Even after being out of coaching for awhile, my memories at times haunt me. I honestly don't remember all the "magic" moments but I do remember a number of low points.
One night we were playing a game that would determine the conference title. We were down one with a few seconds to go. We had possession. Instead of calling timeout, I was going to allow us to take the last shot. Unfortunately, we picked up our dribble & earned a five second count. Now some may have debated whether it was a quick 5 count or not. It real doesn't matter anymore, except it haunts me.
Another room in my haunted coach's house, were players who for one reason or another felt they were treated unfairly and quit the team. The blame almost always is placed on you as the coach. I know players & parents can be incredibly irrational. I have always been a person who took critical remarks and actions personally. I was pretty good at hiding my reactions to negative situations.
I grew up on a farm and attended a small public high school. I went to a small state university and graduated with a teaching degree & a coaching. certificate. At the ripe old age of 23, I married & I accepted a teaching & coaching position at a very small high school were I became the head boys basketball coach. I was in over my head before I signed the contract. I was ok in the classroom but over matched on the court. Despite an atrocious record of coaching I was hired two years later at school that I spent 8 years coaching & teaching. It was during this time, that I learned about a coach named. Don Meyers. I heard him speak & he had a video
series I purchased. Most of you know how little a young teacher/coach made many years ago. I almost had to float a loan to purchase the videos. It was the best money I ever spent in terms of coaching information.
I won't bore you with the rest of my coaching story. My last teaching/coaching assignment was my most rewarding, but still more rooms were added to my haunted coach's house. It may just be my own character weaknesses that I dwell more on my failures than I do with any successes.
So much advise we are given about such things as "forgetting the past." Theory seems like such hollow wisdom. How do you just forget the past? Painful memories, if we arer honest, influence our present and may even affect our future. The key from my perspective is to try and limit the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past. The present is challenging enough without being preoccupied with the past.
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