Published on: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

By Brian J. Karem

Thanks coach for making my senior year as a high school football player so memorable. I've been playing this sport since I was eight-years-old and I will always remember this year above all others.

Thank you for teaching me about self-control as you got a 15 yard penalty on the bench for losing your cool, and then turning around in another game and benching me for getting upset in our locker room at half time because we were losing.

Thank you for teaching me about dedication. I haven't missed a practice while you've been late to every practice this year and haven't even bothered to show up for at least three practices.

Thank you for teaching me about hypocrisy as you canned your offensive coordinator for not showing up to summer weight training while you didn't show up for two practices last week as we prepared for a game we could've won.

Thanks for teaching me about not giving up by telling us at halftime of a recent game that you didn't have anything to say to us as we were down by a lot of points.

Thank you for teaching me about inspiration by failing to inspire us when we were down.

Thank you for teaching me about self-control as you told us we were the worst team you've ever coached.

Thank you for teaching me about how to earn respect as you screamed at me to get out of your face and that you didn't want to talk to me.

Thank you for teaching me about how to overcome obstacles as you threw your hands up in the air and said, "We just can't pass," or "We just can't run the ball."

Thank you for inspiring confidence in me as your starting quarterback by benching me when I called an audible.

Thank you for teaching me about self-control again as you benched me for an entire game for calling that audible and then demoted me to second-string.

Thanks for enforcing your lesson on hypocrisy and teaching me about justice by then allowing my backup to call the audible for which I was benched and giving him absolutely no repercussions.

Thank you coach for teaching me about loyalty as you demeaned your coaching staff in front of us and told your offensive coordinator what a horrible call he made to go for it on fourth down.

Thank you coach for teaching me about how to deal with management by blaming the administration at our high school for everything that went wrong this year.

Thank you coach for teaching me about responsibility by blaming everyone else, including your players and assistant coaches for our horrible season.

Thank you coach for teaching me the importance of becoming a part of something bigger than myself by singling players out for retribution.

Thank you coach for teaching me about maturity by telling us how horrible we are.

Thank you coach for teaching me about heart by telling our running back how ashamed you were of him and how awful we are.

Thank you coach for teaching me about how to treat other people by yelling at us all the time and never telling us when we did anything positive.

Thank you coach for teaching us about the importance of scholarship by telling us we had to fill out weekly grade sheets, but never following up on them after the second week.

Thank you coach for teaching us about life by treating us all so unfairly.

Thank you coach for teaching us about love by showing us none.

In short coach, thanks for teaching me how to act as an adult by showing me everything I should never do as an adult.

This season will last with me for a lifetime. I can only pray that it sticks with you that long as well and you learn to act more like the adult you say we should be.

I pray you learn about fair play, discipline, becoming part of something bigger than yourself and above all having fun playing this sport.

They say a football team takes on the personality of its head coach. I think they are right.

This team certainly reminds me of you.