Two Things I Never Expected to Happen

Good grief, someone's read what I've written.

I started this web log mostly as a repository for the thoughts I have but didn't have anywhere to place. Sort of like a very public journal. I never really expected anyone to read what I write -- if this becomes a trend, I may have to actually start researching in more detail some of the positions I take on here. My last post is a good example: in the comments to my last post, you can see that Joe Shaw made the post I linked to as a joke. I like to think my point about the attitude in the community still stands, though I'm obviously mistaken about this specific instance. I apologize.

(as an aside: I'm hardly an expert on Open Source, either. My connection to KDE is the same one I have to Windows, in that I use it just about every day. I like to think that this affords a unique perspective, since most of the news I follow seems to come from developers. Still, I think it's important to see my opinions in that context.)

The other thing I never expected is the winning streak I've been on. The basketball team I coach, the Edge, is on a winning streak and that's a very strange place to be. This is my second season coaching youth girls basketball (third, if you count spring league last year) and the reversal of fortunes has been dramatic.

I began coaching last year because the C level team didn't have anyone to coach it. Parents usually don't like taking the role. They often don't know much about basketball or coaching and if they do, they often don't fancy the time commitment. Typically however, if someone steps up and offers to be head coach, a parent will volunteer to be assistant coach. And so it happened; we actually had three coaches that year. And we lost every game but one.

Part of the problem was inexperience. Most of our team hadn't played basketball before. Another problem was sheer desire. Teams that win are often teams that want to win: the teams that run hard, that box out, that give their all out on the court. We had our most success when girls gave second or third efforts, but it was hard to get that kind of thing going team-wide. Of course, my inexperience probably contributed to the problem, in that I didn't know how to fire the team up.

This year though, things have been different. Whereas last year I focused more on individual skills that the girls lacked due to inexperience (shooting, dribbling and passing), this year I'm coaching the B-level squad. The main difference is that I've been able to focus more on the team than the players: running things like an offensive framework, a couple of defenses and getting the two lines to gel together. And it's been great to see, as a coach. Not just the winning, which is a nice change of pace but ultimately secondary to seeing the team improve. And not just improving, but improving in the exact areas I've been coaching them in and seeing that translate to success in games. That's the kind of thing that gets you excited as a coach, and is why I continue to do it.

We're looking to move up from B3 to B2 after Christmas, and I think we can be successful in that caliber of ball. Good grief! Who knew I'd be saying that, back when the season started in September?