Well, at the ripe age of 7 I signed my son up for baseball (T-Ball), it was just shy of a complete waste of time, then I signed him up for YMCA soccer and that was a complete waste of time. I didn't know what to do... here my son is 7 years old and needing some sort of activity to keep his focus off of the Playstation and TV. Well, I wrestled when I was younger so I thought maybe that was just the ticket. I didn't necessarily want my son doing wrestling as his primary sport, but something to fill in the time before spring or summer.

The first day of my sons wrestling practice I tried following along with him. Trying to understand what was happening, why certain things were done, but the truth is I was as clueless as my son. Rick asked me for a little help, I got off the mat and instead of watching I was actually helping. Mostly I didn't really do any coaching just tried to make sure the kids weren't playing when they were supposed to be working, but the first time a little kid came up to me and said "Coach, can you help us" things changed.

Now I don't think I am a coach, I am just a dad helping, but to that little kid I am a coach. It looked like they were having problems and I tried to help them, but in the end I went and got one of the more experienced coaches to help, but it did not change the fact that the next time that kid came over to tell me something he still called me "Coach". That one word, "Coach", means a lot maybe not to me or you, but to that little kid who is looking up at you needing help, it means the world.

This is how I started to help coach. What will it take you to start?

Doug's Dad - the non-coach coach.