Bird Brown

Feeling pressure from all angles, after having a season canceled in the fall, the decision was made to allow us to meet with the students that were interested in a form of Organized Team Activities the get kids off the couch and interacting with their peers and coaches. For that alone, we were grateful.

Since my favorite color is green, there’s room for another green egg in my basket, this one a lighter shade of green that represents hope.

Parents and kids had to find other things with which to connect and other ways to communicate that hopefully will continue when things get back to “normal.”

The percentages of any high school athlete from any sport being able to continue their careers at any level of collegiate competition reflect the changing environment and increased competition of collegiate athletics.

Undoubtedly, there are players who have chosen to sit out this “fall” season until things can get back to some sort of normalcy, and they will be welcomed back when things open up. For those that have braved the storm, so to speak, and come out in these conditions, you have earned my lifetime respect.

We may have been skeptical about the chances of the Ravens running the table against the Broncos, Titans, and Raiders en route to the big game, but something told us after the victory in Tennessee that we better start planning our road trip.

It breaks my heart for the seniors in high school and college that are missing out on some of the best experiences of their academic and social careers.

While we’re all hunkered down at home, not making it to our lacrosse practices and games, not taking batting, outfield, or infield practice, not squeezing in spring soccer practices and games around spring sports, the fields themselves are taking a much-needed break.

You don’t realize how much you miss that interaction until you have it yanked out from under you with little to no warning.

Just as the country was waking up to the seriousness of this virus with professional sports leagues shutting down or postponing their seasons, people began to realize the impact it was going to have on the ancillary businesses that provided necessary support services to the teams and players.

When the cloud is lifted from these dark times, I hope that my new “family” will continue to take advantage of the spare time to get out into nature with their loved ones.

Being shut down this way from all organized spring sports — high school, recreation, and club — was something none of us saw coming, but it doesn’t mean that we have to completely eliminate sports from our life. You just have to become more creative.

I didn’t understand why someone would want to transfer schools to participate in athletics for what should be their rival school.

I wouldn’t be wrong in saying the organization has contributed to my loss of interest and support of the team I grew up living and dying for. But I share an equal part in the malaise.

I’m not sure if jealous was the right word, but as I watched them still playing the game we all love so much, I was envious of their time on the field.

As my playing “career” has long since come and gone, and my body is paying the price, the fondest memories of my sports experience always are surrounded by music.

Amazing what we’ll go through to support our teams.

The political process involved with getting your players honored with postseason accolades makes the current impeachment process look like a second grader’s tea party.

I know that stealing signs has been something that has been a part of the game forever, but the last time I checked the rules, it still was not allowed.

There are so many benefits to a lifetime in sports and few drawbacks, but sports can take its physical toll on those that chose to enter the arena.

At the beginning of the decade I was still playing indoor soccer on a weekly basis. Now, I’m recovering from my third joint replacement in the last six years, a long way from being able to play the game that has consumed my life.

I really thought that at least in sports we had moved away from the senseless comments and gestures toward people who are not like us, but I guess that I have been proven wrong again.

Just having a passion for the game doesn’t guarantee you great success in any sport.

I have much for which to be thankful.

All too often, we focus our attention on the high-performing and oftentimes pampered professional athletes that we admire because of their amazing athletic talents. Maybe we should stop for a second and learn from the kids who really get what it’s all about.

It’s a crazy world of sports we’re living in these days. Esports? Bass fishing? What’s next, fencing? Well, yes.

What has changed over the last few decades where parents have become so engrossed in our kid’s sporting lives that we feel we need to coach them over their coaches, ref them over their refs, and even feel like we should be playing for our kids when they’re not doing “what they’re supposed to do.”

The NBA and its players have a tremendous platform to use for social justice and in many ways they have been at the forefront of those battles leading the way toward equality and personal freedoms. They are quick to jump behind a cause they can call their own and promote its goals and ideals but I really think they missed the boat on this one.

We spent so many weekends driving our Chevy Suburban full of kids and smell equipment (or was it equipment and smelly kids) up and down I-95 that the memories just kept pouring in.

I never know when the right time is to lay down a “Black Sunday” type training session to get the players’ attention. I certainly have had my share of teams under-performing over the years (including my current high school team) but have always been uncomfortable being the coach that lays down punishment to get them back on track.

I always say that if a referee is older or fatter than I am, they shouldn’t still be refereeing. Unfortunately, most counties don’t adhere to my “rule,” and so we’re stuck dealing with someone who is unable to stay with the flow of play.

The time has come to have some sort of filter on what is posted out on a social network. Kids thrive in this environment because most of us as parents can’t keep up with the pace of change in technology or turn our head to what our kids might be putting out there.

I am all about offense and scoring, but that experience and the experience of coaching against some of the best club teams in the region has made me much more of a defensive-minded coach than I would have otherwise been. Nobody likes a tie, but the only thing worse is losing.

Face it. The fabric of our lives in a capitalist based society is the spirit of competition. Without competition, there is little or no innovation. There is little or no initiative.

For the people that have known me for a short time, think I’m a bandwagon jumper or I’ve dusted off my Notre Dame gear because they’re successful as of late. The people that really know me know that I’ve been the most obnoxious Notre Dame fan for almost 50 years, even when Gerry Faust, Bob Davies, and Charlie Weis were coaches.

What is it about being a coach’s kid that makes you different from the rest of your teammates?

Each year at this time I tend to come back to columns about the tryout evaluations, the coach’s decision-making process, and offer a few bits of advice from my decades of coaching and playing in the world of competitive sports.

Christian Pulisic is not not alone as our true talent pool is in the kids that are roughly his age or only slightly older, but there is just something special about this kid that warrants more attention.

This fall, when my season at WHS kicks in and I’ll be back on the sidelines doing what I love, my wife will be in the stands only to support my players and me without any “real” stake in the game. My boys will be sitting in the stands along with her as spectators and fans but without any pointers for their brother on the field, because, well, there won’t be a brother on the field.

The relationships that you forge while playing competitive sports are ones that can be the deepest of any you’ll experience throughout your life.

There are some amazing things that happen on the field of play, and then there are just some really dumb facets of the game that I will never understand.

I love catching up with people’s summer activities through Facebook and Instagram to see what everyone chooses to do with their spare time.

Had I stayed and given them what they wanted, who knows what could have come out of that confrontation?

Don’t like their “excessive” celebrations? Don’t let them score more goals.

You can’t go back and fix your mistakes, but you can start today and change the ending.

Only a handful of the boys that started with us originally or picked up along the way are taking their game to the next level and playing in college.

Gas prices spike just as we enter this weekend and somehow mysteriously drop again as summer comes to a close. Nothing like a little capitalism at play.

We all could learn a little something from the Barca culture.

There was something about playing in front of my family, most notably my mother that incentivized me like no other.

The one thing that I noticed as I gimped around the complex over those four days was that without exception every field had at least that “one” parent that really made a name for themselves with such unbelievable sideline behavior that I’m sure would make their mothers blush.