School Days

Tomorrow morning will be a whole new experience for me. Approximately 370 students will show up at Dunlap Middle School ready, well maybe, to go. The first day of school is always kind of emotional. You see kids that you are truly excited to see again and you really enjoy working with. Then, of course, there are a few that you may not be so excited to welcome back. Regardless, you need to take the approach that everyone of them is there to learn and it is truly a humbling experience to realize how many young people that you have an influence on. I really think that our culture now forgets that we have to teach more values, kindness, respect, etc. It seems to me that those kind of things have been lost in a "me-me" world. If simple things were taught, not just by schools, not just by parents, it would be a much better place. We as adults need to take the time to realize that we have that kind of power over young people. Thus, it really does take a village to raise kids and I am not a Hillary Clinton supporter!!! I am sure that I will help with hundreds of combination locks and directions for young people finding their way through a huge new building. I will certainly need to remember that many of the kids that I encounter tomorrow I may have a huge impact on, and it may come from a first impression. I may find myself getting teared up when I encounter a 6th grader struggling with their locker. Those kind of things get to a big old football coach today because some 40 years ago that was me!!! I just hope that I can enlighten a younger one on their path to adulthood.

Tomorrow our middle school baseball and softball teams both have games at 4:00. This will be my first experience as AD and being across the parking lot at practice with our team and still worrying about little things like if the umpires show up. So, that will add to my stress level. We just have single practices now. The kids don't mind this but it is a concern of mine that 4 days were not enough. I think it helps that we accomplished alot over the summer, but I can be nervous about something can't I? This Friday marks our Maroon & Gold game. It is a decent chance for our kids to have a "dress rehearsal" before our opener on the 29th. It started as a simple scrimmage but has blown into a big community event. All fall sports teams play, or are introduced. The band plays. I guess if all this helps increase the attendance I am all for it!!! Really I do feel that our kids deserve the attention. Speaking of attention it was a really neat deal yesterday when our parents were tucked away around the corner of the building near our practice field and greeted the kids with a nice round of applause as they came off the field. The coaches and I kind of snuck through the middle school and avoided the "hoopla". It was not that it was not appreciated but this is truly the kids deal and we are just kind of getting them organized. I hope!!! We also will exchange game film with Galesburg tomorrow evening after practice and start preparation for them. It is truly time and I love it.