How did I get here?

My coaching journey is quite circuitous. Everything I have done has guided me in what I do now when I am coaching. I played sport activities ever since I can remember. I learned to throw from Dad, kick a ball - drop kick style, from Mom. Running was my usual speed. Putting a ball in a basket - who knows, but I recall some very raucous games in 5th grade. Recess was for playing - tetherball, four square, kickball, volleyball, softball. Then in 5th grade, we started participating in after-school sports. Volunteers were coaches, then as I got older, it was the P.E. teachers, coaching the girls after school. I had tennis from the rec department program, trampoline from the rec department program and even dabbled in trampoline at the YMCA, just to be certain (can't do a back flip, oh well, next) and didn't have any kind of formal sports activity and practice and try-outs until I got to high school. Tennis, basketball, volleyball and softball filled my school year. All the while learning and soaking up what the coach was saying, doing and asking of the team - of me. My first year in college brought more of the same - volleyball, basketball and softball (now we only had 3 seasons). I still played plenty of tennis, but not in a team environment. I enjoyed every minute of my intercollegiate career.

My degree in hand, (Human Performance, a fancy name for P.E.)  I set out to find a job in what my parents called "the real world". Retail led to office management - that led to electronics which led back to office management - and then on to programs coordinator and the to the golf profession. I knew I wanted to teach, but teaching in a school system was not my idea of teaching sports. So when I discovered that I could teach golf, and use my other business skills to get me in the door, I signed up. One day I was on the range, giving golf lessons, when a golf pro I knew askesd if I knew anyone who would like to coach a girls high school golf team. I told her I would give it some thought. Then I wondered why I couldn't do that? I had the time, I knew the game and the mechanics to help the girls learn. So I asked her if I could learn more about the gig.
We talked, I made a phone call, went for an interview and tada, I was a high school coach and happy to say, still am a high school coach. For 12 seasons, I have been "learning" how to put the team together, keep them together and go through the ups and downs with them. And hopefully I am "paying forward" to the athletes, whom I hope will coach when they get the opportunity. I know that "paying it back" to the women and men who coached me is one of the reasons I jumped in to coaching.

At the beginning, I had to get used to the rules at the school, pink slips for each match, uniforms had to match school guidelines, finding transportation (we now have a bus), learning to make cuts (that is my least favorite day), and staying inside a budget. Sometimes the rules change, and I learned those too. But ALWAYS, it has been about the girls. They are student athletes! I am more interested in their grades being maintained, and will go the the mat for them when a teacher wants to penalize them for missing a class for a match or tournament, mostly we like to be proactive and have them let their teachers know in advance when they will miss class, and what they have for homework so they can stay caught up. They know I have got their back, on the golf course and in the classroom.

I feel that the first thing a coach and team have to know is that the coach is going to call out the best in each player, and that the coach will give her best to them. We call it our honor code. I will be doing a new one with the team come August. The code is the basis for what we will accomplish, together, no excuses. I didn't have one in the early days. I was still trolling the hallways for a few kids that could give the ball a whack. Things have changed - great young players are now enrolling in our school. They are probably on many campuses that don't even have a girls program, and so play on the boys team in the spring. The code is just a way of making a team coalesce, and to me that is the beginning.

That is the condensed version of how I got to where I am today. As I go through my journey, I know that it is not my destination, but rather my destiny, to be able to coach in such a rich and rewarding environment. May you find your passion in working with others to bring out the best in them. What do you do? Can you coach others in that field? Do you work with teams? What would you like to share, or learn?