It all begins at the end...

After what has been a tremendously "strange" past few weeks, leading to a lot of skepticism on my part (and that of my coaches and girls), I'm excited to say that things are panning out pretty well. I'm now the Vice President of our non-profit organization. I'm now the head coach of an INCREDIBLY talented showcase team; and one of my best friends -- who happens to be my mentor -- is at the helm of it all, as our manager.

To be honest, I went from one side of skepticism to the complete opposite. Just a few weeks ago, I had 6 girls for a local/travel team and was desperately searching for more girls/repeatedly telling myself to be patient and that the girls would come. Needless to say, I wasn't always optimistic about how the 2012 summer season would pan out; you can't field a team of 6 girls, can't even play without 9 on the roster. Then, after to some unexpected changes to the showcase 18U team in our organization, we decided to merge their 8 remaining girls with my 6. So, yes, I went from a local team of 6 to a showcase team of 14. Talk about turning a full 180; making a complete U-turn. And in the "quiet" mean-time of the off-season, when this decision was made, I found a whole new set of negativity to overcome: will I lose my position as Head Coach; will my girls object; will the other team's girls object; what if the the girls don't get along; what if girls leave because we won't play as many showcase tournaments; what if girls leave because we're playing showcases; will this make the organization look weak; will other teams and coaches see this merger as a sign of weakness for our team? Yikes. It's been a whirlwind of negativity surrounding me, but -- with the help of the coaches, girls and my therapist (god bless her) -- I've been able to keep a fairly positive mindset concerning the "big adjustment."

We started practice yesterday. And, whereas it was the ends of two different teams, it was the true beginning of a dynamite team. Thanks, in part, to a sleepover some of the girls (from both teams) had on Saturday night and a very positive team of coaches at practice, everything went as smooth as we could have hoped for. Sure, there were a few speedbumps -- but what practice doesn't have a few speedbumps, anyway?

I guess it also helped a bit that the girls at the sleepover had a bonding experience as they "forked" our manager's lawn, then proceeded to make tee-shirts for themselves and our manager. They formed their own inside joke, and woke me up with a phone call (on speakerphone) the next morning, just giggling away.

Anyway, I can't speak enough about the talent that's on this team now. I can't even begin to explain it. Hence, my biggest fear was whether or not the girls could get along; if they could get over their fear of "differences" and just play. And we haven't really PLAYED yet -- practice is always different from games and tournaments and showcases -- but the girls are off to an amazing start. One that is ten-fold better than that of the previous week at our annual holiday party. So, I'm happy. It's a great new beginning of what will become, despite the ends of what we knew.

And, on a side note, I'm in so much pain from practice yesterday. Please remind me to stretch and warm-up like the rest of the girls before I decide to pitch for batting practice. Dang.