Schools have a way of torturing their non-athletic, clumsy, geeky students.  Its called “Gym” and for someone who is non-athletic, clumsy and geeky it was the longest part of my day.   I didn’t particularly care for gym and would come up with any and all excuses to get out of participating.  As I look at my barely used gym membership, I realize that the habit of excuse making has stuck with me since my youth…

I don’t know very much about sports.  What I know about football, I learned at Superbowl Parties.  My in depth knowledge of baseball comes from playing Nintendo Baseball and watching “Major League”.  Thank goodness for “Teenwolf” or I wouldn’t know a thing about Basketball…

With qualifications like these, obviously I would want to coach my department’s co-ed kickball team.  Just hand me a whistle and a clipboard and point me to the field!

Sure enough, I (along with a co-worker) formed my department’s co-ed kickball team and it has been non-stop fun ever since!  Had I known team sports were this much fun, I may have played some in school!

I was kinda nervous at first.  The first challenge I ran into was finding a place for the team to practice.  After searching high and low, we finally settled on the little park across from the office.  The next challenge was figuring out how to actually practice for kickball.  How does one run “drills”?   More Importantly, “How do I look like I know what I am doing?? At least I have a whistle and clipboard”

I tried to apply what I learned from all the great coaches that saw in movies.  I re-watched “Dodgeball” and “A League of Their Own”.  I had to remind myself that we were playing kickball, so throwing wrenches at my players got removed from the skills and drills list (maybe next year).  I applied the coach wisdom I obtained with phrases like “good hustle” and “call it if it comes to you”.  Surprisingly, I feel like a coach!!!

Our first game was last Thursday night.  It was great to see the whole team in action.  We call ourselves the Ballbarianz and we decided to apply some warpaint for the occasion.  By going with the whole “Braveheart” theme, I also wore my kilt (it felt weird because I was told I had to wear underwear). The ref explained the rules (thank goodness) and I learned more about scoring.  We won 7 – 0 and I’m proud they kicked serious ass!

I’m already looking forward to the next game!!!!  I would have never thought that I would have had this much fun.  Competitive sports always seemed silly to me, but I’m hooked!!  I don’t see myself joining a lacrosse team or signing up for rugby anytime soon . Kickball is fast paced enough for me, for now 🙂