Freedom!

I finally made it to a high school meet to support my girls from the past 3 years. It's funny how quickly my schedule got busy and absorbed all the time I would have been spending at the pool. Yesterday I showed up at the beginning of diving, and ended up announcing. With all the meets I've gone to through the years, I have never announced. It was fun. Today I'll stop by to see their last 3 dives during finals... and then I get to leave! I don't miss the day-to-day work at all, but it is fun to see how much they've progressed.

Why isn't it my real job?

Coaching. Two developments this week.

1) They hired someone to fill my position as the girls' high school coach. She is extremely good, with lots of experience. I am gleefully handing over my meet records, e-mail addresses, etc., and am planning what I will do with my empty month of August...

2) Tonight was the start of the summer diving season. There was a five week spring session that was a bit of a challenge... lots of kids, teaching at the same time, no competitions for them. It was a bit rough. After a week off, I was dreading going back into the pool tonight. However... it was the best night ever! I took the beginner group, and coached 7 kids with little to no diving experience. However, they were brave and coordinated. It's great when a six-year-old starts the practice crying (shy and nervous) and finishes with a huge smile on his face despite the welt on his back from smacking on a front flip.

So... I had so much fun. I need to find that fun for the last five days of teaching with my students. (Yes, five. Those snow days came back to haunt me.)

Closure

I knew in August that this would be my last year to coach high school. I told myself that I'd write the resignation before the season started, to make sure I did it. As usual, the plans did not work out, and I sat down to write it last night, the day before I was to tell my team. I still knew it was time.

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December 2, 2007

Ladies,

I had to get you all together today to let everyone know at the same time that I am not coming back as your high school coach next year. It has been a really hard decision for me to make, but I always knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay the high school coach forever. Over the course of this season, I realized that coaching and teaching were just too much for me to handle. I tried to put 100% of myself into both jobs, and ended up crabby, overwhelmed, exhausted, and grumpy at both jobs and at home. While I may have been a decent coach and teacher, I was a terrible daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and wife. Those roles are incredibly important to me. After working a 70+ hour workweek, I couldn’t do much on Sundays but lay on the couch, regardless of how much I enjoyed coaching or teaching over the past week. I would go a week without talking to my parents, didn’t see any of my nephew’s football games, lived in a dirty house for three months… you get the picture.

I am not leaving because of any problems with Coach Brunty. Regardless of any differences of opinion I’ve had with him, I think he sincerely wants you to do well and is supportive of diving. We have talked about his need to improve on communicating, and it is something he has worked on all season. We all have to remember that communication is a two-way street, and need to be sure we are trying to improve at the same time that he is.

It may be hard to understand, but you will still see me at the pool. I will be coaching middle school, spring clinic and summer WISC diving at Saline. I am even planning on starting some sessions up at the high school next fall. The difference between this and high school is the intensity. Coaching for six hours a week in a lesson format without any competitions is a lot different than coaching 14 hours with a long meet or two each week. I love coaching, but teaching is my career, where I will be putting my time and energy for the rest of my professional life. Teaching is where I am meant to be.

The past three years have been wonderful. It has been great to have such a strong group of girls to coach and mentor. Like I said, I will be around the pool and coaching, and I would love to have you diving with me at any of those times. You can bet that I will be around to see how you do next year, and if you need anything, you know how to reach me. Luckily, the team has grown into a very strong program, and Coach Brunty should have no trouble finding a good coach who would love to take it over. If you are lucky, you can even practice from 3:00-5:00 and NOT practice mornings. :)

With love,
Lindsay

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There were a few tears, and I've gotten some e-mails from the girls already tonight. But I am in a very good place with this decision.

pro·cras·ti·na·tion

Procrastination is the deferment or avoidance of an action or task to a later time. For the person procrastinating this may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of productivity, the creation of crisis, and the chagrin of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments.

transitive verb : to put off intentionally and habitually

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Coaching has started again. It is a fun session, with plenty of coaches and a reasonable number of kids. It also means that when I get home at 8:00, I am dead on the couch. I would have posted sooner, but there was absolutely nothing of any value to say.

After 2 1/2 weeks of coaching, I have piles and piles of papers to grade. I am going to head off to do some tonight, but I spend every evening thinking about the things I have to do without doing them.

OH! I remember what I was going to say! A friend of mine had tickets to the Norah Jones concert here Friday night. She gave them to me as she had something come up. They are front row tickets. Yahoo!!! Of course, I can't keep a secret worth anything. I had hoped to just bring Dave there on Friday, but within half an hour I was jumping around with the news.