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Re: FAHA: Coach in need of moral support
I totally understand your situation. I have started two teams and it is easy to get overwhelmed. My advice in the short term...
The end of the build is the time when MANY of us are at our lowest point... We are all really wondering what we got into (even after 10 years doing this....) and the end of the season seems such a long way away. It think the best thing for you to do is to find another team's mentor or coach to sit down with. Most of us are happy to help out or at least be someone to talk to.
Last year, at the end of build season my mother had a stroke...We managed to get the robot shipped and I got on a plane and traveled back to Indiana to see her in the hospital for a few days...We put her in a Nursing home and I came back... we were competing the next weekend.... just 3 days later she passed away... I went ahead and coached my team at the regional... did the best I could... got on a plane and spent the next week arranging the funeral and doing the necessary things. I then came back and 1 week later we competed again...
I still look back on that and wonder if I did the right thing... I could have stayed...I came back to help the team...I know my mother would have agreed with what I did.. but was really difficult. Without the mentors and parents on my team I could not have possibly gotten through it.
In the long term,
you MUST find some parents to help you...you MUST get a bigger support group... teachers mentors...etc. If you don't... you will burn out and the team will not continue.
I applaud you for what you have done... it is a great accomplishment... and your team is a winner... no matter what else happens.
Find some help from parents first... call a parent meeting next year... make it mandatory for any student's parents to be at that meeting or make some type of contact with you.. you won't get them all... and of course ... you will let all the kids on the team anyway...but you can ask them to make that effort.
A parent group can make all the difference in the world to the weight that has been placed on your shoulders.
If you are in the Pacific NorthWest please contact me...I will be happy to help...
If you are not... contact me anyway... I might be able to help from a distance too..
We are all in this together...
By the way, Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my Mother's passing....it was good to talk about it.
good luck and you are in my thoughts...
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