Uno Mas!

This will be my last post for the semester and I'll try to make it short...unlike the rest of my posts. I'm also gonna try to switch it up and not write about anything softball related but I am going stick with sports! So have any of you been watch the NBA playoffs?? The Suns swept the Spurs and it couldn't be sweeter! I'm a third generation Phoenix Suns fan and the playoffs for me have been extremely frustrating over the past several years. The Spurs have been our Achilles Heel and to be honest I can't stand them! They play dirty and in my opinion have never deserved to move on against us. I was watching the game last night at my grandparents house during dinner for Mother's Day. Everyone was cheering and yelling at the TV throughout the entire game and when the game was finally over we were ecstatic! One thing though...what the heck is up with Tim Duncan elbowing Stevie in the face?!? Some people are saying it wasn't intentional but I beg to differ! Tim Duncan never does anything like that unintentionally. All he has to do is put that puppy dog face on and say, "I didn't do it." LAME! Why do the Spurs always have to pick on Steve Nash?? They're always beating up on him. But I think Steve is OK (even though his eye was black and blue and swollen shut!) and the best part is we WON! SUNS WIN! I don't know if any of you are Suns fans but we were due! This is going to be our year! You just wait and watch! Lakers beware! We're in it to win it this year!

I'm Graduating!!!

Yaaaaa!!!! Finally!! I have just about completed my undergraduate degree! It's been a loooong road of 7 years since I first started college right out of high school but I have certainly learned a lot! I definitely did not go the conventional route and graduate in 4 years but the path I have taken to get done was well worth the wait. I started it all off at Mesa Community College while I was playing softball with their program. College ball turned out to be way more work than I ever wanted it to be. It wasn't fun anymore and I was taking the game too seriously. Once I was done with my two years at MCC I made a random switch to Kansas State University. As random as it was, it was probably one of the best things I have ever done for myself. I have lived in my little bubble of Tempe, Arizona my entire life and haven't experienced too much in the way of diversity. Moving to Kansas was a complete culture shock but I loved every minute of it!! I met some of my closest friends while I was going to school there and we still talk and see each other regularly. After my short 1 year stint at K-State I moved back home to try and finish things up at my true home ASU!!! I have been a Sun Devil since the day I was born! There was no way I was gonna have a choice because my grandpa coached here and my dad went to school and played here. I was destined to be a Sun Devil at some point in time and now I'm finally graduating!!! I was worried for a long time that taking 7 years to graduate would be an embarassment....but now that I'm finally done I couldn't be more excited. What does it matter that I took 7 years to finish? The fact is I FINISHED! There are a lot of people in our society that start college and don't finish or don't even go at all! However, now that I'm done I still don't know what it is that I want to do. Obviously coaching and being involved with softball is my passion...but I'm not sure how to make that a profession. The only way to ever get paid enough to make it a profession is to coach at the collegiate level and I need a lot more experience to make it that far. So for now I'll just find whatever job I can get my hands on and hope that I'll have the opportunity to keep coaching somewhere. Even if I can't continue to coach I'll still be playing ball a minimum of 4 days a week! I love it! I have my womens and coed tournament teams and a handful of leagues that I'm supposed to play in. This will keep me pretty busy over the summer while trying to find a J-O-B! Any suggestions?!?!? I hope I haven't bored too many of you with these blog entries. I've now realized every blog I write is a freakin NOVEL compared to some other posts people are putting up. So for that I apologize. When I start typing I get a little carried away. Thanks for listening and congrats to any of you who are also graduating this May! GO DEVILS!!!

Final Reflections on the Varsity Team

After the JV season was over, I was asked to stay on and work the Varsity team through playoffs. Working with the Varsity team has not been my cup of tea this year. It's tough to come work with a team you haven't been with all season because they have their own routine and way of doing things which was completely different than anything I would have done. To get into the playoffs at the end of the season you have to be one of the top 16 teams. Our Varsity squad at Corona barely squeaked in at the last minute at the No.15 seed. Our first game in the playoffs was against the No.2 seed Red Mtn. a team we haven't been able to beat in the regular season. Going into that first game, I feel guilty for saying this, I didn't think we would be able to pull off the win. Much to my surprise we played lights out with a final score of 4-0. Our next game we faced No.7 seed Mtn. Ridge. We had the lead for most of the game but in the 5th inning the score went from 4-2 to 4-5. Giving up those three runs in the 5th was frustrating but the girls didn't seem to be too bothered by it. In the 7th inning we started to rally back. We got girls in scoring position on 2nd and 3rd base but were unable to score any of our runners and the final score was 4-5. That loss was a huge blow to the girls. It's really important to try and stay in the winner's bracket in playoffs because if you can make it all the way to the Pool B championship game the other team from the losers bracket has to beat you twice to move on to the State Championship game. With our team taking a loss to Mtn. Ridge it moved us to the loser's bracket matching us up against the No.3 seed Basha. This is another team we weren't able to beat all season. Basha is in our conference so we get to face them multiple times during the regular season. This game played out much like I thought the Red Mtn. game would have, we lost with a score of 8-2. The season is now over for all teams in the Corona del Sol softball program. Varsity finished with a regular season record of 8-10 and a playoff record of 1-2. This was not the best season Varsity has ever had and I think a lot of it had to do with a lack of team chemistry. They have so much talent but for whatever reason just couldn't get along. This was the complete opposite of the JV team I worked with all season long. JV went 16-2 with a team batting average of .490! Hopefully next season some of my JV girls will move up to the Varsity team and things will be different. Only time will tell....

