Looking Back on Last Year's Tryouts

An update is long overdue. And perhaps this short update will cause me to write the full explanation of what has happened with my coaching since February. I hate the idea of losing that history, and hate the fact that I can’t go back and reread things in the future to see where I was at then as a coach.

This year I will be coaching the 5th grade team for GL. This is the rubber year. I expect, shortly, to become a qualified official. If I don’t like how I do as a coach, I can’t imagine I would do anything but officiate next year. I plan on umpiring for sure come the summer.

Rereading my posts from tryouts last year brought back a few things. First, it showed that first impressions are either often correct or often lasting (or both). Most of the players who made the team I had a good handle on, or knew what I didn’t know. I correctly pegged the team as a very good A team, and considering they finished 3rd in league play, I had that right. So that’s the good.

The bad? It pains me to read how I cut Noah. I completely failed to live up to the standard I had set. I’m not one to regret something, but I sure as hell regret that. That was a big disappointment. It is also upsetting to think back on how much time and effort I put into the preseason and my inability, due to work and the second team, to follow through on that all season long. I had definite deficiencies as a coach, and I need to put in time to overcome them. With one team this year, and not being new to a job, hopefully that’ll happen.