The NIGH****CHMAN - Tuesday 8/18
Hey George...
I've had a crappy day which has left me in a sour mood. Grrr. We have a new head tennis coach which I know with "new" comes "change". We're creatures of habit and don't like change.... The two older girls had one more summer session to get in at the tennis club before Thursday. We had planned to have them go last Thursday and this past Monday. The old coach had asked if we could change the Thursday session to one this week which would mean this past Monday and either Wed. or Thurs. as this advanced group only met on M/W/Th's. He asked us to change, so we did, as he wanted Viktoria to play a specific higher ranked player so we changed our plans to accomodate him. Today we get an email from the new coach stating if the kids are on the team, practice for this week is absolutely mandatory and imperative for them to be there (3:30-5:30 Tue-Fri). I called the guy up (he gave his number on the email in case a parent needed to call him) and explained to him how Coach B. had asked us to change our plans and not go to a pre-paid session at the club and that we could go this week, but in reading his email, I needed to check with him to see which day would be better for the girls to miss practice there at the school. The guy tells me "sorry, obviously this is extraordinary cir****tances that I took over so late but I really have to have the girls at practice". I explained again that WE changed our plans to accomodate Coach B. and he said it was ok if the girls missed, now he is saying NO and I'm supposed to just be out the $60 which is what the two sessions were??? He just repeated himself. I said, "so you are saying I have to lose the prepaid session as there is no way you could allow them to miss out ONE day". Again, he just repeated himself. I was FUMING when I got off the phone. The club doesn't give out refunds, especially since there has been so many sessions throughout the summer, but we had three weeks to get in a couple sessions and between these darn afternoon pop up showers and high school practice, we couldn't get the darn sessions in! I do know most of the pros quite well and they know how much money we have plunked down there in the past few years so I'm going to head over there tomorrow and see if maybe they will let the older girls do a make-up session during the club's regular fall season of clinics which starts Sept. 1st. Those sessions are only two hours and the summer ones were 2.5 hours but it's close enough so I'd be happy if they'd let me just do that. We'll see what they say. The new coach told the kids he and Coach B. will announce Varsity positions and JV positions on Thursday, probably during the parent meeting. Paul and I don't want to just disobey the coach and have them go to the prepaid session as we wouldn't want to be the cause for them not getting on the varsity team strictly because we were defiant...that's not fair to the girls who have worked SO hard. Obviously if Coach K. is the new head coach, we all have to go by his rules but having seen stuff like this happen before, the guy had best be careful not to come in and upset the apple basket too much, too fast, or they won't even HAVE a tennis team because the kids will just say "forget this". Today they didn't play any tennis...the guy decided they all need to work on conditioning so they had to go to the track and run a mile. He told the kids that all people wanting to be on the tennis team NEXT year will have to be able to run a mile in 7:35 min. for boys and 8:45 for the girls. Oh what joy.....
After my conversation with the new coach, I got in my car, found my Phil Collins CD, put it in and just blasted out the sound...dousing the "flames" in sound I guess. Just had to zone out for a bit. Of course I kept my opinions about him to myself as I didn't want the girls to hear how upset I was!!!
Of course NONE of my anguish I had today holds a candle to Elizabeth's family and friends and the sorrow they are feeling tonight. At least the poor baby is now free of hospitals, procedures, and most importantly the pain she had to be in....
I've had a crappy day which has left me in a sour mood. Grrr. We have a new head tennis coach which I know with "new" comes "change". We're creatures of habit and don't like change.... The two older girls had one more summer session to get in at the tennis club before Thursday. We had planned to have them go last Thursday and this past Monday. The old coach had asked if we could change the Thursday session to one this week which would mean this past Monday and either Wed. or Thurs. as this advanced group only met on M/W/Th's. He asked us to change, so we did, as he wanted Viktoria to play a specific higher ranked player so we changed our plans to accomodate him. Today we get an email from the new coach stating if the kids are on the team, practice for this week is absolutely mandatory and imperative for them to be there (3:30-5:30 Tue-Fri). I called the guy up (he gave his number on the email in case a parent needed to call him) and explained to him how Coach B. had asked us to change our plans and not go to a pre-paid session at the club and that we could go this week, but in reading his email, I needed to check with him to see which day would be better for the girls to miss practice there at the school. The guy tells me "sorry, obviously this is extraordinary cir****tances that I took over so late but I really have to have the girls at practice". I explained again that WE changed our plans to accomodate Coach B. and he said it was ok if the girls missed, now he is saying NO and I'm supposed to just be out the $60 which is what the two sessions were??? He just repeated himself. I said, "so you are saying I have to lose the prepaid session as there is no way you could allow them to miss out ONE day". Again, he just repeated himself. I was FUMING when I got off the phone. The club doesn't give out refunds, especially since there has been so many sessions throughout the summer, but we had three weeks to get in a couple sessions and between these darn afternoon pop up showers and high school practice, we couldn't get the darn sessions in! I do know most of the pros quite well and they know how much money we have plunked down there in the past few years so I'm going to head over there tomorrow and see if maybe they will let the older girls do a make-up session during the club's regular fall season of clinics which starts Sept. 1st. Those sessions are only two hours and the summer ones were 2.5 hours but it's close enough so I'd be happy if they'd let me just do that. We'll see what they say. The new coach told the kids he and Coach B. will announce Varsity positions and JV positions on Thursday, probably during the parent meeting. Paul and I don't want to just disobey the coach and have them go to the prepaid session as we wouldn't want to be the cause for them not getting on the varsity team strictly because we were defiant...that's not fair to the girls who have worked SO hard. Obviously if Coach K. is the new head coach, we all have to go by his rules but having seen stuff like this happen before, the guy had best be careful not to come in and upset the apple basket too much, too fast, or they won't even HAVE a tennis team because the kids will just say "forget this". Today they didn't play any tennis...the guy decided they all need to work on conditioning so they had to go to the track and run a mile. He told the kids that all people wanting to be on the tennis team NEXT year will have to be able to run a mile in 7:35 min. for boys and 8:45 for the girls. Oh what joy.....
After my conversation with the new coach, I got in my car, found my Phil Collins CD, put it in and just blasted out the sound...dousing the "flames" in sound I guess. Just had to zone out for a bit. Of course I kept my opinions about him to myself as I didn't want the girls to hear how upset I was!!!
Of course NONE of my anguish I had today holds a candle to Elizabeth's family and friends and the sorrow they are feeling tonight. At least the poor baby is now free of hospitals, procedures, and most importantly the pain she had to be in....