Two Extremes

This is always the time of year with a wide variety of emotions for me. There is the sadness of saying goodbye to seniors and yet the excitement of young players with a desire to improve. There is the disappointment of losing extremely good players in the recruiting wars and yet the elation of finding out I will get the opportunity to coach an extremely good player the next 4 years when a recruit says they want to be a Yellow Jacket. There is the joy that comes in a beautiful spring day and the "blahs" that come with more snowflakes! There is the fatigue that comes at the end of a long year as well as the joy of hearing returning players talk about the goals they have for the future. In less than 4 weeks we will be on summer break. Time has flown by once again! The WBCA convention always gets me thinking about the next year and how many things I can teach better, how to build a team better, how to coach better. Still I wonder how will we replace Amanda and Ali and be competitive again next season. It seems like 6 months instead of less than 2 since we practiced and played. I hope our team uses this time wisely and works hard to get better. If our players each get better, with the new players coming in, we have a chance to be very, very good. If our players coast and only do enough to get by, it will be a long season. Unfortunately in Divison 3 I can't do anything but encourage and hope in the off-season! I just hope the sting of a below average year this past season eats at our returning players enough to make them want to make changes!