We Have Come a Long Way!

I was very intrigued in watching the Women's World Cup last week because it brought back wonderful memories of coaching my daughter Juliann in soccer, basketball, softball, baseball, T-ball in RAMMS and at All Saints. The last few years she hated dad coaching her after 9 years, but she was stuck with dad. I was a very disciplined coach and had lots of practices and expected the team to be at practice
with no excuses unless they had 105 fever, broken toe, broken arm, in the hospital ... never "I
wanted to be at my friend's house to watch TV." I would run them unless it was a legitimate excuse. Juliann was usually the only girl on the team so it was easy yelling at the boys for not showing up. Guess what? We usually won and the parents appreciated my effort since it taught the kids that they could not quit something that they agreed to start. (Okay, so we made them play most of the time without a choice). I simply hated to lose at anything..                                      Juliann played boys’ baseball until she was in fifth grade and actually made the All Star team every year. In fifth grade I made that tough transition to coach girls sports for the very first time and I was nervous.Was I allowed to yell at the girls for not coming to practice like I did the boys? Were they allowed to have friends in the dugout or walk around while we were at bat talking to their friends and family and not cheering on their teammates? I never would have allowed the boys to do this but the girls seemed to do this because other coaches/parents let them do this so it felt weird to me because they were just girls and they did not care about winning or being told what to do at practice or during the games. RIGHT? No.WRONG. I only knew one style and whether it was boys or girls, I was going to treat them the same. You don't show up to practice and you did not have a legitimate excuse, you ran. If you got mad at me, so what? It is not fair to your teammates to not come to practice and expect to play in the games. My coaches in the first year of girls’ softball were Chuck Whetstine and Mark Hester, who were great. Chuck never learned my signals for the girls but I understood as an attorney he had issues. We made it to the championship game that first year and lost by one run..
The following year, when Juliann was in sixth grade, our team went 16-0 and beat Kim
Ashton's team 19-7 in the finals. Kim was very upset to be playing me in the finals because her
team was sponsored by Bobby Lieb–Realty Executives and she had her team cover my name up on their jerseys with tape.
Ok, so what is this all about? Simple–the girls and their parents are as competitive as the boys and they do not want to be treated any differently. It took me a few practices and one game to learn that. We have come a long way and I really am proud of my daughter helping me become a believer in girls sports and see those competitive juices flowing.
Please support Mark Hester as he is helping sponsor this column (see his ad below). I have been working with Mark as my insurance agent for almost 10 years.

The Lieb Group
Bobby Lieb
Associate Broker
HomeSmart Elite
602-761-4646 (office)
602-376-1341 (mobile)
Bobby Lieb