September 23, 2011
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Field Hockey.
I am currently the Junior Varsity Field Hockey coach for the school I am working at. And so far, I have really fallen in love with the job.
What does this ass know about field hockey, you ask? Well to let you know I played for a whole 3 weeks my freshman year and got pretty damn good. I joined the squad because A). I could, thank you Title IX. B). I thought it was a funny idea. C). I thought I could meet girls this way. And D). I feel I have pretty nice legs and wanted to show them off in green plaid skirt.
I quit the team because I felt like I was stealing a spot on the roster from a girl who really, actually wanted to play the sport. So I did the right thing. But I stuck around. I watched and learned and cheered and eventually landed my first girlfriend too. Then time went on I sometimes forgot about the game and its may rules.
Then towards the end of last year a godsend came upon me. Turns out my school needed a new JV coach. I said I’d do it and no one believed me. I called a meeting, and still no one believed me. I applied for the job and was ignored for most of the summer. I was finally hired and still everyone laughed at the idea. I helped coach the summer league team and the girls scoffed at my pointers. I went to the coaches meeting for the Athletic Department and still no one seemed to believe. I held practice and it was still, “Why is Mr. Connolly here?” But then something funny happened, girls started showing up. And then I was instructing them how to play. And then they were getting a hang of the game. And then they believed me.
I have 14 8th grade, 9th grade and 10th grade girls and one 12th grader. They are a fun, interested, smart and athletic group. They are all willing to try the sport, and are willing to fail at it too.
Most days we practice with the Varsity as well. As the girls are doing their running one of the captains stops dramatically holding her stomach. “Urghh!,” she yells. “Keep running you pansy,” I snap at her. “I can feel my ovaries working!”
That’s when I believed I was the coach…
I’m assuming, as the year progresses I will have more stories to tell. This is a quick one I have to share:
We were talking to the 8th graders about classes next year and what teachers they have. She asked about one teacher and she was a decent teacher or not. I was impressed and pleased that she was taking such an interest in her classwork and education. I told her that the specific teacher she was talking about was in fact a good teacher but she taught US History and not World like she’d be taking. She pauses for a second, looking a little baffled and then looks up and says, “Oh! There’s different kinds of histories?”