Arizona State Parks Are Closing :(

I'm not sure if any of you reading this have heard, but almost half of the Arizona State Parks are going to be closed in the next month because the State is lacking funds to keep them open. I'm a native to Arizona and I love the outdoors! For many years I have visited several of the Arizona State Parks and there is so much that they can offer to visitors. Hiking, camping, boating, swimming, horseback riding, mountain biking, off-roading, and one of my favorites fishing. These parks also provide many educational opportunities in addition to preserving much of Arizona's history. Here are some quick facts about the State Parks here in Arizona:

Although there are 31 parks total, only 27 State Parks are currently open to the public

2.5 million visitors use the State Parks annually

1,386 official camping sites ranging from primitive to large RV sized areas and 13 of the parks have electric hook-up sites

58 miles of hiking/walking trails within the parks

9 swimming areas and 10 fishing areas

10 museums and 25 visitor centers

It makes me really sad to think that a majority of the State Parks will soon be closed. They have provided me and many other visitors with some great memories. I've been on field trips to the Arboretum with my elementary school classes and I've been fishing on many of the rivers that run through these parks. These parks need to stay open to the public because it helps make Arizona rich and diverse. The State Parks are also a big attraction for people visiting here from out of state. I'm not sure why more people haven't taken a stronger interest in finding ways to keep these parks open. Fortunately some parks will become privatized through various organizations in order to keep them open, but other parks will not be so lucky. I know that not everyone loves the outdoors as much as I do but it's still worth checking out what these places have to offer. I know that I can get tired of life in a busy city and sometimes I just need to escape and get away from it all for a weekend. Well these parks are a great way to do that and I will continue to help support our State Parks year after year. If you want to read more about our State Parks and the situation you can visit these websites:

www.azstateparks.com

www.arizonastateparksfoundation.org

Who do you admire as a leader?

There are a couple of different leaders that come to mind when I think about those I admire in leadership positions. The first and most important that comes to mind is my grandfather, Frank Kush. He was a head football coach for many years at ASU and also with a couple of professional football teams. Growing up around him I’ve received many lectures about life and self-leadership. Accountability, responsibility and keeping my priorities straight are some of the ideas that have stuck with me over the years even though they’re not always easy to adhere to. My grandfather was an exceptional leader that was and still is highly respected. I admire my grandfather because he had a vision and was able to move his followers towards that vision. Relating to our discussion question this week, I would classify his leadership style in more of a traditional view. In regards to his players, he was very strict in practice and games and the players understood that when you were told to do something you did it. Otherwise, there were always consequences that ensued insubordination. This style in comparison to today’s views on leadership may seem archaic. However, what he did as a coach worked and it worked very well. To quickly contrast, my grandfather also took a lot of pride in listening to his assistant coaches. He understood that the success of the team and how good he was as a coach depended on the competency of his coaching staff. I admire my grandfather for being ahead of the game by not allowing himself to be corrupt with power. Listening to those you work with is an extremely important factor in an organization’s success and overall effectiveness of the leader or leaders. Other reasons I admire my grandfather are the multitude of characteristics that make for a great leader which include: integrity, determination, good work ethics, sociability, knowledge and experience. These are only a few of the traits or characteristics employed by my grandfather, but they are important and are the ways I try to emulate my practices as a leader. I have learned so much from my grandfather as a leader. His success is a direct derivative of putting into practice good leadership styles and characteristics. I also learned from my grandfather that knowledge through experience in invaluable. He never learned about leadership in a classroom, rather he learned through his own reflections on the experiences he has had in his life and it takes years to develop these concepts simply through life experiences. I’m hoping to apply these concepts to my own practices so that I may experiment with what works and what doesn’t work. Coupled with drawing upon the knowledge of past leaders I look forward to the wealth of knowledge I will accumulate.

Final Reflections on the JV Team

Well this season for the JV team flew by! I can remember the first week of practice thinking how the end of the season seemed so far away. Thinking back on what expectations I had for the team and how I thought the season would go it is interesting to see where it all ended up. I was nervous for the amount of girls we had on the team and getting everyone some playing time. I also was impressed with the amount of talent I had on the team this year. When it all started I was uneasy about the situation with the other JV coach. We didn't end things too well last year and I wasn't sure if the negativity was going to carry over from last year or if we could just let it be water under the bridge. There were some girls on the team this year I knew would produce a lot of results and there were others I didn't expect to do well at all. In addition to all of that I honestly thought this team would go undefeated this year.

