Many meetings... Ok well, one meeting.

The 2010-2011 Pirates met as a team for the first time today. No, we’re not having illegal practices, we held our annual mid-summer meeting. Overall, the meeting went fine, we got our guys registered for classes and covered a large chunk of information that they will need, but will likely forget by the time we get going in August.


The funny thing about this sort of information only, parent/player meeting is that we look forward to seeing everyone, but we walk in knowing we’re about to willfully throw ourselves into about an hour of post-meeting chaos.

The part of the meeting that goes smoothly is the part where Coach Thomas and I basically go over all the stuff our guys need to know to get going in the fall. The part that gets a little hectic is when we unleash the registration packets and start picking out classes. For returning guys, this part takes about 5 minutes. They know what they’ve taken, they know what they need, and they’re familiar enough with the process that they don’t spend too much time pondering their class options. The incoming freshmen are a bit of a different story. No one wants to get off on a bad foot in the classroom, even the guys who wish they never have to set foot in one. With that in mind, they sit down with several sheets of paper outlining the available class options and start putting together our schedule.

Where it gets interesting is in the conversations discussing the importance of this class over that class. It is a perfectly normal concern that most parents have worrying that their son is taking too many tough classes right off, or too many light classes right off, or that he’s going to be put into classes that won’t actually help him graduate. Even for me, it might be difficult to look down and think “You mean to tell me that typing or weight training will help my son graduate??” Hopefully, our moms and dads left today with a better understanding of how the whole system works.

The best part of the day is getting the chance to sit and speak with families and players that I haven’t gotten to know very well yet. I know we’re talking about class, but it is still nice to spend a few minutes discussing things and getting a feel for who I’m going to be dealing with for the next two years. If today is a good measuring stick, it should be another very successful couple of seasons.

So that was today, getting registered, telling guys not to be late, and to show up in shape. We’re one step closer to moving in and kicking this thing off in the fall.