If I had 3 extra hours a day, I'd volunteer again to coach a youth sport in our community. For 15 years, I was able to give back to our community and coach four different sports- Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Soccer. The best part about it of course, was being able to be involved in our three children's experience in playing a youth sport. It was also very rewarding for me - being a positive role model for those kids. I really miss being able to have the time to volunteer my time for this important role model position, but we've all had to put more time into our work because of the tougher real estate market...
My wife and I always taught our kids that participating in a sport growing up is more than just being on a team and an activity to be involved in. There's alot of lessons to be learned about life. Things like
Discipline, Teamwork, Sportsmanship, and Respect. Being part of a team and practicing hard, you learn how to develop a work ethic, how to be a good teammate, how to deal and overcome adversity. On one of our Pop Warner football teams, our chant at the end of our huddle before the game was
"Pride, Respect, Love, Protect, Togetherness!...We are SAINTS!"
When I coached a team, I always stressed that we were not there just for winning. We wanted to take care of the little things - work hard, and the bigger things would eventually happen. Some teams were really talented and we did win a few championships, others were not so good and we used it as an opportunity to draw parallels to life, and how this was a good character builder. Some years I had kids play on my team that had no way to practice, so I would go pick them up for practice and some games. Having played sports since I was eight years old, I always felt everyone should have the chance to experience the positive benefits of "being on a team" at some point in their childhood. It broke my heart when some couldn't because of family issues.
I tried to stress the importance of character, integrity, and sportsmanship. It didn't really matter at that level whether we son or lost that game -
what really mattered is how you act while you were out there on the field. That's what mattered. People a year or two from now will not remember the score of the game, they might not even remember who won. But what they WILL REMEMBER, is how you acted while you were out there on the field. They'll say, "Wow, that kid was a great kid...he/she always gave their BEST and I was always impressed with them".
I loved making a difference in the kids' lives and I tried my best to look at the BIG picture. It's very rewarding for me to see them today in high school, college, and some have gone on to their careers in the workplace. When I see them around town, I love hearing, "Hey Coach, how are you?". I miss those moments of being that positive role model, but there is a great sense of pride for me to see that I may have made a positive difference in their lives.
This was one of my basketball teams that I took to a Virginia Tech Hokie Club dinner one time when the head coach, Seth Greenberg, from Tech came to town. It was the first time most of my kids had been to an event like this. What a great memory for them and for me.
With the state of the economy, our slow real estate market, my job has required that I do more with less at work. I need more hours in a day to really do things I love. In those 15 years of coaching youth sports, I was fortunate that our business was thriving and I could volunteer my time and energy for coaching. Yes, if I had three hours a day extra today to do something extra, I'd be thankful to be a coach again for kids in my town of Smithfield, Virginia. I do miss it.
