So it has been awhile since my last post and I really have had an amazing time since finishing my masters at Fresno Pacific. I landed my dream job coaching college soccer at a great NAIA school and I was able to start the program from scratch which is a blessing and a curse all in its own.
I have without a doubt been blessed and everyday I am grateful for this opportunity and gift that I have been working so hard to attain. Now comes the hard pieces. I have been tempted by another school to leave this place and make a jump to another level. I am not one to look to leave so soon and nor did I really expect a call. Now that I have been teased a bit my curiosity is nagging me to look. I am not ego driven and I am not money driven although a bump would help. I am only interested in what is right from my wife and kids. My wife is an angel and has always supported me and pushed me to do better and has caught me and kicked my butt when needed and she believes that there is no harm in looking which I agree , BUT what if I am offered the position?? then what?? Do I leave this wonderful place ? or do I let this chance go by and pray I made the right choice? I am conflicted like no other and it's difficult. I always wanted to be where I am and over the last 5 years I have killed myself to be here. I am basically scared not for my well being , but only for my family's well being. I know I must go with my heart and that is difficult... In my time at FPU they never discussed this case and again I was not prepared for this at this time. The struggle is real...
I believe in statistical analysis for various reason. One is that they absolutely show fact and cannot be argued with. I have been doing stats for my teams for the five years and the data shows my teams strengths and weaknesses. For example I have kept data on how many shots it takes to score a goal. On the average it takes ten shots. Many times I have had team just pummel a goal with shots and not score, but as soon as they approach that tenth shot they score. My teams goals are to always get at least twenty shots a game. I also use it to track effort or points per player. I keep stats on players when the run sprints as to who is crossing the finish line first or constantly winning scrimmages in practices Some times I post them and it motivates the bottom half to try harder because they hate seeing their name so low. Which helps the entire team when they are all competing against each other because it causes a sense of competition and desire to be the best. Then when we play against other teams they fight as hard as they can to win together. Stats are a great way to keep track of anything. I would recommend to any coaching staff to do their best to do so. Many people stay away because of the math principle , but now there are so many online free sites it makes things super easy to do it.
Professional and personal websites are now becoming a popular way to send your resume out to employers. Soon all paper applications will be a thing of the past. You have social media sites like Linkedin and Prezi to post your resume and with a couple of clicks you can send it out to many possible employers in the same time it took you to send to just one. We live in a time were within seconds people can share information and just about anything else so why not resumes also. The job market is extremely competitive and its a numbers game. So the more you send out the higher chances of landing a job or at least an interview. I believe that these sites are also a great attention grabber so employers can be attracted to the template of the resume and to the creativity of the applicant then the information. These are great tools and I can see why they are growing in popularity. The one thing I must say is that I still believe there is a huge value in face to face interviews and meetings. These interviews are great ways to see and feel how the potential applicant can handle real situations. Many people tend to rely on their resumes and or qualifications and those are great to have but real one on one pressure can make all those things disappear. So although there maybe flaws to the online route. It is still the wave of the future and I am sure it will benefit many more employers and job seekers.
Professional networking is a way to connect and to possibly advance yourself to other opportunities. I have always felt that networking was a great way to get to know people and to learn about things that you may never get a chance to know about. You may stumble upon a chance to make big changes in your career or connect someone else to another. I see the great things in social networking that makes things easy to connect one with another. I still feel that face to face communication is the most important way to network, but now with the web its a faster process to connect. I know in my own experiences that I have benefited from networking since many of the coaching positions I have had were based on another person recommendation rather than what was just on paper. I too have had many conversations with others asking questions about possible new hires and whether I would give an endorsement or not. I must add that there are so many things that go along with networking. I first believe that you must make the right first impression. I believe that being behind a screen can be negative if something typed is taken wrong versus what the delivery would be like in person . I feel that you must have a real interest in the person and show that you are genuine so that its not just an acquaintance. Overall networking is key to many things and relationships will always benefit the ones involved as well as the environment.
To Wiki or not to Wiki that is the question? I work in a middle school and we are always looking for information. many students head directly to places like Wikipedia for the answers without actually knowing that it is created by some that are not actually fact finders and have no real proof for what they are adding to the site. The teachers at the school are always reminding student to not always believe what they read or digest from the site. The great thing is that the sites are open to additions from various entities and are always growing. The keywords that come to mind when discussing wikis are “simple” and “expanding”. In Scott R. Sailors column, I Thought Wikis Were Creatures in “Star Wars,” wikis are defined as “a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser” (pp.1) More importantly, wikis allow multiple authors to edit the Web page and best of all, they do not have to be tech savvy to do so. Professor Sailor goes on to explain, “Wiki derives its name from the Hawaiian word for quick. This provides the context from which wikis are created. Some refer to wikis as the world’s simplest Web sites” (pp.3). I tend to stay away from wikis unless I am looking for something specific and not opinionated based. I always advise my students to please do more research before relying on these blogs.
These two site have the ability to connect people. That is an extremely positive thing. They both do it on a different level. Facebook is a true social media site where people get to post their feelings, emotions, and point of views. Although you should never judge a book by its cover it does give you a small look into a persons background. Linkedin does a very different thing where all you get is a persons professional background and accreditation's. This is a place I will go to check out possible coaches credentials , but I will rather see a Facebook page just to see if they are who they really seem to be. I like to look at Facebook because I feel more connected to the emotional side of things as well as the humor in posts. I also see that it is updated far more than linkedin. I also see that Facebook has many more participants and that alone is a major plus for networking. Overall Facebook will always be the heavy hitter because it allows more. Linkedin will also have a spot just for surface information and a quick shot of a persons work abilities.
As a coach one of the hardest thing to do is to get all the information out to all the parents at one time. If you cannot find a way to do it efficiently you will spend your time repeating things over and over again. That is why I endorse this app. It takes all their email address and contact info and groups its in one place. You can add a calender and post things like training dates and tournament info as well as all league games. I also like the text feature which allows you to send mass texts. I use it daily to send emails to all my players and parents. I have over ninety percent of my club coaches using it. They have a free feature which is generally all we need to use. It is super friendly and easy to use. I recommend it and hope more use it or an app like it.
Well as I was going through the site I realized that out of the top 20 I use at least eleven daily. I was also surprised that Google chrome was not higher than it was. I hear daily about the uses of Google apps and docs. We are now adopting it for our school district and are going away from Microsoft products although many of us continue to use Word and PowerPoint for our presentations. I am going to look up some other social networking sites like Edmodo which is a site to share teaching ideas and plans with other teachers. I believe its great to connect with other people of a similar field. I do love using Drop box I feel very lucky to be able to dig through my files when I am not home it also helps my computer because I store it there rather than my hard drive.