A New Season

I received an email update today of upcoming Facebook birthdays. On the list are two former players.

Tomorrow I start a brand new basketball season. We'll hand out equipment at 5:00 to a line of players, some confident, some trying to look confident, and we'll hit the court around 5:45. The running will finish around 8:15 or 8:30, and day 1 of many days in the long march to March will be in the books.

On Day 1 and Day 12 and Day 63 of this trek, and every other day as well, I'll encounter a myriad of choices. Do I correct? Do I encourage? Do I demand? Do I shout? I've faced the same choices for my 13 years of coaching high school kids. The faces are different; the opportunities, the same.

After 13 years, here's what I know - I don't vividly remember many of the wins. I try not to vividly remember many of the losses. What I do remember are the kids. And every year a group of kids spend more time with me over the course of 4 months than they do their own parents. I am accountable for that time.

What I have now after a decade and change is not back-slapping and glassy-eyed recollections of game-winning jumpers. Instead I watch as girls from my first two teams in Nebraska get married and have babies of their own. I sit down to dinner with former Nora Springs players. In two weeks I'll go to a wedding. I'll send a note for a couple of birthdays this week.

My coaching career has been on life-support a number of times over the last 13 years. I'm coming off a spring where the prognosis at times was less than 50-50. There's no way to go through that multiple times and not see that wins and losses will fade away. In many ways it's a blessing, as it's forced me to prioritize and be more purposeful about my interactions. I go into this year with eyes wide open, knowing full well what I have to offer, and that I'm not guaranteed any more seasons after this one.

So I'll walk down into the locker room tomorrow night, bag of clothes and notes and X's and O's in hand, and get ready for another season. I'll have conversations and blow a whistle and share a laugh and bark out orders, keeping in mind to keep first things first.

Humbled by this, I ask you to pray for me throughout this season. Whatever the next few months hold, in a decade or so, somebody in the gym tomorrow night is going to think back to their time in a basketball uniform. They will remember something. I hope it's with a smile of gratitude.