As you read this, we are finishing up the winter sports season and embarking on the spring season. In reflecting back to last August, who would have thought we would be able to see these seasons fulfilled! Congratulations to all the coaches, administrators, and especially the student-athletes that have made all this possible.
We now look to the final months of the school year and hopefully for a complete spring sports season. Here in North Central Montana, “spring” was hard to imagine as little as a few weeks ago as we endured heavy snows and temperatures down to -40! Now, the snows are slowly melting, the temperatures are moderating, and the days are getting progressively longer. While still several weeks away for many of us, it won’t be long before we start to see green grass, leaves on trees, a multitude of flowers, and fragrant lilacs. Newborn livestock will gain steady legs. Ducks, geese, and other birds in the Central Flyway will indicate spring with their annual migration. Songbirds will welcome the morning. The promises of the Easter season are also upon us.
In this past year of uncertainty, it has become easy to be overwhelmed. As teachers and coaches, we find ways to manage these uncertainties to keep our sanity! To help cope, we need to look for those things in our life that we can be thankful for. As for me, I’m thankful for the ability to work in community and school system that values children and their development. I’m thankful for my peers and fellow coaches. I’m thankful for my family and for their health. I’m especially thankful for grace in my life.
As coaches, we expect our student-athletes to set goals through self-reflection. I encourage you to reflect as well since spring is a time of rebirth and growth. Growth is the evidence of “life”. Growth occurs not just with the things we see in the natural world around us, but in our own personal lives as well. As we enter this season of spring, what is an area of growth you want to see in your life and in the student-athletes you coach? How can you challenge your student-athletes to become better citizens? How can you challenge yourself to become a better coach and person? What changes are you willing to undertake? How can you exhibit to others that the “visible growth” of spring is evidenced in your “life”?
Thank you for all that you do in the development of others in education-based athletics. You are more important than you realize. Have a great spring!
Jim Carroll,
MCA Class B Representative