The Flying V: The Formation of a New Ohana

With the outdoor fall practice season behind us, Coach Birk and I took the day off (I know that is a rare event!). We both ended up back in Normal, where we both live when not coaching here at Lake Land College. By coincidence we ran into each other at Potbelly for lunch. After lunch we decided to go to a coffee shop and talk about our recruits; the different players that have committed, those we are still looking at, and what each brings to next year's team. It hit us both that not only are we putting together a new team but we are really in the process of forming our new family, or as well call it at Lake Land, our Ohana.

This is the time of year that high school senior softball players make their final choice on what college team they will commit to play for. Having gone through the recruiting process with my own daughter, I know first handed how terrifying and difficult this time can be. Not only for the player, but for mom and dad as well. The constant worries: is it the right decision, who will be my roommate, what happens if I get there and I don’t like it, or what if the players and the coach don’t like me. Or the big one: I will miss all my high school friends. I’m sure those of you who have been through it know exactly what I’m talking about.

Comforting my daughter who had all those same fears wasn’t easy. My reassurance that she would become closer to her new future teammates and the kids she would meet in college than her high school friends didn’t seem to help. But that is exactly what happens. They will be going to class and study tables, spending hours in the weight room, practices, endless bus trips to away games, and sharing all the highs and lows of discovering life while living away from home, together. They become best friends, maids of honor in each other's weddings, god parents to future softball players, and above all, they become a part of a whole new family. Parents will find that they will also be a part of this new family, along with getting to know their daughter’s new teammates and friends. Parents will also get to know each other and share the next few years on the bleachers, time at the hotel breakfast dining rooms, dinners and weddings. Parents will become very close as well. Just a little warning to parents, if you stop by to take your daughter out to eat, be careful as you will find yourself taking out a few of her new friends as well.

Anyway, as we sat at Coach Birk's favorite coffee shop talking about our recruits and next year's team, Coach Birk asked if I missed college. "Miss it?" I said, "I wouldn’t want to relive one day of high school but would give anything to be in college again." A sentiment she agreed with. Today reminded me of another rainy day I had with my two old college roommates, Booby Brooks and Ken Spice. Just hanging out like college kids do, we were joking, laughing and just having a great time together when Spicer looked at me and said, "How much happier can you be, than you are right now at this very moment? Could you laugh any harder, smile any bigger or feel any better than we do right now?" It didn’t take much thinking to realize he was right. Things will be always be alright with the world with members of my college family. It may be terrifying and scary, but it is an exciting time in any recruit's life right now, but in just a few short months it will be a new life experience, a new team, and of course, a new Ohana.