Full circle? Not quite but I almost flew off the road!

      Looking back when I was a kid,  I remember how many times  my mother would say “wait until you have kids.” I never gave it another thought as I would say to myself “I am going to let my kids do whatever they want and never punish them…..etc.” She would  tell me that I don’t listen well or I’m not paying attention. I was. Well, I thought I did. With that said, fast forward thirty years.

      How blessed I feel that my oldest son is now coaching his alumni high school Junior Varsity lacrosse team. Truly, this is where he belongs. Mother-of-the-year here had major doubts. Times I would believe he was too quite, non committed in other aspects of his life so how is it that this is a perfect fit!?!  It is a proud mama moment to watch him at practice command attention and instruct his players. 

      A couple of weeks ago as we were driving down to practice together, I looked over to see him look puzzled. Kind of shaking his head in disbelief. As I was driving, I turned to him and asked if he was ok and what was wrong. OK, picture this. I have my hands on the wheel, looking at him and trying to concentrate on the road and cars ahead of me when he turns and says “I don’t get it.” “What don’t you get,” I replied. “How is it that I tell them (his players) what to do, and they don’t listen.” “What??” I nearly ran off the road. “They don’t listen to you?” (Flashbacks here.) He then says, “I know what I am talking about, and they still don’t listen.” 

    OK, are you getting the big picture here? I wanted to scream, “welcome to parenting!,” but I didn’t. I was a supportive mom and let him go on, albeit a bit longer than I thought when I couldn’t resist saying, “you tell them to do something and they don’t do it, and you get upset.” “Hmmmm…you know what you’re doing and they still don’t listen.” “Hmmmm….I feel for ya.” 

      Now, I could not love my son anymore than I do, but he still was not getting the whole parent=coach analogy here, nor did I explain it to him. I just told him to keep doing what he was doing and “mean what you say, say what you mean.” I am thankful that I did not get into a car accident as my head did hurt from swinging back to see his face when he told me, “they just don’t listen!”  Looking up to heaven I said to myself “OK mom, you were right.” 

                     Patrick at his first home game coaching the first ever Junior Varsity game at his old high school. Another proud momma moment.   Ton o’ blessings to ya until next time.

Opposing Parent: “Get Number 1 - push him down!” Me: “But you guys are up 13 - 1?

    As parents, why do you go to your child’s lacrosse (or any other sport for that matter) game? Do you go to support the team, watch your child, socialize with the other parents? For me, it is all of the above. I truly enjoy watching all my children play their respective sports. 

       Yesterday, what I witnessed was appalling.  Please keep in mind that we (meaning the lacrosse team/family) knew that our opponent was going to be difficult to say the least to win. With that said, we just wanted to see a good game. A game that is played with sportsmanship, good passing/catching and excitement! What we got was a mauling from the other team. Do not get me wrong, the team is a good team with the best record but to beat up on us (literally) was uncalled for. 

        We were in trouble  about 4 minutes into the game where we were down 3 - nothing. But that’s ok, we still were encouraging our players to play well and not give up. They were scoring quite quickly and the gap really started to widen.  That’s fine, but, at 13 - 1 and the parents in a frenzy to “whack” our players and score again was a bit much.  I was sitting up on the stands, pretty much by myself (I like to yell - what a shock) when I heard a parent say, “get number one!” “Push him down” “Hey number one stop being a baby and get up!” Ok, that got me aggravated. Our number one player, who that parent was yelling at,  is a freshman playing for the first time on our team. Knowing we are not going to catch up, we are blessed with a coach that believes to put all players in to get the playing time experience.  Then I was walking on the sidelines to hear the coach on the opposing team baiting our defense players. Are you kidding me? Any one that knows me, knew it took all my strength not to go kick that coaches butt and take him out.

      

    This all goes back to my original question. Knowing that your team is going to play a team that will likely beat you, what is your attitude going into watching the game. 

       Not even a week ago, Billy and I, by ourselves went to go see a lacrosse game that was not our team. Why? Because we truly enjoy watching good lacrosse played by good players and watching good coaches. Paid the fee to get in and was certainly not disappointed. Both teams played hard, competitively and was exciting to watch. That is the attitude I had going into yesterday’s game. I just wanted to see good lacrosse. What I got was players that ran up a score/showboated/horrible parent chants and horrible coaching ethics. Come on here people, ESPN was not filming the game, Chazz Woodson was not there recruiting for his team, just play the game.

    I woke up this morning feeling like this blog had to be said. I am embarking on a new blog that will be devoted to lacrosse. I will be interviewing parents/coaches/vendors to get the inside story of what a parent/new player goes through starting out playing this sport. I want to hear what equipment works/what camps work and for that matter doesn’t work to help the player thrive.  Lacrosse here in Florida is still fairly new compared to up north as in New York and Maryland where they have been playing for decades.

      I will never give up this blog as even with all the negativity of yesterdays game - I still walked away feeling positive that our team/families and most important our coaches showed class. That is what is most important here. I am excited to watch my oldest son, Patrick, coach his JV squad in today’s game. There are blessings out there everyday, it’s just up to you to find them. Ton o’ blessings to ya until next time.