Sometimes You Have To Quit

I just got home from the Ohio High School State Wrestling Championships, and realized that a decision I made four years ago paid off for a young man.

I used to be a wrestling coach. I did it for 13 years and those kids are still to this day an important part of my life. As a matter of fact, I attended tonight's event with a former wrestler.

As a coach, it was pretty much a year round commitment.  Wrestling season begins in November and ends in the first week of March, but that is just the season.  The off-season consisted of workouts, training, and traveling all over the eastern U.S. to wrestle the best competition.  I loved doing it, I believe most of my kids did as well, and they benefitted from that commitment.  In 2005 I had the opportunity to coach my first state champion, and it was a feeling like no other.  All of the time and hard work that kid put in paid off.  It was almost as if I was just along for the ride.  I thought this would be the first of many that I would be a part of in my career.

A month later our first daughter was born, and four years after that, our second daughter.  I have a very understanding wife, and when it was just the two of us, she understood and supported the amount of time I put in with my wresters.  Add two children to the mix, and I would not say she was less understanding, but I began regretting the amount of time I was away from them.

I had some very talented wrestlers coming up through our youth program, some that I was very confident in their potential to stand atop the podium at the state tournament.  However I had come to a realization.  I was not going to be able to be as committed to these wrestlers as I was to my previous wrestlers.

So I made a decision, and it was both selfish and selfless.  I quit.  Selfishly I wanted to spend more time with my family.  Selflessly, the kids I coached deserved to have a coach who would be committed to them the way I no longer would.  My biggest fear, was not being committed and actually becoming a detriment to their dreams of glory.

Tonight I watched one of those kids win a state title.  The coach that replaced me reminded me a great deal of myself in my early years.  He was going to be able to provide those kids with the opportunities that I no longer was willing to provide.  Four years later, I realized quitting probably enabled that kid to win a state championship because I feared I was only going to get in his way.

I had so many people ask me tonight if I regretted quitting because I passed up an opportunity to coach another state champ?  Deep down in my heart, I believe that quitting helped his path in getting there, and I could not have been more proud of that kid tonight.