Taking Charge

I'm the kind of person who likes it when things are taken care of and I don't have to do a thing. Just show up and things magically happen as they should. The complications arise when the person in charge can't make it, and as is often the case, suddenly yours truly is placed in charge. How exactly do these sort of things transpire? Actually, I know exactly why.

We were slated to take N's team photo later this week but we are actually hitting the road and wouldn't be there. I wasn't sure how big of a deal this was to N, and he even said that it was okay, but you could tell it was important to him. He doesn't always come straight out with it, but you can tell when he wants something. This meant that things had to be done differently, and the only way this was going to happen was if I took the reigns and made it happen.

My first question was, why can't we do it on a different day, or even next week? It had to happen during practice when all the players were there, and we had three chances. It also had to happen this week because there was some sort of deadline, so next week was not an option. I asked the man in charge, GG, about another day, but he was busy with town and school board stuff, and his backup was away looking at colleges. The final option was for N to miss the team photo, which as I mentioned, we decided was not an option.

GG said we could do it on earlier and I'd just have to inform everyone and get the pic taken. In the past I've actually taken the team photo myself, so all I needed was a camera, which we have. I then needed to contact all the players and make the proper arrangements, which I started to do the night before, since we had no time to spare. N has a big team, so I got started and called each one of them to tell them what was going on and remind them to wear their home jerseys and socks. Fortunately most of them answered the phone so I got the message out. I then arranged for one of the moms who is a photographer to take the pic, for which she was happy to oblige. I then had to contact the other coach to tell him we were going to hold up his practice while we posed on the ice.

The next day, I planned on getting there early to set up the shot, make sure everyone was on the ice in a timely manner, and finally, I had to locate the team banner that hadn't been used since last year. I called the arena to speak with the manager and he said he had no idea where it was, but would try to find it. Great. We headed over and I happened to run into GG as he was leaving for his meeting, and he informed me that all was well and the banner had been found. Whew!

Working quickly with the other coaches, we got the players suited up, the benches on the ice, and everyone smiling for the camera. MCG took several shots and we were done. Boy was I relieved. As I mentioned, life is much simpler when someone else takes care of everything, but you can't always look for the easy way out, right?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to craig lindop for the pic.