An Update on Work

So, this week Steve and I got the week's "Mabton Community Spirit Award" as announced at the boys varsity basketball game last night. Steve is just the loudest person there.... No, really we have tried to make an effort to be at as many different sporting events as we can and cheer for any and all students Steve knows. It makes for some long, numb-butted, but fun nights by the time we try to hit both JV games, both Varsity games, and maybe some of the C team if we can manage the timing. We have also attended some wrestling matches and are starting to learn appropriate things to yell even though neither of us understands more than about half the rules. It's also great to see how much it means to the kids that Steve comes and cheers for them. They really care what he thinks - a lot. Just another little piece in the puzzle which helps us feel like we got this job so that we could try and make a difference in this community.

In other news, I am officially coaching the B Team for our junior high now. We combine all of the girls from 7 and 8 and so we are going to have 3 teams even though we only have 21 girls out. The newest update though is that I am no longer getting paid for this work. The athletic director/head coach didn't follow procedures for hiring me correctly over the old assistant coach, so the coaches union and school board got called in and ruled that the other assistant coach had to get the paid position. Sucks for me, but I have no hard feelings towards her. The head coach is going to split his check with me some to help out with gas, we've heard different stories as far as whether he chose to do this or the school board made him... Regardless, I am back to looking for part-time work while coaching. The girls I'm working with need a lot more teaching than coaching but they are great girls and I love coaching girls who want to work so hard.

So now I'll have to keep my school mascots straight as Steve and I go to Viking games and now I coach the Oarsmen. Yup, I know. We are a primarily Hispanic community with those mascots, but it could be worse. The other day Mabton played a private school and they were the Christian Crusaders...