As my son is a senior, this might be it for me in terms of helping coach the HS team - I expect to be watching Junior on the local D3 diamonds in the area next year, so little time left for the HS team.
I couldn't sleep Sunday night I was so excited about Monday practice. Instead of taking 4 hours of vacation time to get to practice, I took 5, just so I could get there, and still made the 75 mile trip in only 1:15 [speed limit???
]I look forward to Junior at the next level , but at least until he graduates college and I have free spring times again, I will miss it. The guys I coached as freshmen are now seniors - the mainstays of our varsity - I know a lot of you guys are long time HS coaches, but it is gratifying to see how some of these guys have grown up, and are ready to ship off to college - 3-4 of them should even be playing at the next level next year - no superstars, but some talent.
I think I will miss the excitement of getting out on the field with them. I threw about 300 BP pitches Monday and another 300 yesterday, hit about 200 ground balls each day. Coach [his first year] said - "Man, aren't you tired" and yesterday "Man, aren't you sore from throwing yesterday?" Of course my answer to both was "You bet!! It's why they invented Icy Hot!" I have a daughter older than 3 of the coaches, and I'm not even 50 - I asked one of them when he graduated from Penn State [ I was expecting a YEAR for an answer; what I got was MAY [as in May 2005!]]
I think most of all I will miss the excitement of the first day of practice, the first scrimmage [3/20] and the first league game [3/27].