Last fall I was given the opportunity to start coaching football for the local recreation department. So-I called up a few of my best friends from high school and the Blacksburg Buccaneers were born. Last year we we given a team in the senior division of 11 and 12 year olds. It took us a few weeks of adjusting but we finally felt like we had everything under control. The season was a lot of fun and we had some success along the way. Thus, in my first season of coaching we finished at an even .500 with a record of 4-4.
This year, because of the number of kids that signed up to play, I was assigned to a junior division team of 9 and 10 year olds, and it is so different. We have 19 players and so far it's been a huge challenge. The players being just 2yrs younger really makes a world of difference. We have had to change our original plans for our offense twice and we might overhaul our defense soon. As of today we are 1-1. We lost our first game 18-13 on a touchdown we gave up with 1 min left in the game. Last Wednesday we played our second game, and this time we won 13-12 by scoring a touchdown with 1 min left in the game. We have two games this week, one tomorrow and one Wednesday, hopefully we can play well and come out with two wins.
If nothing else, I can say our games have been exciting and practices have been a challenge. Some days I come home from practice feeling like I'm Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears. Things have been getting better though as I convince more friends to come and help out.
I'll check in later this week with an update on the games.
