"For all of Coleman's life, I have been a coach. For the last ten years of his life, I've been his coach. Baseball, football basketball. Some years all at the same time. Tonight will be the last time I ever coach him on the field. It is so bittersweet. There are so many things I'll miss. I'll miss being around him all the time. I'll miss the car rides to and from practice, just me and him. I'll miss him sprinting to me on the field after a big play. I'll miss the pregame pep talks and the post game breakdowns.
There are things I won't miss. I won't miss the arguments. I won't miss the guilt I feel when I come down on him too hard.
"I won't miss the idiots who tried to turn his successes into 'Daddy Ball.' And I won't miss worrying if I'm helping or hurting by coaching him. Young parents, coach your kids if you're able. Do it the right way and you'll never regret a second of it. God has blessed me with the chance to coach him for even one game much less ten years. We have such a strong relationship and now he's one of my best friends. It's all because he called me 'Coach.'"
Those words above are from my son Davey on his Facebook post yesterday. It was just a few hours before my grandson Coleman would take the field for a final time as a middle school football player. He and his Buccaneer teammates at Boyd-Buchanan scored a big team win over Christian Heritage in Dalton and they all played great!
In the last three weeks I have shed a tear or two over my oldest grandson. Oh they were happy tears...more about pride than anything else. The first time was on eighth grade night at his final middle school home football game at Boyd-Buchanan. I didn't cry when he and his parents were introduced but the tears flowed when I watched him hug his girlfriend as she was introduced as a middle school cheerleader.
The next time came last night when after the game was over, he immediately hugged his daddy and they both cried. Davey was his line coach but that ended last night. My son has other children he needs to coach so he's now going that route. I coached both of my kids and so did they, never paying any attention at all to the "Daddy Ball" comments.
My family has always been emotional. We will tear up for sadness but more often we shed tears over happiness. We are also a very tight knit group. You mess with one of us...you mess with all of us. We don't just limit it to our own family. Last fall when Tennessee broke Alabama's long winning streak over the Vols, a picture was taken of my son, smoking a victory cigar and with tears streaming down his face. That picture was posted on Facebook and is still on his page.
It's the same way with my daughter Christi. She will cry at the drop of a hat. Her daughters are both involved in sports and she has also coached them. And as our family always does, she also teared up when Coleman was introduced on eighth grade night and I love that about us!
In 1999 in Tempe, Az., when Tennessee won the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl, I was sitting in the press box where John Ward spoke these words, "The National Champion is clad in Big Orange!" The late Vol Network General Manager Edwin Huster walked over to each and every one of us and said, "Don't you cry...don't you cry!" Of course when he said that we all broke down and shed tears of joy.
A former coach of mine once said, "Girls cry if they win...and cry if they lose." That may be true but boys are a bit more emotional than they used to be. It was not proper at all for boys to cry, especially when they lost. That's changed because people are now much less hesitant to show emotion and I think that's a good thing.