A Day in the Life of a High School Basketball Coach

It starts with a 7am shooting practice to prepare for the 4:45pm game at another school that afternoon.  His team is sluggish after the weekend tournament; two students are late to practice.  Most of the kids have colds. He sends them off to class after 45 minutes, with one player staying behind to talk to him about a family issue that has arisen.  He will be late for his home room class.

He teaches a full class load, including covering for other colleagues working on other extra curricular activities and eats his lunch at his desk as he organizes the school's home tournament scheduled for next month.  He's been working on the tournament since last May.  

That tournament is one of two this season that are out of town and requires him to book rental vans, and hotel rooms on his credit card and arrange for another chaperone to attend.  The board of education insists he fill out a package of forms that is over 12 pages long for those tournaments.  It doesn't matter if you are taking students to Oslo or Orillia, it's the same number of forms.   His team will play close to forty games this year, requiring two hours of practice a day, five days a week, to prepare and four to six tournament weekends.  You can't be competitive at this level without that minimum time commitment.

The phone rings.  It is one of the parents of a player on his team.  Dad wants to know why his son is not playing as much as the other players.  The parent is angry and he needs to explain that he is teaching the merits of hard work and discipline.  He suggests the parent speak to his son about his effort.  He hangs up realizing the parent is still angry and he is late for fourth period.

After the bell rings and before he leaves for the game, the Vice Principal stops by. The Vice Principal wonders if he could speak to a player about an incident in math class. The math teacher is having difficulty with the class and the Vice Principal would like the student to be a leader in the class.  He promises the Vice Principal he will.

He will, against the advice of his union, drive students to the game this afternoon in order to save money.  He will use his car, his gas.  One player has forgotten his away uniform but he always packs a spare one in the ball bag.  During the warm up, one of the students from the other school takes one of his basketballs.  He has to follow the student down the hall to retrieve it.  The referees are late.  As a result he will miss his own kids' bedtime.  

The game will end at 6:30 and he will drive two or three players home who do not have rides.  One young man needs to be dropped at work.  He obliges, recognizes the student hasn't had dinner and gives the student a few dollars so he can eat.

That night, after he has tried to spend a moment or two with his wife and having looked in on his own sleeping children, he lies in bed thinking about the team.  He thinks he could have been better.  He thinks he made some mistakes, he feels badly about the parent phone call.  He feels badly that not everyone can play.

He rolls over and questions why he does this, season after season, year after year.  He thinks of the players and their improvement.  He thinks of the bonds that have formed, the struggles faced, the love that has been shared.  He thinks about the opposing coach and takes comfort in their effort as much as his.  Those coaches become his life long friends.

He thinks about the sacrifices that so many teachers make for the "extra" curricular at the school; how kind and considerate and how hard working each is and he thinks most particularly about the fine men and women he has coached and is thankful for each one of them.

He's ready to do it again tomorrow.