coaching thought

So the other day I was reading my friends blog about coaching through FCA , or simply put coaching with the idea of God first! So here is what got me thinking and processing: 

"As a coach I have been given an incredible opportunity to live my life in such a way that over the course of a career, hundreds even thousands of people will be impacted personally by ME! This is a tremendous calling, and one that I was not intended to live up to on my own." 

Now I have know for a very long time that coaching is a huge way to impact peoples lives, I had many coaches that have impacted my life in both a positive and negative way. That is one of the reasons I became a coach because of the coaches that I had in my life and the ways that they made me become a better person and helped make me the person that I am today! However I have always just looked at my coaching job as something fun to do and just try to teach my athletes something more than just the sport itself, I want them to gain something from me that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. Now I have no idea what that might be that is most likely different for each athlete. I also know that sometimes I impact some athletes in a negative way - mostly that happens because we don't vibe or I say something to them that they cannot handle. These athletes will always stick with me! 

Since I have become a believer and a follower of Christ I try to treat my coaching style differently and I try to do what I think that Jesus would do in my position. I know that I do not always do this, but I honestly do try. Well then I came across this quote and it kind of blew me away! I guess you could say it had an impact on me. I would like to find some other Godly Coaching quotes that are out there to - so if any of you find some for me send them my way!! Well this quote also got me thinking about how many athletes I have actually been in contact with since I have started coaching back in 2000 - I am not counting kids I coached before then mainly because it was to spread out to try and figure out. I originally came up with about 320 athletes and Yoh said that I way underestimated that, see I didn't count all the track athletes nor did I count the athletes that I worked with during summer conditioning, nor did I count the athletes that I did work with however didn't really coach that team (tricky I know, basically I am saying that I worked with varsity kids but I only assisted that team). So I recalculated the number and the rough figure was over 1,300 athletes!! WHOA! Now I will be honest I am sure that some of those people overlapped since I coached them for multiple seasons and/or years! However the biggest thing is that I need to be doing a better job of how I interact with these athletes. So in the future of my coaching, however long that ends up being I need to do more of what the above quote is saying I need to make sure that I am impacted these athletes in a way that Christ wants me too. I need to understand this opportunity was a gift and utilize it and impact all these athletes in a positive way! 

Well I just wanted to process my thoughts on this quote and let my followers know that I realize that being a coach is a huge responsibility and that I have never taken it lightly and from now on I am plan on doing more than just coaching and praying for my athletes - much more!   

I will leave you with one more quote by Michael Jordan: 

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games, 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Mark in a commercial

okay so I had to brag on my brother. he is the one serving the food for the followers of this blog who do not know what my little brother looks like. Enjoy

Starting the summer off

Well I am officially IN my summertime! As most of you know I decided to spend my summer in Michigan with my best friend on the planet - Melissa Yoh! I do want to say that I have been trying to post for a few days now however her Internet keeps kicking me off - LAME! So I am at panera and I have 30 minutes to use the free Internet here. So here you go. My trip was very successful we (Harley and I) went to Champaign, IL first to see my friend DJ (real name-Alicia/friend from college days) while there we went to a relay for life event, DJ works for the American Cancer Society and she had to do some educational things there at the event. Then the next day we went to church, a restaurant where we ate outside with Harley - she did very well, it was her first time DJ thought maybe it was something that we have done before since she was so good. Then after that we decided to spoil Harley a tad since she had been spending some time in the car with not much space so we took her to a park. This park has a very large paved path and it also has some off the paved path paths - which we did decided to venture to as well. While on the path DJ and I talked about all kinds of things and just enjoyed the weather and the scenery. DJ wanted me to take a few pictures of the nature so that she could load them on her computer and then later use them to look at to do some paintings. She enjoys painting and is getting quite good at it if I do say so myself. So the best part of the walk was during our talk about not so fun to talk about items that involved spiritual warfare and kicking spiritual things out of your house, and deliverance! All really uplifting topics - right? Well maybe once you are finished doing them they are. Well anyways while we were talking about those items out on the path about 8 feet in front of us was a beautiful deer. We immediately turned around - mainly so that Harley would not see it! Then I went up and captured some photos! So below are some of the photos that I took in the park.  (no worries I wont post pictures with every post!)

