Bye Week
It's funny how, in this journey of life, even though we may begin at different times and places, our paths cross with others so that we may share our love, compassion, observations, and hope Steve Maraboli
This week was an interesting week for me. I hope that we never have to experience part of it again. Our athletes had to write final exams. Usually these exams are written in December when there are no matches scheduled. They have the opportunity to focus primarily on the school end of being a student athlete. Because of our 45 day strike the athletes had to write exams at the end of January. To compound this the school puts tables in our gym to facilitate the finals. Therefore we had no practice time last week. We did get 1.5 hours at a local high school through the kindness of their PE staff. Then to throw more fuel to the fire we are hiring a new women’s bball coach and all if the coaches are on the committee. Our days were very busy as it was, now we have just a couple things more to do. Luckily for us it was a bye week.
As the week progressed I found myself very irritable and quick tempered. During our practice I planned a 2 on 2 tourney. This allowed me to watch and the athletes to compete. Most of the athletes still had 1 or 2 exams left and were feeling emotionally tired. We knew that we would have a tough time trying to introduce anything new. I was still really disappointed with our weekend against TRU. I just couldn’t shake it. Normally we would begin on Monday to get ready for the next match and not have as much time to dwell. It is funny how quickly we can allow our own critic in our head take over.
I had made plans earlier in the month to go and watch a potential Junior college transfer play in Edmonton. This also gave me a chance to go home a visit my mother and family. I find getting to see them is very refreshing for me. Then I also found out that the Alberta Volleyball had scheduled a coaching symposium the same weekend. This coincided with U of Alberta and U of Calgary’s matches in Edmonton. Which meant old friends would be around.
Friday I flew in and again was delayed, after our 9 hour delay last weekend a 1 hour delay is a holiday. Wow I was not a happy guy when I arrived in Edmonton, my critic was going crazy in my head. I had a chance to spend 3 hours with my mom and just catch up on what the rest of the extended family is doing, and to just relax with her. My whole life my Mom has been a big supporter of me and my pursuit in sports. She tries to follow the team and knows a lot about them. She grew up in a large family in Saskatchewan and played a lot of sports. This weekend she was telling me about her women’s hockey team she played on in high school. How she wasn’t a great skater but was able to play because they needed numbers. But they had a couple of strong players so they won a lot. If you ever wonder where my competitive streak comes from meet my mom.
Friday night I went to watch NAIT and Med Hat College battle it out. Then stayed to watch the men’s match. A real good friend of mine Simon Fedun coaches the men’s team, plus one of my closest friend Roger Redman’s son Ethan plays for Simon. During Ethan’s recruiting period I found it totally unbelievable that Roger and Simon had never met until Simon started recruiting Ethan. I had fun with the two of them during this process. Ethan is a first year player so I expected to only watch him during the hitting warm-up but late in a set he was sub in to the middle. I found it suddenly surreal watching Ethan play college volleyball. Roger and I coached provincial team for Alberta together for 3 years. Ethan would always come to the gym. Roger would push two hockey nets together and Ethan would play in there during practice. This protected him from random volleyballs and it also contained him to an area so we wouldn’t have to look for him constantly. One day Ethan was playing on the stage at the gym, and he started crying. "Daddy, why aren't they saying up when then dig the ball" Here is this 3 year old coaching form the stage. Watching him play seemed like it was meant to be. All those hours trapped in the net paid off.
After the match we went for supper, Roger, Simon, Arch Beck, and a lot of officials. It turns out there was an officials evaluation conference going on at the same time, so officials from all over Canada were there, so I was able to see all of them at once. When you’re one of the few coaches at a table surrounded by a group of officials, get ready to feel some heat. It doesn’t help that sometimes I might be a bit vocal towards officials. I learned a long time ago that officials are trying their best and they aren’t out to punish you. During a match they hold our teams accountable, and sometimes we have to hold them accountable for decision. No matter how the match turns out the discrepancy stays on the court. The handshake we do after the match between myself and the officials in always genuine. I do appreciate their effort and respect the level of officiating they need to have achieved to be able to officiate at university level.
Saturday I went to St. Albert to watch Roger’s daughter play in a u-16 tourney. I wasn’t going there to recruit, I was going purely to watch Janai play. It turned out the matches were being played in my old high school. Driving in to the parking lot brought back a ton of memories. The funny part of myself being a university volleyball coach is that I never played volleyball in high school. Most of my old high school friends are dumbfounded to how I ended up with a full time coaching position. To be honest, after last weekend so am I. I really enjoyed watching the match. I found it really funny to sit in the stands and watch the game with the parents as Roger was coaching on the bench. I was texting him the parents suggestions, but more just to see if he would check his phone. I was looking for some ammo for the evening when we would go watch the university matches together. My relationship with Roger is a lot of teasing each other and setting each other up like that. Considering how we met it only makes sense. Roger and I were in a volleyball skills class at university. We had never really talked at all in the class. I was playing Junior B hockey and we had a bench clearing brawl against Leduc. That means everyone leaves their benches to fight. Because we were travelling we had less players than Leduc.(If John and Dan Stankey reads this blog, you did start this. Look where it brought me.)
I ended up fighting two guys at once.(normally when I tell the story it is four, but since it is a respectable blog I shouldn’t exaggerate) Needless to say I won the fight, but my face lost. The next day we had a written exam in class. I had to ice my face on the way to school so my eyes would open enough to see out of them. When the teacher walked into the class she saw my face and asked. “what happened to your face” before I could answer Roger stood up and said” If you ever bring my sister home that late again I will break your legs”. A couple years later I was a groomsman at his wedding.
At the university match I was able to run into a bunch of people that I knew but more important a group of us that had coached together to a Western Canadian Championship. Pat Mcfeely, Roger Redman, Aaron Heineman, Ian Kulmatycki and myself. We were all very young coaches when this happened 18 years ago. As we watched the match we reminisced about that summer and other summers we had together. It made me realise all the work we had put in to get to where I am now. Ian wasn't there so we took a photo and sent it to him. I discovered that a lot of what I do is because of those guys. We laughed and laughed. Another friend Bob Gabruck, who is the real reason I am coaching volleyball. Bob is from Killam and one day asked me to come with his new club team to a tourney in Rocky Mountain House. Since Bob had defeated me in school league, I thought this would be a great learning experience. The rest is history.
Running into those guys couldn’t have come at a better time for me mentally. When your involved in the day to day grind sometimes a person can lose track of how great an opportunity they have. Also I had a chance to tell stories about our team and realize again what a great group we have. In 18 years they won’t be talking about the x and 0’s it will be about all the other stuff. Just like we did during the match. The other thing that is important to note here. When you win something big together you are bonded for life. That Western Canadian Championship was the first big one and as coaches we are all connected. Now to get this team to experience a big win together.
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