On One of These Things Is Not Like The Others

It's time now for a brief departure from my overriding blog topic of late.

Gymnastics season has started. This week is try-out week.

This is my third season as head coach. The plan for season one was to survive the coaching transition. The retiring coach was greatly loved and is still a teacher at the school. That was REALLY hard. She and I have very dissimilar coaching styles. I managed to successfully pull it off.  My second season was about establishing direction and fully implementing my own style of coaching. We also spent a lot of effort on promoting the program within the school and raising awareness of our team. I have BIG PLANS for this year. They are exciting plans. This is a building year. This year is all about creating a strong foundation.

We were so successful last year in promoting our team to the school that I had 25 girls show up for try-outs!! 25. I still can hardly believe that. As a new coach that was really encouraging. That is a very positive indicator. The flip side of that, though, is I don't have gym space, equipment, coaching staff, or practice time to keep that many. Fortunately, 2 of those didn't have the required physicals done so they were unable to participate. That left me with 23. Tonight I cut 4. That leaves me with 19. 16 is the number I have had the last 2 years. 16 is A LOT. It maxes out everything we have. So now things get tricky.

Coaching is hard. I find myself torn. On one hand I have my sport. I take it very seriously. I love my sport. I credit it for SO MUCH positive in my own life. I have a respect for it and I know what it takes to be successful at it.  On the other hand is the people aspect of coaching. I appreciate the opportunity to invest in high school students. It was the time in my life when I needed the most support. I struggle with balancing both aspects. I know the background of some of the kids trying out for the team. They don't have the necessary skills, but could sure use the positive and safe, inclusive environment that the team would provide. Cutting the 4 I had to cut tonight was brutal on the "people" side of the equation. It made me feel ill.

Now I'm left with deciding who gets a varsity spot, who gets a JV spot, do I cut one event wonders, do I take a gamble on a couple multiple sport participants, etc. AND... can I handle having 19 people in the gym at least twice a week and 13 on the other days. Or.. do I chicken out and cut a couple more?  My brain is freaking out.