The other day someone asked me what my hobbies were. I thought about it for a minute. I like to ski, but generally do it less than once a year. I play basketball some mornings with only slightly greater success than I used to find in my attempts at the running man. I enjoy reading, but generally only read for pleasure on my once quarterly business trips. I used to golf, but I’ve played exactly one round in the last 7 years. Then it hit me. My kids are my hobby! I read to them. I camp with them. I swim with them. I love them!!! And there is one thing I do with my kids that definitely qualifies as a hobby: I coach them. ☺
I think I’ve blogged before about my passion for coaching. I’ve coached Taylor and Parker in basketball for 5 or 6 years now. I’ve been the coach for Parker’s baseball team for 3 years running. I never played much myself, but I love kids and I love the opportunity to coach them and teach them. And, if I do say so myself, I’ve been reasonably successful. Taylor’s 4th grade basketball team went 8-3 this year. In the three years I’ve coached Parker’s baseball teams, we’ve won 1st place once and 3rd place twice.
This year was very special. It was the first time in years that I was able to coach Taylor in baseball. This worked because the two boys are only 16 months apart, and were able to be on the same team. We took third place in our league, and I was able to be one of the coaches on the league all-star team. Taylor and Parker both played on the all-star team as well. Taylor plays first and center field. Parker plays third and second. It was a wonderful and blessed experience to share this with my boys this year.
I also coached Xander’s 5- and 6-year-old team this year.
Man, you forget how clueless they are at that age!!! And Xander is on a completely different level of clueless from everyone else. He did have more exuberance for the game than any of his teammates, however. Jesi even played in one game that Xander had to miss:)
I need to pause for a minute and say thanks to the rest of the family for the sacrifices they make so that I can coach the boys. Christi obviously bears the burden of being at home with the other kids while I’m at practices. Graci often babysits the younger kids when there are games. (Graci could come and watch, but she is NOT a sports fan and would much rather stay home as the babysitter than have to die of boredom at a baseball game.) Jesi and Xander like to come once the weather warms up. And they’re cute little fans. Tonight Jesi called out to me on the sideline and said: “Daddy, I’m cheering for YOUR team!” Thanks, Jess.
Anyway, our all-star team did very well this year. We went 6-4 overall. We were in three tournaments and won one of them (the district tournament), which qualified us for the state tournament. We won our first game at the state tourney, and then lost two in a row to finish our season. I’m very proud of how well the boys have taken the defeat. They were very teary-eyed at first, but have already been able to look at the bigger picture and see how much success we had this year. Sports can be tough on kids, but I believe there are some great life-lessons taught.
At the beginning of the second all-star tournament, I decided to put my support for our team on public display:
In case you can’t tell, I got a regular haircut, but had the stylist leave the H at “pre-cut” length. Then she put peroxide on it and I became a bleach-blonde for the first (but hopefully not the last!) time in my life. I had it like that for 12 days. That includes 6 work days and twice at church. I’m usually a rather clean cut guy, so I got some rather surprised reactions. Since our season is now done, I had Christi shave it off tonight. Jessica started crying when she saw it was gone. Her prayer tonight started off like this: “Dear Heavenly Father, please, please help Daddy to get a new baseball team so he can have his haircut back and be so so handsome again!” ☺
So, H stands for Herriman (as in all-stars). H stands for hobbies. But most of all, H stands for happiness. I am a happy man. I thank my Father in Heaven frequently for how blessed I am. I have a GREAT family!
Jer
