"Life will not baby you or give you special treatment and neither will I. I would do you a great injustice if I only taught you the skills of softball."
I will not baby you
I will not coddle you. I will not tell you in a sweet voice that “It’s okay.” That’s what Momma is for. I will never belittle or degrade you but I will toughen you mentally, emotionally, and physically. It will sting. It will hurt. But you will be a better athlete and person for it.
I will hold you to a higher standard
I will expect things from you that no one else will. I will expect you to be an outstanding student, citizen, and team player. You will not get detention, ISS, or any other type of school punishments. You will respect your teachers, umpires, fellow students, and teammates. You will leave the dugout even cleaner than you found it. I will not get noise complaints from the hotel manager. You will abide by the rules. The bare minimum will never be enough. I will expect you to go above and beyond in all aspects of your life because that is the mark of a great individual and if you are on my team I saw something great in you.
I will push your boundaries
I will test your limits. You will do things that you never thought possible. You will run faster, throw harder, and hit further. You will sacrifice yourself for the good of the team. You will grow with me. You may suffer from growing pains, but in the end you will cast a bigger shadow.
I will not give you special treatment
You will earn everything you get, and no matter how many times your name appears in the paper, you will abide by the same team rules as every other player. If punishing ‘the star’ costs us a game, so be it. That is the short term. The long term is what’s important. And there will be a much larger price to pay down the road if I can’t get my ‘star’ to conform to the same standards as everyone else. No one is above anyone.
I will discipline you
You will hate it. I don’t care. You will be a disciplined player. You will be a disciplined person. You will be in control of your body, your emotions, and your actions. You will be able to anticipate plays. You will be able to push through a mentally and physically exhausting practice. That takes discipline. It would be much easier to be undisciplined but you would be no better for it.
I will teach you
That’s what this is all about. The softball itself is just a metaphor for life. There will be highs and lows. You will strike out and hit home runs. You will be thrown curve balls and change-ups. You will take a bad bounce. I am preparing you for life. Life is not always easy or fun. I want you to be ready. I want you to be the best you can be on and off the field. Life will not baby you or give you special treatment and neither will I. I would do you a great injustice if I only taught you the skills of softball.
I will fight for you
In all aspects, I will fight for you. I will fight to see we get fair calls on the field. I will fight to make sure we get the same amount of gym time as the boys. I will do everything in my control to make sure you are treated deservingly.
I will do whatever it takes to help you succeed on and off the field because I love you. I will not call you my daughter nor will I treat you as such. If I did, I would not be doing my job correctly. But I will make sure you are taken care of. I will make sure you are fed, watered, clothed, and are constantly being pushed to improve yourself. You may not love me back. That’s okay. But know that everything I do on the field and much of what I do off...is for you. I am not your mother. You don't need another mother. What you need is a coach.