In November I started coaching Lexi's volleyball team, girls ages 9-11. I chose to coach only because no one else would step up to the plate. a month and a half later I am so glad I decided to coach. It is really such a rewarding experience, everyone should do it at least once in their lives. In the beginning I had a few eye roller and a few snide comments, but I put the offenders on the bench and that problem was resolved very quickly. All the girls are wonderful and are improving each practice. There self confidence is improving each practice, they are amazing. We do have away games at other bases around Japan. Traveling provides the girls time to bond and really get to know each other. I am also enjoying spending the tiime with Lexi.
Last week we went to Yokoska Naval Base and had a fantastic time, oh and also we won. One of the girls had her book bag taken the last time we were there and it had her DS Nintendo Lite, $40 and her favorite coat in the bag. I left my number with the Youth Services Center in Yokoska and kept making phone calls, but to no avail the bag did not appear. As all of you know I am not one to give up. The parents and player had already given up and resigned themselves to the fact that it was a write off. Last week I checked a few lost and founds and guess what, we scored on the second location. We found the bag with EVERYTHING in it. That was just the beginning of the day, it was followed by a win for our team, some shopping and a relaxing bus ride home. Although the shopping was not that great, because the USS Kittyhawk had just been by and there were a lot of empty shelves.
We needed the win for a moral booster. We won our first game, lost 3 and won our last game. The season will go until January 19th.
Our babysitter, Lauren is my assistant coach, she is a junior and played on the JV team this fall and I have an assistant/assistant coach Karina who played on the varsity team this fall. We usually go to practice early and hit for about 30 minutes, before the girls arrive. it is a lot of fun.
I encourage every one to try coaching a sport.
2 comments:
I am seriously impressed! Very cool, Jacquie!
I wish I was better at volleyball. I tried to help Caiti practice for JV in the backyard and she did a lot of giggling.. :)
That's awesome Jacquie! Seriously girl, don't know how you do it all, you've totally taken Japan by the horns!
Good job Lexi, I was in volleyball when I was younger but was never assertive enough during the games, I like it much better now...
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