Saturday Notes

Attended a Pop Warner Football Banquet this morning.  Not exactly what I was hoping to do today - it's been a long week and I was really looking forward to sleeping in.  Didn't happen.

The banquet facilities were nice and it was obvious that the group of volunteers had put in a great deal of work in preparation.  There was a video/slide show, and the coaches took time to talk about each player as they were called up to receive their trophy and gift bag.  I didn't feel that any of the boys were short-changed - there was something good said about each of them.

For me, there were three major takeaways from this:

1. The people who help, the coaches, team moms and others are VOLUNTEERS.  They aren't getting paid and they donate more hours than you can imagine to the boys.  They are in it for at least 4 months - that's a long time.  The August schedule alone is brutal:  five days a week for 2 1/2 hours minimum - and that's just counting the practice time.  It's easy to sit back and criticize or say how we would do things differently, but these people actually do it.  And they did it well.
2. I have some friends who think that it is too big of a (time) commitment or even too violent a sport for young boys.  I think they're way off base.  Watching the boys during previous seasons up to this season, you watch a progression, a sense of teamwork and commitment that you don't see much these days from young boys.  They were given goals and they worked towards them and accomplished many of them.  Bottom line:  These boys are better off for the experience, not only from a football perspective, but from a life perspective.  They know first hand that hard work pays off.  
3. Good coaches can make a huge difference in the life of a young boy.  Listening to the head coach and the assistant coaches talk today, I realized how much of a positive impact good coaches can have on someone (this is not gender-specific, but today is about football).  I see  boys who move onto to high school still remember their Pop Warner coaches.  I see boys who have fallen into some sort of trouble - whether it's at home, school or otherwise - and I see these coaches reach out and help.  They call and let them know their team is depending on them and that they need to keep that in mind the next time they're thinking about doing something wrong.  Without the structure of the sport and the coaches, these boys would more than likely would not see the connection and could easily go down the wrong path.  Long story short - the good coaches, the ones who really care about helping boys learn a game and learn some life lessons (not the daddy-ballers), can make a life-long impact on these boys.  It's great to see - and I saw it today.  

We need more of this, not less!

Okay - tomorrow (or even early in the week) I may move back towards humor when I deconstruct Kenny Rogers' old song "The Gambler" and discuss why it may not have been such a good idea to hand out whiskey and cigarettes to a stranger on a train.......