I have changed already my blog name to Coach Dad.......with my younger son's help. The idea of "Coach Dad" is appropriate in more ways than one. Appropriateness is relevant in that as a rec coach for approximately fifteen years with football, T-ball, (and rec soccer for about another fifteen years later), this coach had the blessings of fathers who aided me in coaching their sons. Team pictures always pictured Coach Dowdy standing beside at least...two....three...or... four fathers who helped coach their sons. Granted...I was "the coach;" but the Dads were also equally (or more so) valuable for their patience...presence...and...support..!!

When I coached junior high/middle school soccer for twenty years...it was the players and I; but.....on certain specific years some fathers were conveniently available to assist me when we practiced in after school hours. Remind me to tell you about these Dads in the next blog..!!

Introduction

Coaching from fall 1969 until spring of 2004 includes many different springs of T-ball and baseball.....7-8 falls of rec football....more falls of the newcomer soccer....and ending up with twenty springs of junior high/middle school school soccer. This coach is attempting "a blog" that may cover these approximately thirty-five years of working with the lives of probably five hundred to near a thousand athletes. This novel idea came not from my crowded mind, but from the innovative and energetic young mind of my younger son who started this blog with hopes that his coach-dad might open myself to share thoughts and feelings from sports to life itself This young middle school soccer stand-out/varsity player/captain college player/high school soccer varsity coach created this idea in the freshness of soccer and general sports enthusiasm. I have decided to try one column.......and see what happens............

Merry Christmas!!