Joel, Coach Joel

Well assistant coach. This should be interesting.

So earlier in the week Barry comes into the office and says to Jilian that his boys have joined a Christian based basketball league and they still need coaches. He talks Jilian into signing up as a coach and then Jilian decides she needs an assistant. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking but it sounded like a good idea at the time so I said that I would do it. We get a team of eight 3rd/4th grade boys.

Ok, what have we learned so far? A) It is a Christian based league and B) Ultimately whatever happens it is all Barry’s fault for mentioning it in the first place. Just keep those two things in mind as I post throughout the season. I am expecting this to make for some good posts.

Mainly I thought that this would be a nice way for me to help out some young kids and provide a positive roll model. I also thought it might be a good way to meet their single mothers or single aunts. As part of the league rules they get stars for doing good things. Jilian and I decided to give them a special star if they bring a single adult with them to a practice/game. We got the roster and there was only one single mother. Oh well, I still have high hopes for this plan.

I know very little about basketball other than what the ball looks like and that you are trying to get the ball through some hoop that for some unknown reason they hang way too high in the air. So we discussed other ways in which I could help them grow. I offered to bring drinks for after practices/games so that they could learn to take shots. (Settle down, I have some decency the drinks would be non-alcoholic.) The best part though is I mention this to Jilian, she smiles a huge grin and says she could make jello shooters. She claims I am a bad influence on her. I am not so sure.

Our team name is the Heat so I tried to talk Jilian into a cheer that goes something like, “We are the Heat, we are going to burn!” but she did not think that was a good Christian image. Oh well, I suspect that she is right.

We tossed around other ways in which I can help but I won’t go into those now. I have probably already made some of my readers nervous enough.

We had our first practice tonight and it went great. (Except for not getting to meet the single mother) I really enjoyed working with the kids. They were respectful and they seemed to genuinely have a good time. They were also pretty good at basketball so I am thinking that we are going to kick butt. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the boy I seemed to bond with the quickest is named Robert. Hmmmmmm. He gets a star.

During practice we were talking a about sportsmanship and being nice to the refs. Gavin decided to tell us that one of the best parts of the game is yelling at the ref and throwing the ball at him. He wasn’t really serious but it was funny when he said it. He gets a star.

At the end of practice we decided to do a cheer. Some of them were into it and some weren’t. One of them, Zachary I think, pipes up and asks if we are going to have cheerleaders. I like him, he gets a star.

I think this is going to be a good experience and I am looking forward to it. The boys really were cool and I hope to learn as much from them as they learn from me. I have already booked the Rivermill for an end of season party.