I know because I ran the club for the first 7 years and volunteers are hard to find for the four oldest teams
That's exactly right, Diane. My job has a grand title, but it's basically an admin/HR post. I do take to the field on coaching night and look after other teams, but only when their coach is off sick, and much of the job has been about persuading (pinching) kids from one team into another or to arrange the re-grading of teams who are getting smashed into a lower division, where they might be more competitive.
As you obviously are well aware, coaches are in the people business, and it is often not pleasant. Whenever I see a parent bearing down on me I say to myself "right, here goes...".
I am constantly dreaming of a little holiday cottage we once rented on the Inishowen Peninsula in Ireland, overlooking nothing but ocean. The next landfall was New York, in fact. I would love to set up a studio there and work, drawing and writing, until I left this mortal coil. I wonder if Sir Alex Ferguson has similar thoughts?
