A Sides to Every Story

Sorry I missed posting last night, I uhm, oh yea, fell asleep. Tonight I'll continue with the school theme this week. Ever had a teacher that made you miserable and you seriously considered murdering them or you wished they were in a car wreck? That was my relationship with coach Sides. Remember I'm still going to a small private school at this time and coach Sides was the coach. I mean THE ONLY coach we had. If you played a sport, coach Sides coached it. There was a couple of things about Sides as I grew to call him, leaving the coach part off as a dig at him. First, he was from Michigan but found it necessary to spread his brand of misery in Texas, particularly in the town where I was born and raised. Secondly, he was from Michigan. Sides was about 6'1" and lean, with a rosy complexion, maybe even a rosatia case. He was the Basketball, Baseball, Girls Basketball, Volleyball coach, he also taught P.E. and one year he taught a Bible class, and Health. He was one of these that catered to those that played sports as most coaches do, but I also learned something else, that he changed my view of coaches for the rest of my life. I really believe there is a cookie cutter mold for coaches, the only thing that changes is the color of eyes, hair, and what sport they once excelled at and now coach. Coach Sides and myself gained a history very quickly, the first incident was I had gone hunting over the weekend and had taken my BB gun, some BB's fell out in my pocket, I thought nothing of it, they were harmless BB's but at school a classmate had reached into my pocket for some reason (I forgot why) and pulled out a handful of BB's. He then decided that it would be great fun to chunk these at everyone. It quickly got back to Sides that BB's were being thrown and he was on the scene to investigate, after interrogating the one that threw the BB's he came looking for me wanting to know why I had brought them to school, of course it made perfect sense that I had decided to bring a weapon, in the form of BB's with NOTHING TO PROPEL them with! I quickly found myself in the principles office scared to death. After explaining numerous times what had happened I was finally released on my own recognisance after promising not to bring BB's to school anymore. Coach and I carried on like this every year we had to spend together we were a lot like oil and water. Some other highlights, include a P.E. soccer game in which Sides was playing goalie and I was open with the ball and coming down the field quickly, I got as close as I could and I think subconsciously I planned this part, but, I kicked the ball with more force than ever, and planted it squarely on his chin. Secretly, I laughed until I was crying but on the outside I had to show some concern until a classmate spoke up "Now coaches face is even more red". This statement drew Sides ire and my classmate was banished to running laps for the remainder of the class period. There were other incidents but I would rather not bore you, just know that after the five or so years I spent with him, I learned to hate coaches, all coaches in general, they were all overly macho A**holes with a chip on their shoulder who do anything to look good in front of their athletes, to be accepted not as a teacher but as a peer to those they were supposedly "Teaching". I hold this feeling to this day, I can walk in a school and spot a coach a mile away, I get irritated to the point of being loud and causing a scene when I hear about how the local school hired another coach to fill a position instead of another full time teacher who used to hold the same position. My sophomore year coach Sides left, I heard he was forced back to Michigan by his wife, all I knew was that he could have left sooner and I wouldn't have missed him.