Thursday, April 30, 2009

Can't take many of those days....


Yesterday was a stinkin' long day.. Long in the technical sense as I was up at 5:20 for subbing and didn't end my day until I got home from lacrosse at 10pm. And long in the emotional - I cant take anymore stressful things happening - sense. It was exhausting... I'm exhausted... and I'm back subbing again today when all I really want to do is sleep. I feel like I'm accomplishing Steve's big fear and am a walking zombie today (!), but at least I'm at the high school where I prefer to be and get to see lacrosse girl's all day long. Either way... don't ask me too many hard questions, my brain just can't function to process them today.

Subbing yesterday was the end of my floater sub position at the middle school. A few of the sixth graders who had been annoying every other day were actually calmed down and in good attitudes yesterday. Also, I think their teachers figured out how they needed to separate them for testing rather than leaving all of the talkative ones in the library at once. I was also the queen of card tricks yesterday. I know approximately 3 - 1 is super lame, 2 are decent - but many of the boys in the library were learning and perfecting card tricks which thankfully kept them busy. We've (the other 2 subs and I) have been able to leave early everyday because testing was over and no more students needed supervised and thankfully yesterday I was again able to leave at 1:30 to run home, see Steve, and change for lacrosse before heading to our game.

Meanwhile... during subbing, I was fielding calls and texts from Christy and Leah about our game because poor Nathan (Christy's youngest) was having trouble breathing and they had already been to the ER twice. Leah already was not going to be at our game because she had her last major review class (WOOT!) and couldn't miss it, understandably. So... dilemma. Big game against Cleveland Heights @ Heights. Do I take the girls myself and coach both games? Do we cancel? Does Christy drive up separately just in case Nathan needs to go to the ER again? What to do... What to do...

I ended up taking the girls myself (40 of them) and coaching both games myself. Talk about stressful. If it had been Walsh or Green I wouldn't have been stressed, but naturally it was a big game! Unfortunately both teams ended up losing, JV lost 4-10, Varsity lost 3-12, but did so with grace and integrity. Reffing was fine in the JV game, however the other game was unbelievably aggressive, especially for a JV team. Our girls played their hearts out, did their best, and had a few really nice goals.

Varsity was another story... it was reffing like you wouldn't believe. Amazingly one sided, completely unfair, and this is not coming from a "we lost" perspective. Its coming from a frustrated coach, who can't believe that refs would find it okay to treat a team of girl's that way. Yes we lost, by 9, and I am not at all saying the reffing was the only cause for losing. Heights defense was very good, and they clobbered us. But had it not been for reffing we certainly wouldn't have lost by 9. It was 3-6 at half... it was obviously a close game. We got called for charging when we were out of bounds, got called for charging when we had no visible sight of the goal due to 4 defenders all in shooting space, got a yellow card for "check to the head" when there was no wind up on the check and the stick touched the girls arm, got called offsides and had to turn the ball over when we clearly had 4 back already... just a sad, frustrating situation. Unfortunately I couldn't really say anything to the refs because the calls would have gotten worse. In the end though, I am proud of our girl's. They played intense the entire time, they never gave up or hung their heads, and they never played dirty like the other team did. There's a point where it isn't lacrosse anymore, and its just a graceful style of wrestling.... Dear Refs, I give you 2 red cards.

If that wasn't enough... While frustrated, sad and angry about the game driving home from the bus, I got a call from my good friend Kaitlyn in SC about our friend Andy. Andy's brother passed away unexpectedly yesterday after having fallen from his 4th story (5 floors because the group was recessed) dorm window the night before. It was obviously a freak accident, authorities aren't sure yet how and why he fell. Kaitlyn talked to him yesterday a few hours after his brother died and she said he was simply in shock... as anyone would be. Not that its the same, but when my brother fell off the cliff and broke his back, our entire car ride from NC to OH was shock. Not knowing whether to cry, or be happy that he was at least alive, or what... In any case... please pray for Andy and his family. Eric was the youngest of the 3 brothers, and the family has a tough road ahead of them.

Okay... there's my longest day ever in the last few months. The good part of yesterday? I have an amazing husband who held me when I got home, let me exhale all of my frustrations as he listened patiently, and packed my lunch for me for subbing today. To know that I get to come home to Steve every night will always be a blessing.

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