Pulling a Teddy

I want to tread carefully here and take this from a very shallow angle.  I am a big Boston Red Sox fan and to say that this year has been trying is a gross understatement.  I don't need to dive into the details of what transpired out there but I'll bring that overall feeling of frustration and "rudderless ship" this direction and use it as the main point of this post.

As a coach you can face some rather trying times.  Some times the season just doesn't unfold the way you'd hoped.  Some times the plans you drew up go up in flames.  Some times "that guy/girl" who walked into your office as a senior in high school and seemed to be the answer to all your issues turns out to be less of an answer and more of a question.  

Some times life deals you really difficult cards to play.  

So what are you going to do?  Fold and walk away - i.e. quit - or bluff like you've got the "nuts" - the best hand at the table - or are you going to follow in the foot steps of Teddy Roosevelt who said, "Do what you can with what you have where you are."

I am not a baseball coach nor a professional coach so I tread carefully when I say the following:  It really looked like - from the outside - that the former manager for the Red Sox laid the blame for a sub par season at the feet of everyone else but him.

Let's get something straight.  There are coaches who persevere through the worst conditions without so much as a blemish and to them I stand in awe.  I am not one of those coaches.  I will on occasion turn into that 6 year old immature brat and scream and stamp my feet and say, "it's not me, it's you!"

And that's not right.  In my opinion it's the job of the coach, my job, to keep the level head and lead the team and pull a Teddy.  You keep things together even when it seems like life is sticking it to you every way it can.  You have to be that beacon of light in the dark because you have the experience and foresight to steer your team through the rough seas.  

This season has been trying at times.  What I had anticipated on paper is not what I have in practice.  And while that's not ideal, it is what it is and I have to work with that.  I don't have to be ok with it but I cannot sit in the office and lament not having persons A - E.  

Yesterday while talking with my team captain - in my opinion, a position that is vastly underrated - I realized that as I was outlining where the team was and where we'd go from here, that if I don't believe in what I'm saying, it's apparent.  And if I don't believe in it, they won't believe in it.  

I think that we've got a very talented, very raw but potentially dangerous crew.  More than that, I believe in the athletes on this team.  But, as I was reading about the fall out of this season in Boston, I began to realize that that feeling and belief doesn't always come across well if at all.  I tend to try and run the middle of the road in terms of emotions because I know that I can go through some pretty wild mood swings in regards to results and practices.  I try to never get too high and I try to never get too low.  But in the process of trying to become that steadying influence, I've swung too far and am now struggling to get back.  The excitement and care for the team is something that I can get across in a 1 on 1 meeting is something that I must get across to the team.

I look at Boston and see a train wreck of a season and see something that I believe could have been prevented had certain steps been taken by the coach.  The same should be said for me.  The athletes believe in the training and the plans but do they believe in me?  And if they don't, if they can't find something to identify with in me, then others will be waking up and reading about me and a lost season.