Thank You To The Coaches

Thank you to the coach who let me name our team the Crusty Socks and the Radioactive Lollipops.

Thank you to the coach who coached us even though they didn’t care for athletics. 

Thank you to the coach who told me I was slow and needed to stop lifting weights. 

Thank you to the coach who told me I was too scrawny and needed to eat more. 

Thank you to the coach who named their dog after me. 

Thank you to the coach who told me that I fell off the face of the earth and no longer existed as a person. Then told me that I was the most coachable player they ever had. 

Thank you to the coach who told me ‘no’ so many times that I questioned my abilities as a player and as a person. 

Thank you to the coach who told me ‘yes’.

Thank you to the coach who was unpaid and generous with their time. 

Thank you to the coach who taught me to kick with both feet. 

Thank you to the coach who let me show off my cartwheels. 

Thank you to the coach who told me you should always test drive a car before you buy it. 

Thank you to the coach who held me till the last round of tryouts, then cut me without any explanation. 

Thank you to the coach who let me on the team, even though I wouldn’t see any playing time. 

Thank you to the coach who gave me playing time. 

Thank you to the coach who let my brother’s little sister play with the boys’ team. 

Thank you to the coach who continues to let me play with the boys’ teams. 

Thank you to the coach whose first name is ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’.

Thank you to the coach who puts endless time into learning the game. 

Thank you to the coach who let me swim ALL the races. 

Thank you to the coach who is teaching me to coach. 

Thank you to the coach who told me ‘it really would be ok for you to get back on defense…’

Thank you to the coach who understands how much I really hate playing defense. 

Thank you to the coach who let us have ‘sock time’ to catch up on our gossip before practice started. 

Thank you to the coach who taught us to ‘park the car’ and leave our drama in the parking lot so we could focus on the game. 

Thank you to the coach who had catch phrases that they never explained and had us ‘get on our horse’ and ‘chalk our boots’ all the damn time.

Thank you to the coach who forgot all of our names and called me Jollyhippo instead. 

Thank you to the coach who acted as an interpreter and cared about us as humans. 

Thank you, Coaches. 

To all the coaches in my life, I thank you sincerely, you have taught me more than just how to play, swim and do cartwheels. You have taught me a way to learn and to teach and to enjoy this crazy life adventure.

Originally posted November 13, 2016.