How not to be coach 101

I coached my second game ever on Saturday.. I love the game but never really got to experience what makes basketball so difficult to play. When you are watching the game it is simple to watch since the rules are pretty clear take the big ball and put it in the hoop more than the other team.. Simple hunh... not so even at this level this level.. Football has the one thing that makes me it difficult you have to have no fear to play this game properly (Being Dumb is another way of describing it).. In Baseball you have to have hand eye coordination that are beyond belief to truly be successful.. But both games don't require you to be fluid as an athlete.. Between pitches you collect your self and you prepare for the next pitch.. In Football you huddle between each play and you can gather yourself to change what your are doing both sports are bursts of 2-10 seconds max.. Hoops is all about sustaining flow and rhythm of the game switching between offense and defense switching from defending the ball to denying the ball to boxing out and changing to each of these states throughout each possession.. And the tough part of trying to be good it is just so hard you have to sustain that for minutes at a time instead of seconds.. Ok this is not rocket science since Shaq can play this game.. wait even I can play this game.. No I said well..

So once again we are matched up with another team that has two kids that are a good six inches taller than anybody on our team.. And of course all of my kids notice that and no one want to play against the biggest kid who just so happens to be one of the few African American kids in our little town. I am just trying to get my kids excited about playing hoops since they got killed the last time we played.. I was going to talk to the other coach before the game about how there team but she decided to be doing some quite different than most of the coaches I have ever seen coach.. She was nursing her 3 year old child before the game.. (Not much to say here other than it was a wee uncomforatable) The game was great the kids played so hard.. They run some nice screen plays the had some good passes but most of all they are getting just a little better each game. I just have to add this just because it happens and I am not sure if there is a good fix for it or it will change in time.. But here is the situation I live in an area that is primarily middle class white people which makes us all very ware of any ethnicity in fact I might be the only Irish men in town.. But the big kid who I mentioned before was very aggressive which I love in all sports but it created some problems did I mention that his Mom was the coach.. (She can be summed up as person that still lights a candle every calendar year to mark the passing of Wellstone.. Anyway you would think this would be the person who be the "We are all Winners" kind of coach.. No she isn't she is pretty tough on the kids and is doing her best to substitute her kids so that her best kids get just enough time to give the team a chance at winning..) But what brings up the ethnicity issue is that this kid is pretty much hacking the other kids at the end of the game and the high school kids are afraid to call fouls on him for a multitude of reasons that really are too complicated for me to describe in one post but my son basically gets run over with 30 seconds left to play and the crowd starts to say something but they hold back much for the same reason the kids calling the game don't call the foul to start with.. Well the parents behind me think I am pretty energetic but really I am at about 5 on the my game ready emotional control knob. When this happens to my smallest kid again with 15 seconds to go I look like I have been out in the sun for 6 days.. The big heavy is about too lose it but for whatever reason I hold back and just turn a different shade of purple. I call a timeout to settle myself down more than my kids.. Just a side note I look over at my son C in the timeout and he looks green he is so nervous he can hardly take it.. (I say hey C just have fun out there he looks at the scoreboard looks at his Dad who is the color of Barney and says yeah I will try.. )

But the game is tied and we go into overtime To make long story short yeah right I pull my two best players for the 1.5 of the last two minutes of the game and sub them in for the last 30 seconds so that all of the kids would equal minutes and to prove to the other kids that they could win with whoever was on the court with them.. So to win the game I had C who if all else fails is fearless set a "moving" screen on the big kid and the other kid drove to the basket and C's team ending up winning the game.. It was like they had one the National Championship.. (I thought it was better than a national championship since we had two kids who scored there first hoops ever and this was the first basketball game most of this kids had ever won. ..) I have to turn my exictometer down to about a 1 for the next but this coach has a lot to learn as well.. If I die trying to hold back the anger it was a nice run.. I started this as kind of a good thing to do for my son and the community but I really enjoy it..

Running
I tried to run two 10 minute miles on the treadmill on Saturday but my Veal locked up at 1.3 miles and I had to walk/limp the rest of the way I don't think my feet or my heart can take it at this point I am still way out of shape.. I did run 3 12 minute miles on Sunday which was pretty easy for me.. B.S my hear rate was about 157-165 is that too much or can you push that further.. On the weekends I had a little bit too much pizza so the weight was a steady 238.5 damn this last 20 lb's is going to be tough I think I am going to have to get to a fast three miles or a slow 5 to get my weight to keep coming off..

Vikings..
I am going to do an end of the year grade for all the positions this week.. but don't have the time today.. I would like some good comments on the vikings season..

Wolves.
They have no big guys but they have some talent if Casey can get them to keep playing some defense.. I could not coach Rick Davis he has the ability of a very solid player he is just so inconstant but he is only 26.. .. I hear that McCants might be back by February that does give this team some hope..


Running Heavy
Fatrosexual out..