On February 28th I got a phone call from my daughter's high school head softball coach. He was obviously desperate -- and asked if I would be willing, and able, to help coach softball for this season - and, by the way, try-outs started that day. I told him I could do it, and then went to ask our company CEO if we'd be able to work this out. It was only a two and a half month gig, so he said it was OK. I would be working most of the time with the Freshmen / Sophomore team, and then helping with Varsity / JV as much after the younger group as possible.
For the next ~11 weeks I was waking up at 4:30am, skipping my morning workout sessions on the erg, and getting to work early to make sure that I could keep up with my job. I'd then leave early in the afternoon and head to the softball fields to spend a few hours hitting grounders and flyballs, and throwing batting practice to the girls. There were numerous days (game days) where we wouldn't get home until 11:00pm. Those were long days. But they were so much fun! Our Fresh / Soph team went 13-2 on the season! Our Varsity girls went 16-7, finishing 2nd in Region (1-2 in the State Tournament). It was the best season our high school girls have had in numerous years. I was so proud of what those girls accomplished this year.
I was also able to spend a ton of time with my own daughter. Unfortunately, she was not able to play this year, as she is still recovering from an ACL tear (October 2018) and reconstruction surgery (December 2018). She took on the role of team "manager", where she certainly excelled. She scheduled her physical therapy sessions (2 / week) around game days, attended every practice she could helping out the coaches (and participating where she was able), and took control of the scorebook for every game. She learned a whole new side of the game, that should hopefully benefit her in the future when playing. We both had a great season!
My 4:30am alarm is now, once again, the erg alarm. The time away from the erg has already been noticeable, but I'm sure I'll get back to where I was very quickly. When I logged in today and looked at my stats, I was disappointed seeing that I had missed that 1 million meters for the season by such a small margin. But as I reflect on what my time was spent doing over the last couple months, I can't help but smile and wish that my time on the field wasn't over already. Oh well. It will start back up soon enough. Which means only 1 thing: I've got 9 1/2 months to hit 1 million meters before the next softball season starts!
thats very early!!!! 