Late October and early November are always my most hectic weeks. This year, it felt even more busy. As the rec director for West Coast Soccer, I am responsible for management of the end-of-season tournament and the all-star game. The tournament is straightforward – organize the brackets, keep track of standings, be on the field for the finals to ensure that everything runs smoothly. The all-star game is more involved: tabulate coach nominations for players, select teams and coaches, inform everyone, ensure that communication is successful, and be on the field as a facilitator. This year, due to a miscommunication, I ended up refereeing 3 of the games. I also coach a U-8 and a U-9 comp team – and they had games over both weekends.
The first week of November is also the beginning of tryouts for our women’s program at Dublin High School. It felt like tryouts went smoothly and we picked 3 talented teams to represent the school this season. Each night of the last 2 weeks was spent on the field, either at tryout our practices. We are rolling out a series of LearnDash online courses for our athletes this season to facilitate in the team forming process.
In the midst of this, I continue to work on my Ohio University education program. Our current course involves writing, literature review, and research analysis. The “final” project is a 20-25 page literature review – due in 2 weeks. Our first high school games start within that 2 weeks, so time management will be important.
I continue to participate in the Fitness Matters Rowing Plan. I am training at a 2K pace of 1:43.5, which is aggressive. The program consist of a series of shorter and longer pieces. My most recent effort included a 3x750m series of sprints with 3 minutes of rest. My last 750m was under at 1:40 pace – somewhat amazing considering my best 1000m is 3:15.
I hope to keep closer track of the blog over the coming weeks as things settle down – continuing to add content and track my fitness and educational journeys.