A bridge in the middle of the meadow

A deer that was like 8 feet in front of us, Harley did not notice (whew!)

Orange daisies - what can I say I LOVE ORANGE

Trees and sidewalk - with a different approach from the photog 

Okay so now that Harley and I are officially in Michigan and enjoying life with Yoh and Mason Thomas I will also give you some details about that. Mostly we have been just hanging out in the apartment and around Ann Arbor. You know typical summer things: staying up late and sleep in, going on walks with the dog, watching a couple of movies, journaling, praying. Yoh and I went out to eat and to a movie the night that she had off. We saw UP it was cute and in 3-D!! It has been kind of gloomy here so far so no pool time has taken place yet - but it will soon - i can feel it. Next week Yoh has 3 days off in a row so we are going to go to Pat Yoh's house and then head to Cedar Point which is an amusement park with at least 17 roller coasters!!! FUN! So I will keep you posted on that for sure! Other than that I am just hanging out with my best friend on the planet and enjoying the face to face time while I can - you know in between her working and sleeping times! :) 

Loose Park Rose Garden

So the other day my friend Lauren Blake went to Loose Park on a "photo" shoot! It was just fun to hang out with someone and take pictures. So we decided to post our top five shots. Hope you enjoy!

Little bud with the end result in background

Petite orange one

Daffy Duck on the waterfall

Yellow Rose

The Perfect Rose

God's Beauty

I love tulips!! This little yello guy is awesome.

More tulips - on this angle I got a tad lower - i like it

Yep the sold sign for my house - it is pure beauty that only God could create.

Thanks for all the prayers over the past 5-6 months, Praise the Lord it sold!!

Whoa an amazing sunset

Tis the season

WARNING: I have no clue why it is underlined nor do I know how to get rid of it!

Most of you know that I coach multiple sports, but this is my favorite season - Softball! I love being outside (even though it has rained more than it has been sunny this year), I love the game intensity, I love the athletes, I love the dirt, the double plays, the several ways to bunt, I love almost all aspects of the game the only thing I do not really like is the COLD weather!
This year the I am the Varsity assistant at BVNW. I am excited about this position, mainly because you get to work with the top team but you still get to coach the younger girls too. We have a great team this year and we should be state contenders this year - that is if we keep our heads in the game and there is little to no girl drama! We have 6 seniors and almost all of them have played at the varsity level all 4 years, 3 are going on to play in college - 1 at Nebraska, 1 at Wisconsin, 1 at Rockhurst! I think as long as we get our hits and runs in the first couple of innings no body will be able to stop us. However it is softball the score can all change with one swing of the bat!
So far we have played 4 games, we have had to postpone 2 games due to the rain. We are 4-0. We have a big game this week against another team in our conference that always gives us a run for our money. Then next Monday (April 20th) we have a super big game we play Blue Valley and they went to state last year and won the conference by 1 game and we got 2nd in the conference! I will most likely post again after that game because I know all of you will be wanting to know how it turned out.

Here are some pictures:

The team

Pregame equipment


Outfield/scoreboard/flag

Catchers view of the game

Michigan Trip Pictures Spring Break 2009

Gabby with her big "I love the camera" smile
Mason Thomas just chill-axing

Yoh doing one of her famous poses for the camera

The sistas getting geared up for the wagon ride

Gabby climbing to the top of the slide at the park

Yoh and her favorite dog Cooper! Yoh is also mid dance

Brynn eating some grub

Brynn getting pushed by her big sister! Amazing facial expression

A goose and 2 ducks on the pond at Yohs apartment complex.
The second duck is the the cattails - can you see her?

Some geese on the pond at Yohs apartment complex



Some of my followers were looking forward to some pictures of Yoh's new place in Michigan. Well I failed to take any, my bad! I will do a better job this summer!