Aargh

Today, I...

1. ... was stood up by a parent who was supposed to meet with me at 2pm about his kid. He didn't show up or even call. I cleared my whole planning period for him.

2. ... saw my cell phone for the first time since Sunday afternoon. I didn't even miss it.

3. ... was cursed at by one of my favorite players, who called the make-an-error-run-a-lap activity we were doing, "demeaning and self-serving, because you can't fucking coach."

I really don't know what to do about the latter situation. If the kid would have apologized after practice - he was sauntering around, like he wanted to - then I'd be sure I would have forgiven him. But he didn't. Now I feel like i've got to sit him the next game. I don't want to be the type of coach who sits a player because he says something I don't like, but I also don't want to be the type of coach who lets his players walk all over him. It's a dilemma I wish I wasn't facing right now. It's a dilemma that I want to avoid until tomorrow. Maybe I'll try to go to sleep and head to the gym in the morning, because my stress level feels higher than it has been in a while.

This is driving me to eat Cadbury Eggs in droves.

***

Check that, I do know what to do about the above situation. His ass is not playing Friday.

The thing is, I'm so thin-skinned sometimes that I have a thin skin about being thin-skinned. For the above situation, I thought to myself that benching the kid would make me appear to be thin-skinned, so I shouldn't do it. After thinking about it for a while, I realize that it's not about skin at all, it's about being a team. I don't want him being a jerk to me or anybody else on the team. I don't want younger players learning from him. It's not that I have a thin skin, it's that I don't accept unacceptable behavior.

Coaching is really hard sometimes. I'm a much better teacher than coach. I work my ass off, though, to be a good coach. I'm still learning. There's no student teaching for coaching. I wish there was because then I'd sign up tomorrow.