The legs feed the wolf, gentlemen.

There is no course of study required to coach freshman football.  You don't need experience.  You don't need a winning record.  You don't need a game plan or a certificate, or even a job.  You simply need to know how to pronounce the word 'yes' so you can say it, if you're asked.   You need more credentials to adopt a stray dog at the SPCA.

I'm not saying that to demean the position.  I'm saying it to remind myself of the standards I set for myself when I said yes.  I'm saying it because the line between helping, and harming, is razor thin.  If you work with kids, or raise them, you walk it everyday.

I also know that the path we intend isn't always the path that gets us where we need to go.  I learned that from a guy who owned a bookstore for kids, years ago.  We were visiting with my sons preschool, and one of the children asked the man if it was "always his dream to own a bookstore".  I never forgot that.  I never forgot it because a child had the insight to ask it.  I never forgot it because the man had the courage to answer.

"No", he said. "I wanted to become an actor, so I moved to Hollywood.  I never made it as an actor".
"Did that make you sad?" the child asked.
"At first", he said, "but then something happened that led to a bookstore, and then that led to this.  If I'd never gone to Hollywood this might not have happened. Sometimes what you think you want is just a path to what you really want. The trick is trusting it when it appears.  This was my real dream.  Becoming an actor was what I had to let go of to discover it".

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We have a boy on our team this year who is one of the most gifted 

athletes we've seen.  We've questioned his mental toughness since he arrived.  He didn't dress for practice one day because he said his leg hurt.  A trainer looked at it, and said it was 'bruised'.  We rode him harder.  Because he missed practice, he was forced to miss the first half against Archbishop Mitty.  When he came in we were behind.  We handed him the ball and he ran 50 yards for a touchdown.  We found out later his leg was actually broken.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned through the game of football.  The most important ones inform us about who we are, and what we can  do.  The path that leads us to them isn't always the path we intended.  

 We pulled this boy aside, and apologized for pushing him so hard.  We apologized for doubting him.   He told us not to worry.  He told us he knows something he didn't know before, and he said it was okay how it happened.   No one can ever challenge his mental toughness again, ever.  He set his own bar.  He set it higher than we had.  Jack Wolf is tough as nails.