This month’s grit and growth theme is: Coaches

This past month, we had the opportunity to attend the annual Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) convention in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida. We are always deeply grateful when coaches trust us to walk alongside them, and being in community with so many of them during this week was especially meaningful.

Coaches play a vital role in the health and resilience of their teams—and we firmly believe that for a team to be healthy, their coach must be healthy too. They deserve the same kind of support that is available to athletes, especially when you consider the many hats coaches wear. Beyond the work that we see on the sidelines, they take on countless responsibilities, including but not limited to:

• Managing the roster and recruiting for future teams

• Providing emotional support to players who are struggling

• Serving as liaisons to school administrators

• Acting as first responders when emergencies arise for players far from home

• Mediating conflict when teammates aren’t getting along

• Handling travel logistics for games, tournaments, and trips

• Planning meals and coordinating food while on the road

• Creating and sustaining team culture

• Fundraising to help their programs thrive

• Supervising and shaping the development of new coaches

• Acting as the spokesperson and public representative for their program

When you look at this list, it’s clear: a coach’s job description is endless. More truthfully, coaching is a lifestyle, not a job. The average person has no idea how much a coach carries for their team. There is no true “end of the day”—and even when a season ends, the work immediately shifts to recruiting, planning, and preparing for the next one. Coaches even plan weddings and babies around off-seasons. They field criticism from fans without anyone seeing the countless hours, sacrifices, and emotional energy poured into their athletes.

During this season of reflection and gratitude, we invite you to take a moment to appreciate all that coaches do. And if you have a coach in your life—personally or professionally—reach out and let them know you see the weight they carry and the heart they bring to their work. 

I (Sarah) have had the absolute privilege of sharing my daughter with some truly wonderful coaches over the years. When she was little, all I hoped was that someone would see her fire, her passion, and the fact that beneath all the sweat and chaos, she really was a great little human.

In those early youth-sports days, parents essentially are the coaching staff. We’ve all gotten that call: “Sooo… we don’t have anyone else to coach. Can you?” Suddenly your qualifications don’t matter—just your willingness and whether you can provide good snacks.

Eventually you reach the stage where coaches actually know the sport and no one has to Google the rules between drills. Then comes travel sports. My family once swore, “We will never do travel.” Cut to: seven straight summers living at the same tournament complexes, practically having squatters’ rights, and being recognized by every Hampton Inn front desk employee in Maryland.

Thankfully, my daughter ended up in the best possible hands—former players, dedicated parents, college athletes sacrificing their weekends, and the legendary Christina D’Angelo of Yellow Jackets South, who still comes up at our dinner table. She’s that rare coach who nurtures talent, teaches grit, holds kids accountable, and isn’t afraid to deliver the honest “here’s your real recruiting level” conversation most parents avoid (or distort).

Then college arrives, and suddenly I’m on the sidelines for good. This relationship is hers now. And while it’s not hard because I want to meddle—I definitely don’t—it is strange to hand your 18-year-old over to new rules, expectations, and a culture you no longer shape, knowing it will define her college experience.

But I trust her coaches. And I trust her. She has been preparing for this student-athlete life for 18 years. Now it’s her turn to run the play. I’m happy to report she’s a junior now—and she’s adulting beautifully.

This month we’d like to highlight the Chicago Bears- or, more specifically, the fans who love them.  My sweet husband’s family is from Chicago, so I (Shannon) happily inherited their teams.  As a kid, he got to cheer on the Bulls (Michael Jordan’s version), and the Bears (80’s era)- certainly seasons when it felt easy to love those teams.  But since then, the journey has been…let’s say, less predictable.  For our beloved Bears, being a fan over the last decade has been a masterclass in resilience. Fans have weathered coaching changes, quarterback experiments, rebuilds that promised hope and seasons that fell short of it. You learn to reset your heart each August, fully aware that September might test it immediately — and still, every Sunday we show up in our navy and orange (maybe also because we’ve spent the weekend cheering on UVA’s teams who conveniently wear the same colors- Go Hoos!).  

Over time, we have learned to find joy in the small victories and celebrate grit, growth, and potential just as much as the final score.  Being a resilient Bears fan also involves quite a roller coaster of emotions given that this team rarely loses quietly, and when they win, it’s almost always dramatic. You learn to  embrace the chaos, knowing your team is capable of pulling off something wild in the last two minutes, because they’ve done it enough times to make “hope” a reasonable strategy.

And would you believe it? This past weekend, those same Bears quietly climbed to the top of the division after beating the Philadelphia Eagles on the road. I actually had to double-check: Wait… did you just say the Bears are in first place? Playoffs? This year? No matter what happens from here, I’m so happy for them. I’m happy for the city of Chicago. And I’m especially happy for my 11-year-old, who has waited so patiently to see his Bears have a season like this.

Being a fan of any team that has struggled means believing in a future that you can’t see yet– holding onto the faith that someday all the loyalty, heartache, and optimism will finally pay off.

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