Your Weekly Townsend Fix Column 54

Hey Everyone! Don't you hate how when you think that you've decided something you think you might've changed your mind? I went to a game on Saturday since Melanie was cheering her last 2 games of the year. I had no idea that the last two games she would cheer would be the 6th grade A & B teams. All but 2 girls on the team were girls I had coached. I normally go to Mel's games, sit there and pray that the 4 six minute periods pass fast normally going to the snack bar or a near by starbucks or something for a coffee. Today I watched my girls (I still call them my girls) play basketball and everything. I wish I had thought of going to their basketball teams before to check out their basketball skills to apply them to the volleyball season but oh well. I was screaming like there were my team again, "Hands up!" "Help her out!" "Move your feet!" My throat was sore. Unlike the volleyball season the girls took a 5 basket loss. I was hopefull of the other team doing well but my throat was sore so I took a 2 block walk to Tully's for some tea. I came back in the middle of the first quarter. It was a different team that they were playing against, and some different refs. I looked closer and the two refs were Cliff, who was at every practice and every game Monica and I coached with Monica's boyfriend Jon (who also graduated 2001 from my school) and Wesley, Monica's brother. Monica wasn't there but watching my girls on court with Cliff and Wes there was like watching the volleyball season without a net and more moving around. I actually missed it. Monica and I decided that we wanted to have a joint end of the year time with Jon and Cliff's boy's team (who are one yea up in Melanie's class) and just all be together again. We also want some time with the girls so I told all of them today they have till Friday to decide what they want to do otherwise Monica would make up some lame plan, that should get them thinking. Monica and I haven't decided to tell the girls that we've "retired' and will no longer coach them yet. I think we keep putting it off because of the fact that deep down inside we keep changing our mind. Today Cliff was trying to convince me to stay on another year and everything and I was almost convinced but this is also the same guy who comes up with those grossed out "If you had to choose" scenarios with Jon and Mikey (Monica's kid brother). I did miss it though. I did miss yelling at the girls to move their feet,help out their teammates, and everything. I know part of me will never be able to let them go as a team because they've become practically family and I love those girls like they were daughters or something. We took more responsibility for them than an older sister we were like a mentor and a teacher to them. I missed it all. Today both of the games were at the gym Monica and I coached repeatedly for games and all the memories are still there. We even have a picture of all of us sitting on a ledge with part of the city as the background making faces at the camera that Jon took for us. Next year Tuesdays and Wednesdays are going to be tireless with me feeling like I have to be at the Salvation Army for practice till 5. The routine was 3:30- 5 practice, lock up the gym, make sure that all the girls get picked up, and then Jon and Monica would drop off Cliff at his place (who's just up the hill from me) and then drop me off. Every weekend we'd have a game and afterwards we'd go to Ihops or something no matter how late it was. I'm going to miss that routine for a real long time. I didn't miss just the girls but hanging out with Jon, Monica and Cliff. Have you ever seen Monster's Inc.? Well Monica's "Boo," Jon is "Sully," Cliff is "Mike," and I'm "Mike Jr." For Christmas every gift traded was a Monster's Inc merchandise piece. Jon and Monica got me the Monster's Inc. figurines that hurt when you step on them and Cliff bought me the Mike Jr. stuffed toy. Cliff had this Mike stuffed toy that we eventually brought to every game as a mascot and when Jon and Cliff went on a trip to LA they brought me back this stuffed fish we all named "Bubbles" we started bringing him along too. In our Championship game we took pictures with Bubbles and Mike on our trophy. Now that the season's ended we haven't been able to hang out as much. It's tough sometimes too. I run into Cliff when he refs games and if he doesn't ref the next game he'll sit with me to make the time go faster by trying to convince me that the basketball world changed the name of the "tip off" to the "kick off" and that when someone scores a basket it's a "field goal" and that everytime the opposite team is down by a point that you can tie by making a "touchdown." We all hung out a lot, going to the House of Prime Rib for Christmas dinner and stuff and for some reason I see Monica and Jon more online than in person, and Cliff sporadically at the games. I really want to coach next year but know that i can't. Monica and I took on the team 2 years ago to save them from a 2 year slump with the record being 1-6 with the "1" being a forefit. After we taught them the basics and brought them up to par we'd leave them for coach who would "know what they're doing" and then we got attached and came back this last season "this time for real." We both couldn't coach again. I personally have to resist and not fold because I would be doing THEM a dis-service of staying with them and not being able to teach them the advanced things that they deserve to do next season. Plus I can't stay on