Do I ever have a story full of
for you'll!
Had five kids show up for practice today. Head coach wasn't there either. Of those that missed, two reported a stomach bug, one had a school event, one is still injured from last week's game, and one might not be playing anymore. Our practice location moved this week because the YMCA is a bunch of dicks, so we now practice on a baseball field. This actually works out pretty well because the fence keeps the parents out of my practice and the field has lights which will come in handy in the next couple weeks. The downside is that we have to share a field with the Tigers on Thursdays. Over the past few weeks, I've started to develop a relationship with the Tigers' head coach, which is helpful because he's a decent coach who also coached last year. He's also a pretty solid guy and has helped me out with getting practice locations and dealing with parents/other coaches. Futhermore, he's an NOC Board member.
At the beginning of "practice", I went to talk to the mother of one of my missing players. Joe was at practice, but Teddy wasn't. Both are adopted, they aren't biological brothers. After speaking with their mom for about 20 minutes, I found out that both Teddy and Joe had been badly abused before being adopted, Teddy was old enough to remember, Joe wasn't. They have very different personalities. Joe took to me almost immediately, but Teddy is very shy and careful, and it takes him a while to warm up to anyone. Teddy had a great practice on Tuesday and I told him he would be starting at QB (he usually plays HB and his brother plays QB, but Joe has been playing around too much at practice for the past few weeks). At the end of practice, Tony, Dave's dad, was getting on the kids about paying attention in practice because we will play more big teams and if they don't practice hard, they might get hurt. This scarred Teddy a bit. He has also been getting bullied at school for the last week or so, but no one found out about it until today. I'm sure this also had a lot to do with his decision. I don't think it's final though, I think it has just been a rough week for him. He's a really good kid, so I hate to see that. I've developed a really good relationship with him and his brother, so regardless if he plays or not, I still hope he comes to games and practices.
Since we only had five players, I did some tackling drills (w/dummies) and blocking drills (one on one). At the last practice, I got the bright idea to send kids that were acting up in practice to go see "Coach" Charlie to do up-downs. Charlie was actually pretty good at being the discipline coach, making them do a fair number of up downs, and it kept him away from my practice. He's also the only coach with a whistle! During blocking drills, Turner, Charlie's son and the biggest kid on the team," was getting dominated by everyone, like he always does. He just doesn't even try. Charlie got super pissed and started yelling and cussing at Turner like he is wont to do. Turner is pretty non responsive, so Charlie grabs Turner by the facemask and starts dragging him towards the 1B dugout (we're in right field at the time, the Tigers are in left). Turner goes limp and starts screaming, so Charlie picks him up off the ground (still by his facemask) as he's still dragging him. This happens a few times before they finally reach the dugout. Not surprised by the events that just took place, I turned my attention back to my four remaining players and our blocking drill, rearranging the players so that they aren't still staring at Turner and Charlie. We finish our drill, do conditioning, and leave.
As I'm leaving the gate, Tigers' coach comes to talk to me about what happened. He asks how often, I tell him this is the first time I've seen the physical stuff, but everything that went with it is an every practice thing. He says he's going to have to report what happened since it was borderline child abuse and Charlie will probably get kicked out of the INFC. I say I'm cool with that (although I am a little disappointed that I finally found a use for him; on the other hand, I don't have to worry about catching a case since he won't be screaming "GET THAT BALL" on the sidelines anymore).
Got a call from another board member (and past president), the same guy that asked me to help coach this team, about the incident. We talked about it for a bit, and he says Charlie will probably get suspended. Then he asks if I would be interested in coaching again next season (he coaches a 1st grade team, so I'm assuming he wants me to help them when they move up). I tell him that I'll graduate this spring and if things go right, I'll be corching high school footbaw this time next year. He says that's great and that he's heard a lot of really good things about me at the NOC. Said he knows pretty much all the high school coaches in the area and I can feel free to use him/NOC as a reference. A nice ending to an eventful day.