I had a up-and-down day yesterday. I was feeling bummed about politics and ran into snafus during my work day that dragged me down. All that changed, though, after 5 PM when I took our kids to Hallie’s soccer practice.
After dropping Hallie off at the practice field, Travis and I went over to the basketball court, where I worked with him on shooting. While we were there, a half-dozen boys Travis’s age wandered up and asked if they could join in. These were immigrant kids, poor and mostly Hispanic, and they looked like they could really use a break. After checking with Travis to see how he felt about it, I agreed to let them join in. I then taught them the game of Pig and we all spent the next hour playing it.
Just stepping up and providing some guidance to these kids for an hour was an incredible boost to my mood. They are all obviously good kids who were just looking for something to do. And I was reminded of how much fun it is to coach kids. I’m currently assistant coach to Travis’s basketball team and having a great time with it, but it’s obvious that there are more kids who crave this attention. Yesterday was a reminder to me of how much difference just a little time spent with kids can make in their lives and mine.
I hope they’ll be there during the next soccer practice.
Update 1:45 PM: No sooner had I mentioned this when an email hit my inbox saying the City of Raleigh’s Parks department is in need of baseball coaches at Lake Lynn:
Lake Lynn Community Center is in need of baseball coaches for their Pinto League (Ages 7-8 coach pitch). All games are at Lake Lynn, and they can set you up with a schedule of either Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday (whichever works best for the coach). Practices start the first weekend in April and games start after Easter and go through the first week of June.
If anyone’s interested, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I’ll get you set up.