The part I strongly dislike

So most of the time I love being able to coach volleyball. The hard part is making the cuts. It's especially hard when I have so many of the girls that I teach try-out. They think I'm awesome in the classroom so they want to be a part of my teams too. It's just hard because I had so many great girls come out this year. I had 34 7th graders come out and 22 8th graders. The average middle school volleyball team has 12-14 players (if I'm that crazy). I've cut those 56 down to 25. Tomorrow I'll cut the rest of the way. The first 6 or 7 stand out above the crowd. I KNOW I want these girls on my team. The other half of the team is up for grabs pretty much.

Two stories for this particular blog entry:

1. I kept a 7th grader through first cuts who most likely won't make the team. I'm teaching her brother this year. The family is just one of those hard-working families that struggle to make ends meet. This particular young lady usually walked around school watching the floor or her feet. She really seemed to lack self-confidence. She worked REALLY hard both days of try-outs. I told Jodi, my assistant coach, that I was going to push her through just to try to give her a confidence boost. Boy did I ever! I saw her Mom in the office one afternoon this week. She stopped me to tell me how much her daughter was talking about volleyball and how excited she was to make it through first cuts. She also shared with me about how her daughter took her saved up birthday money so she could go get a sports bra. She needed one so she wouldn't be bouncing around so much as she practiced. I about fell on the floor while her Mom was sharing this with me. The best part was that mother and daughter had this discussion rather loudly at a store as they were shopping for sports bras. Mom said that some little old lady stopped to offer help. It's a great story. The even better part is that I can see the little bit of confidence in this girl when I see her in the hallways at school. She even makes a point to talk to me just about every morning when she passes me in the hall. I love seeing that in the girl.

2. I did make 8th grade first cuts today. We have had two days of try-outs. These girls have worked hard and gotten better over the past two days. As with every school sport, there is just not enough room for everyone. This one was somewhat tougher because I just like all the girls that tried out. They are great kids with good personalities. They worked hard and improved on everything Jodi and I suggested to them. I did cut from 22 down to 10 today. Here's the scary part...Jodi and I posted the list in the lobby. For now, we take down the net and clean up (the girls will do it once the team is cut). After we get done with this I notice that there's a "mob" of parents and girls standing about 6 feet from the gym doors. It mostly consists of girls that have been cut. Here's my dilemma...they stand between me and my car. I go extra slow in the hopes that they clear out. They WILL NOT LEAVE. I'm trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get home or have to explain to ALL of them why their daughters were cut. So I take the chicken's way out...I go back to my classroom. I piddle around in there and check to see if they've left every few minutes. The janitor questions me about why I haven't left yet. We joke about how I'm going to need security to escort me out of the building. About ten minutes later, they finally get in their cars to leave. I'm still somewhat wary because there are two cars with parents still in the parking lot. I make the mad dash for my car only to have one of the kids in the car yell at me. Fortunately, it was one of the girls that made it through the cuts. I took a deep breath, did a little wave and went home. I survived my first mob scene!