It has definitely been too long since I have blogged, over a month now I think. The reasons are many, the excuses even more, but I am ready to blog again. A special person in my family's life said she misses my blogs so I figured I better get back at it. I am not promising that it will be every day or every week. I don't know how much or how often but I am going to work at doing more writing going forward. I decided that tonight I was going to write regardless because I have some great news to announce. But you will have to read to the bottom to get that. First I must vent a bit. Though what gets published will be the cleaned up, family friendly vision.
As most of my readers know, I coach basketball. I love coaching, I coach all year round basically, be it baseball, football or basketball, with a bit of softball in there too, I have very few weeks where I am not working with one team or another. Coaching is really a passion of mine. Tonight for the first time though I felt almost helpless and almost physically sick to my stomach. I felt embarrassment, I felt failure, but I refuse to let those feelings consume me or even grab hold of me. Tomorrow is a new day and there is another game to prepare for this week. Tonight, frankly we were terrible. I won't go into the details, or the possible reasons for it. There is no room for excuses. But here are the facts: we turned the ball over way too often, we didn't make shots that we should of made, our decision making was terrible, and we didn't do the little things that teams must do to win. So now we are faced with a critical point in the season I feel. The team we face next is a good team and the odds are stacked against us. Does that mean we throw in the towel, just show up, and be content with just playing? I hope not. I hope that the young men come ready to work tomorrow, that they recognize that we are better than what we showed tonight and that us and only us can do anything about it. We need to practice harder! We need to quit making excuses and execute our game plan! We need to dig deep within ourselves and vow to do the little things! We must get better every day! Today's game is over, we must learn from it and move on. I believe that this team has its best days in front of it. One of the things I love about Michigan high school basketball is that when the season is over every team is still alive in the tournament. So our mission has to be that come March when it's district time we must be playing our best basketball. So boys, if you are reading this, let's be ready to go each and every day. Let's do the extra work in the mornings, before and after practice, and whenever and wherever we can to get to that point. It isn't about how you start it is how you finish.
"Natural talent only determines the limits of your potential. Its dedication and disciplining your life that makes you great." - Coach K (@CoachKWisdom)
Okay, now for the big news. Some may have already heard that we got our tentative court date for the adoption, February 3rd. I can't wait for that day when Maddex and Ella will officially and legally join the Koutz family for life. What is really cool too is that Maddex and Ella's older brother and sister are being adopted at the same time by my wife's brother and his wife. All 4 of these special kids will finally be legally and permanently bound to their forever family. It has been a long, hard road for such young children and it hasn't been the easiest for us adults either but oh has it ever been worth it. So on February 3rd around 3 o'clock or so. We will all be crammed into a courtroom (I have a feeling we may learn what it is like to be a sardine) celebrating together as one big family! I can't wait! For my final thought tonight I am going to leave you with a quote that I posted back in October in an earlier blog. It is a summation of my take on adoption and my family.
"Our children are not ours because they share our genes, or because a piece of paper says they are. They are ours because they are a part of our soul. It was not an accident that they came into our lives. It was God's design that led them home. It was Him who placed them in our soul even before they were born."
No comments:
Post a Comment