Voluntary Work

We all like to think we are good citizens, don't we? What makes us good citizens? Among the list of things that make  good citizens is Voluntary Work - Ramana chose  for this weeks 2-on-1 blog. Be sure to check Ramana's Musings for his take on his chosen subject.

I doubt it will surprise any of my regular readers to hear that my voluntary work was centered around youth sports. I was  very active in several - Little League Baseball, Miss Softball America and youth soccer.

In Little League Baseball I coached a minor league boys team called The Panthers. These were kids either very new to the game of baseball or just plain not very good at the game. This was clearly an in it for fun group and we managed to have a lot of fun. We managed to beat the eventual league champs both times we played them along the way. It was fun teaching baseball but more fun watching the kids have a good time. Their age group was 9-12.  I was also tasked with umpiring both minor league and Major League (the good teams) - and the league had adopted a uniform rule - all umpires were called "Blue" after the traditional colors warn by umpires. Oops - Panther colors were red and white so folks  were addressing a guy dressed in red "blue". They got over it.

n occasion I umpired a game of my brother's team - the Senators (also the Major League team I played on many years before. The Senators were the league big shots - prior to each game they played their team song , a little ditty by the Beatles.

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 That tells you the age range of the parents and coaches. The players age range was again 9-12.

Lynn and I joined forces to coach my sister's  MSA softball team - the age range of the team being 16-18. These kids were excellent and won the league championship and several games in the state playoffs before finally losing. Gotta admit that without Lynn being there to translate and deal with the other issues confronting 16-18 year old girls, I would have been a fish out of water. But we had great fun - winning helps.

I spent most of my volunteer time in youth soccer in the Hayward Youth Soccer League (HYSL). I coached boys and girls house teams and was a league VP. I computerized as many functions as possible, The absolute  most fun thing, though, was coaching the girls under 8 team called Moby Grape.Our banner was a big white whale on a purple background the kids and parents saw at the first practice. Yes we had a team song

While the song was playing the kids looked around with puzzled looks on their faces while the parents laughed and cheered. I knew my audience - LOL. I also laid down the law - my way or the highway. We were here to have fun. Period. Any parent that viewed themselves as the second coming of Pele could request a transfer now to another team of bite their tongue and talk to me in private. I promised to teach the kids to compete hard and  have fun. I was not going to train soccer champs - but promised to offer genuine evaluations of the kids if the parents wanted them (in private) to help guide
their future in the league.

Soccer here is broken down into  3 levels of competition - or it was back then. There are House teams, Advanced House teams and Select teams. Advanced House and Select were very serious about the game and winning mattered. Some parents had issues with that -  the kids not so much. I also coached under 8 boys and under 16 girls house teams. My son was excellent and so he jumped up to Select his second year. To this day he is mad that I did not coach him more than one year. The kid  was at home playing soccer with European and Hispanic kids that were born with a soccer ball on their foot.

The diversity of the parents and kids involved in the HYSL was amazing.  While there were occasionally some tensions between groups by in large it was a smooth running  operation.

That concludes my take on this week's topic. My volunteer record is not the most robust, but I spent most of my life working 6 days a week.