So Proud

by Ryan Krzykowski

We coach young people, spending vast amounts of time and energy with an eye on the future, working to help them become something better than they would have without us.  Often these young people move on from our care, we hope we’ve done right by them, but we never get to see who/what they become.  But sometimes the connection we’ve built allows for an ongoing relationship, and we’re able to stay in touch as the years go by.  We receive calls, texts or emails.  We see family pictures.  We feel the satisfaction of knowing that in some way, however small, we helped that person do something meaningful with his/her life.  It’s a pretty cool feeling.

For those of us who are parents the same opportunity exists, with the intensity of the feelings dialed up to even higher levels. 

Back on January 26, we were blessed to enjoy our son Jack’s wedding.  It was a nearly perfect day, as everyone did a spectacular job.  My wife, Erica, is gifted with planning and making things look beautiful, and this wedding was one of her best efforts ever.  I’m telling you, everything was about as good as anyone could have hoped for.  And just when I was feeling like things couldn’t be any better, our oldest son Robbie stepped up to toast his younger brother.  Robbie is a confident young man, just not a ton of public speaking experience, and so we didn’t quite know what to expect.  I wasn’t worried for him, just curious to see what he’d come up with.  Well…he absolutely crushed it.  He was totally himself — clever, funny, sentimental, and was doing great up there.  And then he said some words I’ll never forget.  He looked at all these people and said, “Most people in the world don’t know my brother, and that’s a shame because they are really missing out.”  Reading those words, they don’t seem quite as profound as they felt in the moment, but the combination of joy and anticipation had me in a place where hearing one of my boys say that about his brother in that setting…it was beyond special.  When Robbie finished and headed back to his seat, I walked over and gave him one of the biggest hugs of my life.  I’ll always have the memory of that speech and that hug, and it provides a powerful reminder of how intensely our God loves us.  And I knew that if I had anything at all to do with helping create that moment, I must have gotten some things right as a Dad.

So here we are in February, the time of year when we open up nominations for Metro KC Coach of the Year.  CFC wants to honor Coaches who are getting things right.  We’re looking for the kind of Coaches who are helping create meaningful moments while making a positive difference in the lives of young people, making our city a better place.

To learn more about CFC’s Metro KC Coach of the Year program and nominate a Coach, visit the link below.

Let’s Coach With Purpose…