because they'll give me a heart attack before the playoff season. I also can't stick around for another important reason. They'll know how horrible of a coach I REALLY am. When Monica and I first took them on they couldn't get a serve over the net, it would fall 3 feet short. Now we're telling them to back up because their serves are almost or already out of bounds. They can serve deeper than I can, and if they don't serve deeper than I can they have shotgun serves. It seemed like at the beginning everything I did as an example amazed the heck out of them and now all of a sudden they give ME a hard time when I screw up. I never told them that 7th and 8th grade years I was pro-bench warmer for my volleyball team. If I stay next year they're going to ask themselves why Coach Kris sucks on court. Maybe I should give them the excuse that I'm getting old. Not like it would work, of Jon, Monica and Cliff, I'm the youngest, the only youngin that's around after me sometimes is Monica's little brother. Isn't it amazing how much of a mask I wear? How to my old teammates (3 of which I currently go to school with) know exactly how much of a rut i was in the last two years but to my girls I'm this amazing power that seems to be able to do everything? The mask I wear is beginning to peel away and they're beginning to see that it's possible for them to be a better player than I ever was and get accepted to high schools all over the Bay Area purly because of the scouts? Besides seeing how much I suck of a player, all of them know that Monica and I aren't really as tough as we seem too. Our jagged outside is really a mushy inside that hates seeing them run laps and do sets of full-court liners. (We once were "talked to" by a concerned mother who was scared that we may have "over done exurted" the girls by making them do full court liners racing with Cliff as a consequence for a bad set of a drill.) It's not like Monica and I enjoyed turning them over to "Drill Sergeant Jon" after they had "planted feet." (Ok well maybe a little, it was kinda funny.) This mask I wear is my only protection to these girls. I think all of them have been lead on to the fact we won't be back next year and when I showed up today 2 of the girls came up to me and asked if we can start "Spiking and defensive lay out" practices this summer with the "you ARE going to be our coach right?" look. I forgot my mask at home. Sometimes I wonder if the guys wear masks. I mean they seem to know everything that they're doing well. For first timers everything is going a lot smoother than a lot of people wouild expect. Everything seemed to correlate with the "road to stardom map." I wonder, are they scared at all? Has it ever once crossed their mind that maybe, just maybe something horrible may happen and that they're accelerating way too fast? The guys have undoubtedly skipped a couple steps on their way, which therefore sped up the process of becoming this hot new thing out there. Now that they're kinda on this break and things have slowed down, not cooled down, what are they thinking? What could possibly running through their heads? I wonder that if sometimes they want to call it quits. I mean let's face it, they've definetly sacrificed more than they gained. As far as this QSP Magazine tour Nick was telling me that they would be lucky if they didn't OWE anything afterwards (with rental of equipment and van). They've sacrificed their privacy. Dom naturally is trusting and gave out his cell number to people he had probably known a week lol. People know where they live, their parents live. Heck people know what kind of underwear and candy they like.On top of that, their buisness is EVERYONE'S buisness. It seems that just about everyone knows the statistics that were meant to keep low key or quiet. They've sacrificed free time, they have been working on "new stuff" before the EP even came out and always want to take time to practice their craft of vocals, dancing and stuff. Most important they've sacrificed their families. They have sacrificed being able to spend time with them and being with them. That would kill anyone inside to be away from family. They weren't able to share in some certain special moments. They were in LA when their Hella Hot Hella Not on the Z succeeded in being one of the hottest songs played on that routine. I know that Nick didn't have time to do any Christmas shopping and he bought his famiy and friends cards because Christmas shopping time was scarce. Matt especially has probably had it the hardest. With his family being in Oregon and him living here in San Francisco, it's the hardest out of all 5 of the guys. His family is up there in Oregon and only have phone and email. How hard must it be to not be able to hug your siblings and your parents. When I saw him hug his family when they arrived at sound check in Tracy I wanted to cry tears of joy for him or something. He hugged them the way that a long lost child hugs his family. He hugged them like he hadn't hugged them in an eternity. But though ALL of it the guys stay strong, never fold, never break, never show a sign of weakness. They all know what they're doing, how to do it and will do it as long as God allows them to. Although they MAY wear a mask, I highly doubt it's as thick as mine to the girls. I'm pretty sure that their true colors are as true as the mask they wear and the mask is for the extra support they may need from time to time. Stay Safe & Stay You Love Always, Kristen xoxoxo

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