Monday, October 28th - 4 hours

The weather this year has been significantly colder than usual. Even though the sun may be out and shining, the wind has been brutal making it to where if the thermostat says one thing, it could feel ten to fifteen degrees colder which is a big difference when the estimated highs are only getting into the 30s or low 40s. This creates the challenge of pushing practice and risking low productivity or injuries especially at the end of the season. For most younger teams, the decision isn't as difficult since it is a little more difficult to expect a ten year old to ignore being cold and work compared to the older players from high school. The unpredictable weather and limited locations make it difficult to reschedule practice as well. As a coach, it was difficult enough to communicate as a parent, but communicating that information club wide was an unexpected challenge. I've never been a part of the deciding part of whether to cancel trainings for an entire age group or the entire club. Timeliness is important to get a message out to the coaches about the director's thoughts rather than answering the same, but slightly different, email 17 times and being aware of the unique needs of each team. It is also important to be able to stress the importance of one big message that comes from coaches out to parents. If we don't seem like we are on a united front about the decision, other issues arise questioning other decisions made by the directors. If a coach pulls the "I don't know, I just work here" card, parents don't buy in as much to the goals we have or the purpose behind not just this decision, but the decisions on other topics down the road. Rather than leave the message open for interpretation and being communicated poorly, I included an additional copy and paste option at the bottom of the email after expressing the importance of united front communication. I was weary of doing this because I didn't want it to come off as an insult but decided to anyway as a trial run. Unfortunately, no feed back either was was received.