So last month I found myself coaching Will’s YMCA Basketball team. I’m given 8 four year olds, a bag of jerseys, a corner of an elementary school gym, and a list of drills put together by the Y staff. In all my years of coaching, this was right up there with the greatest challenges I’d ever faced. (By the way, coaching Youth Sports absolutely counts as real coaching. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently).
Talk about a communication barrier. These small people and I barely spoke the same language. At the end of one practice, when I asked what we had learned that evening, Emma raised her hand and told the team that she just got a puppy. But I was determined that they were going to learn the game, work together, and enjoy themselves. I’ll spare you all the gory details of our 4-practice/2-game season, but in the end, it was mission accomplished. We got a few stops on defense. We got the ball in the hoop fairly often. We managed to dribble occasionally. The children had fun. I had fun. Will told me that basketball season was the best thing that ever happened in his life. Pretty rewarding. As we left, one of the boys handed me a card. I opened it at home, and it read, “Thank you so much for all of your hard work! We greatly appreciate it. This was Jackson’s first sports and you made a fantastic impact on his life.” Now, who knows what will happen to this little guy in the future? I certainly pray he becomes exactly who God wants him to be, and I know I was blessed by faithfully serving him and his family in a very small way.