Getting the opportunity to play a sport that I love again is within its self an honor and blessing mixed together, but teaching that same sport is a whole different type of challenge. But my experience has been full of laughter and fun thanks to one of the groups I get to coach while here in Northern Ireland. My under 18 junior elks meet for practicing/coaching session every Friday from seven to nine at Ulster University sports hall. Coaching these ladies has taught me a lot about the sport that playing it couldn’t have. Sometimes, it is just about the love you have for the game and not just how you can benefit from it, even though there are countless number of ways sports can affect your life, one of the most important to me is the way you can connect with individuals. You realize that you may have had some of the same encounters and outlooks on life and playing sports has been an outlet for you all. So anyway my junior elks are quite young but very gifted basketball players and just human beings period, they all have different personalities and are ranging in all ages but they manage to bring the best thing in my opinion out that playing sports can do for a person and that’s the learning lessons that you can catch on too. For instance, togetherness or unity, teamwork, communication, how to work out disagreements and for me personally how to teach different levels of abilities while still trying to maintain and get the best out of all of your players. So I commend my junior elks on helping me with my coaching skills and creating an atmosphere that I love coming to and coaching at. Good luck to them as they continue on with there games throughout the season.
