One Time at Band Camp

This weekend I spent two days in Miami, Ohio with our basketball squad not knowing what to expect. When you take a group of 14-17 year olds away from the their comfort zones of the high school life, it's like a box of chocolates as Gump would say. For you three clowns that normally read my blogs you all know what it is like to be a coach or part of a team that unites or crumbles because of the differentiating brain cells in the teenage head. Since the common theme of our blogs has been the good old days I have decided to drift off into another area that used to make my high school summers priceless. Summerball!

One thing that I have learned the last 3 years that I have been a head coach is the unbelievable items that I used to take for granted when I was a kid and especially in sports. From football camps in numerous cities in Ohio, to individual camps that you attended where your parents watched you for numerous hours working on a free throw, where did those funds come from and who was involved in getting you to that camp that you looked forward to so much.

This year I did a little different thing at my kids camp. I decided to make sure that our elementary kids gave thanks. I dedicated 20 minutes on the final day of our kids camp so they could sit down and make a "thank you" card to the person that allowed them to attend the event. You had to see the parents and grandparents faces when their little ones delivered those cards and said thanks.

In regards to my camp this weekend in Miami, Ohio I can honestly say that I have never had so much fun at a team camp in my life. As a player and a coach the only time that remotely came as close was watching the time when Brent got slugged in the arm over and over by one of our coaches while playing euchre:) I will say that our coaching staff and our parents didn't receive cards from our players instead we heard non-stop laughter and overheard stories from our players to our parents that seemed could not come fast enough out of their mouths. As I drove out of the parking lot I thought to myself. Did I ever take a second and tell my parents and coaches thanks? Nope I probably didnt, but I bet that when I returned with my stories and laughs no thanks was needed! But maybe a late one wouldn't hurt.