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Hello everyone and please accept my apologies for writing this so late this week. I lot of things have happened recently which forced me to draw my attention elsewhere.

I hope you have your favorite drink and that you are sitting in your favorite chair because I have a lot on my mind this week so this will be a long one.

For the first time ever an opposing team has upset me.

We played the Bucs this past weekend and beat them as if we were ready for a championship game. The Bucs simply could not stop our offense and once we realized who their key players were, we were able to simply shut them down defensively. This caused much frustration on the Bucs' side. Our kids worked hard at practice that week and came to the field focused and ready, words cannot express how proud I was of the Eagles. The final score was 31-8 officially, but the real score was more like 38-0. The reason the official score and real score is different is because the Bucs were being sore losers and complained about everything under the sun during the game. We allowed the refs to take back one touchdown and in the end I told the kids to let them score.

At first I was not gonna bring up the ugly truths about this game and as always talk about the good things that the Bucs had going for them, however the Bucs did not stop there (no pun intended). They took it to the point of e-mailing the league officials to slander us and the Refs. In my 5 seasons of coaching in this league, I have never experienced this before. Their actions truly upset me because they have tainted what was a very good victory for our kids.

The Bucs must have really though that they were gonna win that game. As we were stepping on the field to get ready on defense, a couple of our kids over heard them in their huddle and exposed that the Bucs said that they were gonna crush us. Well I thought I was gonna beat the 49ers the week before and I did not react the way the Bucs did when we lost 21-6. There is always a lesson to be learned in defeat. Our loss to the 49ers made us a better team which is one of the reasons why the Bucs had a hard time with us.

Instead of the Bucs wasting energy whining and complaining about their defeat to us, they should spend their energies looking inward to figure out how to get better otherwise if we see them in the playoffs they will suffer a worse defeat (because we are improving each week), but I will show mercy once again because they have a great group of kids who played their hearts out against us from beginning to end. Hopefully the actions of their coaches do not crush the good character qualities that they (the kids) already have.

Once again I opened my BIIIIIIIIGGGG MOOOOUUUUUUTHHHHH!!!!!(I wasn't gonna bring this up either, but after all that has happened I must)

After the game I sent an email to my parents which sparked some intense emotions. I exposed to the parents some of the recent banter between coach Parker and myself, then I expressed my feelings about it and opened it up for discussion. Some parents were very upset to say the least, saying I should report Parker, calling it a petty rivalry and to keep the kids out of it. Other parents expressed more of a bring it on mentality. Needless to say I spent 2 days going back and forth via emails and phone conversations. Although it gave me a lot of emotional stress (to add to the stress the Bucs brought), I do not regret sending that email at all because I understand the parents a lot better now. This is the most passionate group of parents I've ever had and I love it. This will be a season I will not soon forget.

The “E-Mail” saga forced me to reflect on what this type of league teaches our children.

There are leagues out there that do not have playoffs or championship games. There are also leagues that do not even keep scores or any stats of their games. Those leagues are designed to simply teach the kids the fundamentals of the game, teach them team work and let them have fun because winning or losing does not matter (no pressure situations). At the end of those seasons every kids gets a certificate (usually) and that is basically it. My first experience in coaching was in a league such as these.

This league however does have a playoff and has a championship game which every team strives to get to. Although this environment also teaches the fundamentals of the game, to play as a team and we want the kids to have fun; this type of league does something extra for the kids that those other leagues do not. This type of league teaches our kids to be competitive and work towards a goal. Those who reach true success in this world are people who are competitive and work hard towards a goal. In life you cannot succeed without Goals, failures, without risks, and without putting your all into it. These are the things that this type of league teaches our kids.

There is nothing wrong with rivalries. When you go for a job interview, aren't you competing with others seeking that same job? When a promotion is coming up at your job, don't you become rivals with the other employees to go after that position? When you own a company are you not competing with other like companies? Knowing that someone else is aiming for the same thing as you makes you want to succeed doesn't it? Kids are never too young to start learning these things.

In the real world it's the people that go to work simply to get a pay check each week that never seem move up in the company. In the real world people who say that they only want to live comfortably enough to pay their bills seem to never get ahead. Teaching these 6-8 year olds now about competing will make them better in middle school, high school, college, and life because it will teach them to develop goals and work hard to reach them. It will also teach them how to deal with failures along the way.

I have never won a game against coach Parker, but every season he brings out the best in me and my kids because we want to win. When we play the Titans in three weeks I believe that that will be our best and most exciting game of the season weather we win or lose and it will be because of the rivalry between coach Parker and I. Coach Jenkins also has it out for us because I defeated him last season in the playoffs, so when we play the Rams, that too will be a good game.

The rivalry between coach Parker and I is a healthy one. We are friends, he is the one who got me to coach in this league. We talk every week (during season or none season) about the league, life, our team progress and we talk a lot of noise all in fun and sometimes to get in the head of the other. During our games we don't yell or start fussing with the refs. We get excited and stay focused on the goal which is to win and because we get excited and focused our kids go with our flow and follow suite. Because of all the drama this week I am more excited about this up coming game than ever before. Plus, I believe that my kids can beat him this season so I can't wait.

This week we face the Dolphins and hopefully we can build off of that momentum we built last week against the Bucs. After this weekend we will have 2 weekends off, then we face the Titans followed by the Rams. I am very pleased with the progress that our team is making each week. I knew that this was going to be an exciting season and it seems to just keep getting better. Thank you all for keeping up with this blog and I will not be late next week. Until next time, see ya!