Now that the season is over some of the things I expected happened and others situations I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. First off, our team did not go undefeated but we finished with an amazing record of 16-2. I was a little bummed that we took two loses for the season but overall I'm very pleased with the record. Even though at one point we had 18 players on the team, we still managed to get everyone some playing time. It wasn't easy to get everyone in the game all the time but we did our best. Some of the girls that I knew would be key players for our team this year produced results and even exceeded what I thought they would be capable of. Other girls that I didn't expect much out of surprised me constantly. It's amazing how much a little positive encouragement and telling a kid that you believe in them will do. One of the other great parts about this season was the fact that the other coach and I got along really well for 99% of the season. He and I have different coaching styles that are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm really intense and he's extremely laid back. I knew at the start of this season that we had to find a middle ground somewhere otherwise we would have struggled all season. With the leadership classes I've been taking I realized that I needed to tone my approach down to better match his and I had some pretty good ideas on how to do that. I believe that opposites attract and can work very well together if mixed properly. We worked really well this year and I think we both gave a little to find the middle ground. What was weird though is that neither of us ever talked about the situation, it just sort of worked out. He at times this year was a little more intense and pushed the girls harder than he usually did and I was a lot more laid back and let the little things that used to make me mad slide. It feels really rewarding that through applying some of the knowledge I acquired in the classroom about leadership I was better able to make the situation work for me, the other coach and the rest of the team. This was one of the best teams I have had the privilege of working with. I learned a lot from this season about coaching and leadership. The self reflecting I have done this year has been a great way for me to learn more about myself. I'm not sure where I'll go from here because now that I'm graduating from college I'll have to get a "real" job and I'm not sure that it will allow me to continue to coach at the high school level. If that ends up being the case I'm glad I had the opportunity to work with the girls on the JV team at this high school. It has been an experience I will never forget.

Leadership Qualities...What do you bring to the table?

I think that one quality I bring to leadership is confidence. As a leader I think it is important to be confident in what you are doing because it would otherwise be difficult to follow someone who is lacking confidence. As a leader in the softball world I also think that I bring experience, which is something that makes me confident as a coach. I’ve been playing softball for 18 years or so and I there is a lot I can offer as a coach because I’ve been in a lot of the same situations the girls are in now. Another quality I think I bring to leadership is my ability to communicate with those I am working with. I try my best to be a good listener and I’m always asking the girls how they are doing or what their thoughts and opinions are on a situation. I like to be open as a leader and tell the girls exactly what is happening and why rather than telling them something they want to hear. My drive to openly communicate with the girls I work with has served me quite well in developing coach/player relations. I think it has built respect and trust between the kids and myself. Honesty and integrity are another set of qualities I think I bring to leadership. I have been put in difficult situations before where I could have taken a short cut and lied or done something that would be considered unethical but every time I’ve been put in those situations I simply cannot take the easy way out. I’m a true believer in karma and I’m always telling people, “That’s bad juju, don’t do it. Otherwise It will come back 3-fold and bite you in the rear!” As a leader I think I have many qualities that I bring to the table. Therefore I’ll talk about one more, influence. I would like to think that I am an influential leader and that I have the ability to motivate others to work hard, stay positive and be respectful. As a coach I want to be able to make a difference in the lives of those I work with.

I find that I am regularly encouraged to exercise my leadership qualities that I previously listed. Most of my encouragement does not come directly. Rather it comes in the form of positive results. Although on occassion I do get positive feedback from other coaches or even teachers that I work with on the softball field and in the classroom. It’s always nice to hear back from my peers rather than my subordinates on how I’m doing as a leader because it makes me feel that I’m going in the right direction. Ever since I’ve been enrolled in my leadership courses I’ve tried to do a lot of self-reflection so that I can become a better coach. The other coach I work with on the JV team has pointed out to me a couple times this year the improvements he has seen in me as a coach over the past year and that he thinks I’ve been doing a great job. The encouragement I have received has been great but I have also experienced my fair share of discouragement. The softball program I’m currently working with hasn’t changed since I was involved in the program as a player in high school. In my opinion the program has become stagnant and is in need of some serious changes. The problem is that everytime I bring up a suggestion or an idea I’m shot down and told, “well this is how things have always been done and that is how it is going to continue to work.” It’s extremely discouraging and leaves me feeling like I can’t collaborate with the other coaches on bringing new ideas to the program.

Some of the qualities that I would like to further develop is having the ability to stand up for what I believe in. Again with the softball program I work with I think there are a lot of changes that need to be made. I usually only voice my opinion to the other JV and Freshman coaches. For some reason I’m afraid to approach the Varsity Head Coach. I’m not a big fan of confrontation and I don’t want to bring up a subject and cause problems. I don’t want to lose my position as a coach witht he program but I’m unfortunately becoming so frustrated with the situation that I’m to the point that I don’t care if I lose my position as a coach. I’d much rather voice my opinion in a respectful manner and however the Varsity coach takes it is up to her. In addition to working on standing up for what I believe in, I also need to devolop my time management skills. This is an area I’m severely deficient in and it has proven to be my kryptonite with school. I’m a terrible procrastinator and I know in the professional world that procrastination and poor time management skills will not get me very far at all.