Another Trip around the Sun...

I just celebrated my birthday and I always reflect back on the year for various reasons. I look at areas I can improve on, areas I handled really well and to plan for the next year. I do this in all aspects of my life. I try to have "separate lives" but the truth is they always mix together. My lives are:
Hayden and Evan's Dad, Coach White and Greg. You see, There are certain jobs that you don't get to turn off. I tell people the two most scrutinized I know are Pastors and Coaches. I was at dinner a couple nights ago, without any indication that I was a Coach and the young man waiting on us remembered me from 5 years prior as a student. We kinda laughed about it when he walked off but it is overwhelming at times and can feel like a burden instead of a blessing if you let it. (a blog on this later)


What I (We)Did Well
One of the things we try to be in our program is transparent and truthful. Being a Coach is hard. It's not all fun. At least once a year you break hearts and crush dreams if you are coaching on a performance level that makes cuts to rosters. I spoke about this last month and I will a little this month at the USA Clinic  . I'm not trying to "shame" anyone but we have a conversation with every player we cut, if they want to, about why they didn't make the team. We do this because in our opinion they deserve the truth, not just a posted list explanation.
I tried to enjoy more moments of just being Dad because my oldest son is going to College this month.

What I Can Improve On
Coaching your own child is a difficult task. I don't think I handled it the best with Hayden. People ask me the biggest factor to us having early success at West High and I saw Hayden White. People look at him and think "He didn't start. He didn't play much. How is he the factor for your success?" Simple. He kept a lot of circumstances from happening. Hard to complain about playing time when the Coach doesn't start his son. He was a great teammate and is going to be an incredible Coach, if he decides that is what he wants to do.
I assume too much and expect the worst. I have to let it happen first before planning to fix it. I'm a self-professed over thinker. Got to learn to trust more, let things happen and go from there.

This Coming Year
Patience is my "One Word"  for the year. We just graduated 12 Seniors from our program. We will be returning one starter and no one with varsity playing experience. We knew this was coming so we really invested in our JV team and Freshman. This will be a fun but challenging season.

My kids are both at ages that they are going to make mistakes. We talk about results of these decisions and how they can change their futures. If you paid attention to the NFL draft, a tweet from years ago cost a young man millions. Think, Think about the now and the future so you can't blame your past.


I share this with you because we are all fighting the same fights, just different levels. Hopefully this helps someone and we can check back in a year and see how I did.