As a boy involved in sports, there is only one person you respect more than your coach, your father. I had the privilege of respecting both at the same time. When I first began playing Lacrosse I was in the 5th grade. My father was my mentor, and he taught me everything I know about the game of Lacrosse. Due to his collegiate-level experience playing the game, and his overall love for the game and the community, he volunteered to become the coach of the team.
My first year I was not good at my father’s game. It took me a while to learn the basics of catching, throwing, shooting, and cradling. My father valued the integrity of competition so he played his best players. I was on the third middie line along with the future captain of the West Milford High School Lacrosse team. That year I learned the game through a man that was both my father, and my coach. The next year I took what I had learned and applied it to a new position. I broke out with incredible stats; I no longer played middie, as I had moved to attack. Still my father coached and I had played as hard as I could for him.
When you have a coach that is also your father, you don’t see him as your father on the field. He is your coach, and no matter what kind of relationship you have with your father, on that field all there is, is trust and responsibility. My father trusted me to score goals, and to assist my teammates in scoring goals. He treated me no different than the others, he made me run when I got out of line, and he gave me praise when I had done something good. As I grew older, I could see the parents of my teammates trust my father with the instruction of their kids. It seemed like our 8th grade season was a run at a state championship title. The parents came to every game, to watch us play, and to watch us win.
The one thing that is most important about my father’s coaching style is that he uses discipline. If we were practicing sloppy, we would run, and it would work. I had always respected whatever punishment we were given for our wrongdoings. I guess you could say that my father was a great lacrosse coach, but he did far more than teach me the ways of lacrosse. He taught me the lessons of life. He taught me that there is no special treatment in the world. That no matter how well you know your superior, you are still to respect and obey them. Lastly he taught me that if you have your heart in something, and you absolutely are determined to achieve that end, then there is nothing that can stop you.
