Bring on Football Season!

Seems like it was just yesterday my Coach was reintroducing himself to me and sliding back into the routine of home.  Now I’ve blinked and summer is over and he’s on his way back to football.  The countdown to kickoff is on!  Some wives say goodbye to their husbands during this time and "mourn their loss."  They think of themselves as "football widows."  That's not the case in our house.  I'm clearly still married and he's still my husband.  He hasn't died, he's just focused; focused on his job, focused on his passion for coaching, focused on his boys and focused on the goal of winning that state title.  When he is home, there is still that focus, but he's also able to focus on me - I just have to know for a while I share the focus area with something else.  

This week meetings and camps begin. My coach is back to the hours of well before sun up to after sundown. I’m back to being Ms. Independent and I’m ok with that. Now before you go jumping to conclusions about my relationship with my coach, hear me out on this.  I’m ok with it for several reasons. 

1.       We make a great team.  We’ve been married for 16 years and each of those years has involved football. The first couple of years we were writing our own playbook and learning to maneuver the ins and outs of football season and its time demands. We figured out dinners, laundry and who was responsible for what. Although the school has changed over the years, our playbook has remained the same.  We have a routine and a schedule and we go with it.  Yes, every once in a while we have to call an audible and that’s where #2 comes into play.

2.      He’s empowered me to call an audible.  Sometimes a decision has to be made and he’s not around to make it.  Seems like every season something major in the house breaks.  During season I’ve had to fix the air conditioner, the roof, the washer and the dryer, the garage door, etc. You name it; I’ve probably had to have it fixed. I let him know the issue, show him my plan of action (and how much it’s going to cost) and then I go for it.

3.      It gives me a chance to focus on my job. I work for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Fall is a busy time for us as we prepare for October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In the summer I feel like my focus is torn between my job, my Coach and our home.(Not because of any pressure from my coach but from the pressure I put on myself to do everything and do it well  - but that’s a totally different blog). With him being at the field house all day and a good majority of the night, I’m more at ease to stay late and work and then head home and focus on other things.  Except for Fridays – then I totally lose focus by 3pm and go into full on coach’s wife mode.

4.      Outside of work I have time to focus on other things that make me happy.  Fall seems to be the time of year that I go into volunteer mode.  I’m constantly volunteering for something at our church or for some kind of Susan G. Komen event.  I also get to focus on my obsession with Pinterest.  One of the other coach’s wives and I pick a project or two or three or four during the season and spend our Saturday’s perfecting our latest project.  It’s a great outlet and keeps us busy while our coaches are at work.

I’ve learned throughout the years that it’s ok for him to go off to football and it’s ok for me to show my independent side a little too.  After all, I was a fully functioning adult before we met and I can still be that way sixteen years into this.  Together we make a great team.   Proverbs 27:17 says “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”    We spend time during the off season and summer sharpening each other and then we are both ready for football season.

Praying that have spent your summer sharpening and are ready for the season ahead.  Remember there are other wives of coaches out there to support you and to lean on for help.  You’re not in this alone. So say it with me “Bring on football season!”

Cheering you on!
Laurel