Old Weakness Comes on Strong!

This past Thursday, I left Decatur at 7:40AM and traveled 2-hours & 20-minutes to the Columbia Holiday Tournament in Columbia, Illinois. My son, Steve's Dupo team was playing at 10:00AM. Steve had decided last year to leave high school coaching after 31-years and assist at Lewis & Clark JC. A good friend, who is an administrator at Dupo high school called Steve to ask if Steve could step into Dupo's head basketball position one week before the start of the season when their coach suddenly resigned. Dupo is young, inexperienced...that's right, they are 0-12. Recalling thirty-seven seasons at the helm, myself, I have been on mountain tops and in deep valleys. I showed up last Thursday to support a group struggling in a valley.

As I left the gymnasium, I was stopped by an old timer from the Metro-East area. He had followed my teams back in the day and simply wanted to say hello; well, he did have a question: "Coach Roustio, he began, "do you miss coaching?" I gave my pat answer, which always seems to suffice: "I don't miss those school bus rides in cold weather and those Holiday practices."

During my return trip home, I re-visited that question: "Do you miss coaching?" First, let me say, I've been off that coaching bench since 2001, which is sixteen seasons. I shall be honest...I miss having a team. I miss the challenge of bringing teen boys together from different persuasions, cultures and ethic experiences and meshing their passions and skills into a team commitment. I miss the coaching fraternity. I miss preparation-practices. I miss the challenge of  helping parents and fans to understand perspectives.

True...I don't miss bus rides in this bitter cold and another thing I don't miss is waking up at 2:30 AM after playing and immediately trying to recall, 'did we win or lose?' I hated that; especially if we had lost!

So...there you have it...I miss coaching much more than I wish to admit...and I surely wish I could do it all over again. You know what?... I need to stay away from those gymnasiums.
(Touch)Love of the Game