My Varmint’s softball team, The Poolesville Lightening, is coached by two incredibly strong women, and an equally strong and generous-hearted man. Coach Takisha, Coach Wendy, and her husband, Coach Doug.
Let me paint these personalities for you:
Coach Takisha: Smart, good-humored, athletic, patient.
Coach Wendy: Smart, good-humored, athletic, red-headed (‘nuf said).
Coach Doug: Smart, good-humored, athletic, controlled.
Coach Wendy could not be at practice tonight, so Takisha, Doug, and a stand-in father, Coach Muddy (Don’t ask. It took me three years before I believed it was his name.) took the girls on.
It was when I heard Doug say in an overly sweet voice,
“I want you to try to be aggressive, ok? Please?”
that I knew Wendy had beaten him down before practice! I could just picture the conversation:
Wendy: “Honey, you can’t coach girls like you coach boys! You have to be gentler.”
Doug: “OK.”
Wendy: “I mean it. You have to build their confidence and encourage them differently than you do boys.”
Doug: “OK.”
Wendy: “And don’t yell at them. Girls don’t respond as well as boys do to raised voices.”
Doug: “OK.”
What could I do? Me being me, I couldn’t just let Doug off the hook. I’m a huge subscriber of the idea that no good deed goes unpunished; I had to give him a hard time as he herded the cats…coached the girls.
From the sidelines, I thoroughly enjoyed watching him struggle to keep his calm. I know he must have wanted to revert to his normal ‘guy’ state. You know, the butt-slapping, shoulder-punching, spitting, scratching, booming-voiced, athletic man-state.
But he didn’t.
I continued to heckle him as he plodded through practice-pitching bucket after bucket after bucket of balls. Cackling gleefully, I bellowed to him to quit being so nice! That the girls aren’t made of sugar! That they are tougher with each other on the field than he was.
And you know what he said?
“OK.”
Wendy’s a lucky woman!
….and I’m not sure, but I may be barred from attending practices from now on……
Mama Boe 