Resolution

My very dear DS friends, First of all, thank you all for your support via responses to my journal entries, the hugs you have sent, and the personal messages everyone has sent me with support and encouragement.  It just amazes me, and is truly a humbling experience, to know that so many folks are so compassionate and supportive in light of your own problems/issues you are facing in your own lives.  So thank you all my dear friends. I noticed that I haven't posted a journal entry since the end of July.  It has been a tremendously hard few weeks on a variety of fronts...one of which is the issue I was wrestling with in terms of pride and my future coaching position.  After a lot of thoughtful prayer and reflection, and with a heavy heart, I will tonight be tending my resignation. This has been a particularly hard decision for me for the past six years of coaching has allowed me to basically lived a life long dream.  I'm not sure why, but ever since I was a child, I always had a desire to work with the visually impaired.  I always wanted to make a contribution...maybe invent a bionic eye that would allow the blind to see...maybe develop some type of computer technology that would give the blind more mobility, etc.  Unfortunately, I was never smart enough to be able to do these things. But six years ago, I was introduced to a sport played by the visually impaired...and during the next six years I was able to fulfill this dream...not by engineering some new device, but by "being their eyes" as we travelled to tournaments and coached them at practices.  As a coach, I also wanted to be their friends.  As a result, I became very close to some of my players...and helped fill a void where, at times, they may have felt discrimiated by being visually impaired. On the court, these players were some of the best in the country.  Our women's team won three consecutive national championships while our guys team won two national championships in three years.  Two years ago was the ultimate, where I got to witness our guys and gals teams play back to back gold medal games with each winning national championships.  In a few weeks after the Olympics complete, some of our players will represent our country at the Beijing Paralympics. I can't begin to express the pride and joy I had in coaching these outstanding men and women.  Ranging in ages from 16 to 45, they mixed being students, parents, employees, etc. with the sport they loved...and I enjoyed every minute of the past six years being with them. Again, although the on-the-court success was vey rewarding, it is the life-lessons I learned from these outstanding folks that I will always cherish.  Although they are too numerous to mention here, at every tournament I always tried to "capture" a memory of that defined the tournament...and these memories will last me a lifetime. As a person who doesn't many friends, I was blessed with developing close friendships with three of my former players.  Although work and family have seperated our families throughout the country, these friendships, for me, will last a lifetime and would have been something I never would have gained with coaching over the past six years. For those of who who are sport fans...and have followed the recent "soap operas" of Manny Ramirez being traded to the Dodgers and Brett Farve being traded to the Jets...I've spent many a sleepless night flip-flopping over what to do...afterall is it very difficult to walk away from something one is so passionate about and has had a desire to help since a child.  However, I think it is time for me to move on. I guess it would be easier if I new what I was moving on too.  If there was some better opportunity to reach out assist more visually impaired.  If there was an opportunity to expand our program to reach a larger visually impaired community.  However, there are no such plans for me.  So I am basically moving from "something to nothing"...and that leaves a great state of sorrow and confusion. The other thing that makes it hard is just the shear joy I had in watching these folks succeed.  And, again, it wasn't based on championships...it was to give this visually impaired person, who may never have been introduced to sports at all, an opportunity lto learn something new...to prove to themselves that they could do something they never thought they could...to help them expand their horizons by going to the out-of-state tournaments...and by helping those who may have less that desirable social skills to learn how to work together with others as a team.  To watch their self-confidence grow. As a person of service, it was my shear pleasure to do whatever I needed to to make them successful.  Along with being a coach, I was the equipment manager, water boy, food-order taker, transportation provider, inspirational leader, mediator, diplomat, etc.  So where the Lord now takes me I don't know...but there is a very big and empty whole in my heart that is available to be filled with whatever opportunity and persons in need that Lord wants me to fulfill next. For those of you who made it this far, thanks for reading.  May God bless all of you and your families!