I took on a new challenge this year. I didn’t intend to, and truth be told was not necessarily excited to take it on at first, but now that I’ve gotten into it I’m having fun! I am now the Head Coach of my son’s youth baseball team!

Now, looking back to not that long ago (don’t laugh, my high school years weren’t that long ago!) this actually is something I always thought I would do and was legitimately looking forward to. For most of my high school and college years I was planning to be a teacher and a coach if my professional baseball career didn’t pan out (again…don’t laugh!). My Dad was a high school basketball coach and also coached both mine and my sibling’s various sports teams for many years growing up. I thought I was going to follow directly in his footsteps.

However, something changed as my college years went along, and my dreams of teaching and coaching began to fade. My college baseball career ended and the idea of being on a baseball field every day throughout the entire spring and summer months no longer appealed to me like it once did. The freedom of not being bound to practice and game schedules and being able to set my own calendar felt really good! I still had some hope and interest that my future kids and family would be involved in sports and specifically baseball somehow, but I really was not interested in forcing it and was totally Ok if it didn’t turn out that way.

Fast forward to last year and my first experience of my son playing baseball. It was a blast to watch him and the natural talent he had. It was fun to share something I had once loved so much with him and to watch him enjoy it as well. We entered his second season determined to build off the fun of his first and with the idea that I would hopefully be able to help out the other coaches a little bit here and there while watching him grow and develop. Little did I know what I was about to sign up for…

We found out about the team my son made and that practices would be beginning soon earlier this spring. It was exciting, however there was one caveat…there were assistant coaches and team helpers, but they still needed a head coach. My work and family schedule told me I didn’t know if I could do it…but my incredibly supportive wife, my baseball background and desire for my son to have a great second year experience told me…you know what you should do…

And so I became Head Coach Finlay for a group of 8-10 year old kids. We’ve had some interesting ups and downs in our first few practices, but I think we’re all learning and having fun. We’ve got some work to do before the games start, but I’m really starting to remember why I used to love spending so many days out on the baseball field. In spite of scheduling pressures, my perfectionist tendencies along with some anxiety I think we’re doing Ok. Our boys are making some progress and seem to be having fun too. And this Head Coach is sure enjoying watching these kids get better and using his fungo bat to hit them ground ball after ground ball. Now we’ll see what happens when that first game arrives and things don’t go as we hoped…but for now it’s great to share the love of this sport with these kids and especially my son, who has also become the best Coach’s helper!

This is learning to Coach…

This is fatherhood…