ITA Learning Project - My Journey from Youth to High School Coach – Post #1

In my tech class, I have an assignment to learn a new skill and share the journey on my blog. I kicked around a few things, and even had one in mind, when situations change (as they often do). About 10 days before the start of the practice season, I joined the coaching staff of the boys’ lacrosse team at my local High School. I may be understating this a bit, as I doubled the size of the staff.

So, how did I get here?

Eight years ago, my youngest son started playing lacrosse at the youngest age in our brand-new youth lacrosse program. I didn’t know much about the game, but I found a way to help by being the guy who fetched balls that went off the field and returned them to the sidelines. The next year there was only one coach for 20 middle-schoolers, so I gradually moved closer to the sidelines to help watch the kids during the games. That led to me being an official coach for the third season. I had never played, but I figured that a lot of my job would be just to help manage behavior. I was wrong. I had to learn how to teach lacrosse skills, and quickly. Shane, the youth head coach, played when he was young and coached me before I coached the kids. Then my kid left the youth program and moved to high school. I stayed with the youth program for several years, continuing my development as a youth coach and earning a Level 1 coaching certification from US Lacrosse.

After a couple years, things got a bit strange with politics and new program board members and I found myself not on a sideline for the first time in a while. To get my fix, I volunteered to work the scorers table at the Varsity games, on which Tim (the son that got me started) was a senior and captain. This was last year, and a Mike had just started his second stint has head coach. He started the high school program about 12 years ago, but work took him elsewhere for a few years. He came back to the area and got a position as Head Coach at a different school as their coach for a few years. After these travels, he wanted to come back to the community and our high school program, finally getting his chance last year. With the time I spent on the field as a volunteer, I had plenty of opportunities to interact with Mike, although I’m not sure if he knew I coached or if he just thought I was an involved parent.

Fast forward to this year. After 6 years (John, my older son, is two classes ahead of Tim and also played on the High School team), I no longer have a kid on the team. The youth program didn’t need my help as an assistant coach, so once again I wondered what to do. At my wife’s STRONG urging, over the off-season I let Mike know I was available to help if he needed it. He gave a polite reply that he would let me know if he needed help. At that time, he had two assistant coaches lined up, so the prospects of him needing help was slim. To stay connected to the game and the kids, I began studying to become an official.

Then, about two weeks before the season, both of Mike’s assistants dropped out and he found himself alone with a roster of about 40 kids. He asked if I was still interested in helping, and the next thing I knew I’m working on my paperwork to get my Pupil Activity Permit so I can join the team for the first week of training.

I now find myself in the situation that I need to ramp up from teaching how to catch and throw and the basics of game play to teaching multiple defensive strategies and preparing different looks on special teams.  Plus, I’ll be dealing with high school kids instead of the middle schoolers I used to coach. Over the next several weeks I’ll be blogging about how I’m moving along this path of developing my coaching skills. I’m actually starting these reflections before the official opening of the assignment, so the first few will be posted a few weeks after the events that inspired them. I figure I’ll eventually catch up and the posts will be in real-time, so I’ll be sure to say when that happens