Sebastian is our fourteen-year-old son and he says some of the funniest things–we have no idea where he gets his material since his mother and I are rather boring, serious people. 

This a little departure this week from the humor and hijinx that usually surrounds my younger son. As many of you may know, a few years ago, my wife volunteered me to be the Junior Varsity coach at our sons’ school. I had coached both boys on and off in various recreation leagues in both Philadelphia and here in Houston, but it was not until I started coaching Nathan during his first year in high school (and was worried that I may have to cut him) that I really realized the challenges and rewards of coaching one’s own children.

This year, with Nathan in his second year off at college, Sebastian is now on the J.V. team as a 9th grader. He probably should be on the Varsity, but I am thrilled to have him on my squad. Thus far, he is the leading scorer and rebounder on the team, and taking him out of the game for any reason is never a good idea.

This last game, a 43-37 loss, he had the best game of his young life: 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 steals (I am sure he had some assists as well, but my stats keeper is a bit confused when it comes to that concept).

So, as happy as I am now with having him on the team, I know it is only a matter of time before he gets the “call” up to Varsity and I will be officially done–I will never coach one of my sons again. I didn’t really think about that last point until a couple of days ago and it hit me rather hard. Harder than I thought it would be. But instead of focusing on how fleeting the time with him is, I would rather focus on his shooting percentage, which is still well below 50%, and the fact that he really needs a haircut.