrow," he asks, claiming that he has never had one nor does he ever plan to get one. He borrows Coach George's phone and calls several fathers of kids signed up to play and leaves "recruitment" messages. Coachless Team #6 would be assigned to whichever father called him back first - Roger Slatt or Jim Parker. Classic.
Jim also was very official with the kids' score sheets. Apparently, earlier in the week they participated in a skills session in which they were rated, scored, and ranked in the different aspects of the game (passing, shooting, dribbling, running, 3-on-3 skills, etc.) Jim also included their phone numbers on the sheet. We used these ranking sheets to help us place the girls evenly on teams. But when it came time to head home after all teams had been established, Jim informed us that we were not allowed to take this "confidential" information home with us. We would have to copy anything/ everything we wanted. Including phone numbers. Including parent information. Including email addresses. Everything. Thanks, Jim. I truly felt like I was back in Jr. High as I sat there in CD East Middle School, copying my team information into my notebook.
About this time Roger Slatt calls back. Team #6 has a coach.
When I signed on to do this, the guy that recruited me asked if I had a daughter playing in the program. "No," I said, "I just love the game and want to share my time with some kids that will hopefully come to love the game like I do." He then called me a saint. After dealing with Jim for one evening and wanting to pull my hair out, I understand why. Saint Kristina... no, just call me Coach!
First practice tomorrow.... more to come in the coming weeks!
Meet the new head coach of the CDAPBA Thunder! I spent two hours last night sitting with 2 other coaches "drafting" our teams. It was pretty crazy... serious discussion about individual players and which players would be best suited to play on certain teams.
The experience (hopefully) should be loads of fun. I love kids and basketball, and it should be fun to get back on the court and hopefully inspire some young players; however, the infamous head of the league, Jim, might be the death of me. I am amazed that this league has been going smoothly for 21 years now with Jim's incredible un-organization. We're sitting there at the beginning of the session, starting to draft the teams, and Jim tells us that we're two coaches short - "Does anyone have a cell phone I could borrow," he asks, claiming that he has never had one nor does he ever plan to get one. He borrows Coach George's phone and calls several fathers of kids signed up to play and leaves "recruitment" messages. Coachless Team #6 would be assigned to whichever father called him back first - Roger Slatt or Jim Parker. Classic.
Jim also was very official with the kids' score sheets. Apparently, earlier in the week they participated in a skills session in which they were rated, scored, and ranked in the different aspects of the game (passing, shooting, dribbling, running, 3-on-3 skills, etc.) Jim also included their phone numbers on the sheet. We used these ranking sheets to help us place the girls evenly on teams. But when it came time to head home after all teams had been established, Jim informed us that we were not allowed to take this "confidential" information home with us. We would have to copy anything/ everything we wanted. Including phone numbers. Including parent information. Including email addresses. Everything. Thanks, Jim. I truly felt like I was back in Jr. High as I sat there in CD East Middle School, copying my team information into my notebook.
About this time Roger Slatt calls back. Team #6 has a coach.
When I signed on to do this, the guy that recruited me asked if I had a daughter playing in the program. "No," I said, "I just love the game and want to share my time with some kids that will hopefully come to love the game like I do." He then called me a saint. After dealing with Jim for one evening and wanting to pull my hair out, I understand why. Saint Kristina... no, just call me Coach!
First practice tomorrow.... more to come in the coming weeks!
posted by Kristina @ 1:52 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:38 AM,
Anonymous said…
Don't know if you get this, since it is now 2 years after the fact. I stumbled on this while doing a search for the web site. Classic Jim Hannawalt Story, I can relate. But there is nobody who has the kids interset at heart mmore than Jim. Don't know if oyu know, but he was replaced by a board last year, and I'm not sure things run any smoother.
I have a friend who works in the Post Office, and Jim delivered a mailing at 3:00 AM for a clinic later the next day. there are a million other stories.
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