The View from the Cheap Seats

Hmmm…..where should I sit? 

That is a loaded question being a coach’s wife. I have sat in the stands, behind home plate, behind center field, right next to the dugout, in the coach’s office looking through a window, and under the bleachers, because I’m too nervous to watch. My all-time favorite place to sit is where I call the “cheap seats.” 

People always ask me, “Why do you sit so far away from the game? How do you see anything?” I’m here today to answer that question. I don’t mean to be an outcast, unsociable, or uppity. Many events have happened in my 26 years as a coach’s wife that has led me to sit near the outfield.  

In the beginning, I sat near the dugout because I was the scorekeeper or I was in charge of keeping the hard-hit chart. I needed to be close to Kinger to make sure I was making the right decisions so I wouldn’t make a parent mad. (Yes, I would have parents come ask me how I scored their player’s at-bat. ) 

After Kaden was born, my life as a scorekeeper came to a temporary end. (Yay!) Kaden was an only child for 5 years, so I was his play buddy. So, I moved my seat to the other side of the dugout near the outfield. We would play catch or hit in the cages the entire game. (Yes, I take claim for Kaden having a strong arm; he gets it from me!)

Then arrives my little man, Ketch. That child was all over the place at the games. Playing catch, hitting, or running around with kids at the ballpark. It was easy for Ketch to find me all the way at the back, so it worked out to continue to sit in the outfield area.  

A big reason I sat in the outfield though is that sometimes Kinger and myself were not always the most favorite people at the ballpark. People you thought were your friends would talk bad about your husband in the stands and they didn’t really care if I heard it or not. My kids didn’t come to the ballpark to hear mean things said about their dad, so it’s best I stayed far away. I am very guarded of my heart because of all of this and don’t mean to come off as unsociable. To be honest I’m kind of scared to get close to people because my heart can’t handle losing another person I thought was my friend because of a baseball game. Being a coach’s wife can be lonely at times. 

As my boys got older and started playing the game of baseball, my job as scorekeeper started up again. I started sitting a little closer to the dugout so I could help the coach with scores and let him know where the other team hit the ball. Well, sweet little Ketchy would look at me if he did something good for my approval or something bad to see if I was mad. I would catch myself being a “bleacher coach” to Ketch and that needed to stop. Time for mom to go back to the cheap seats! It’s ok, I like it out there. I get to talk to Kinger while he coaches the bases and I can talk to God and pray for my hubby, his team, and my boys playing on the diamond. 

It’s much easier now that Kinger isn’t a head coach anymore. I have started sitting in the stands for Ketch’s freshman and JV games. Of course, I choose to sit on the top row as far away as I can get. I do have some good friends here in Florida whom I enjoy sitting and talking with during the games. It’s been a nice change.  

I will continue to sit near the outfield area at Varsity games and summer ball. I have a “mate” that enjoys sitting in the cheap seats with me. That is just who I am and I like my comfort zone. My advice to others is to be true to yourself. Don’t worry about what others think of you or your spouse if they are a coach. Continue to live your life 200 ft at a time. I will continue to enjoy watching Kinger coach and Ketchy playing ball from the view in the cheap seats. 

Yes, that is me sitting in the bullpen area watching Kaden play.
View from the “Cheap Seats” watching Kinger and Ketch

200FT

As a baseball coach, one of the annual bucket list items is to attend the ABCA National Baseball Convention. In 2011, the ABCA convention was in Nashville and that is where I was introduced to a peak performance coach by the name of Brian Cain. One of the concepts he spoke about that day was the idea of approaching any event or task 200 feet at a time. This concept was explained as if you were going to drive from New York to Los Angeles in the dark, your headlights are the only means of being able to see where you are going and those lights only let you see the 200 feet in front of you. The idea is that you would drive the first 200 feet and then the next 200 feet and continue this process until you reach Los Angeles. Any “destination” is reached by a series of small incremental steps along the way. In short, the 200ft principle is about giving intentional energy to the immediate task at hand. We often fall victim to “destination disease” where we become so concerned with the end of our journey that we tend to lose focus on the tasks and processes that are involved in reaching the destination and often times we quit the task because we tend to focus on the journey as a whole which can be immense.

After hearing Brian speak in Nashville in 2011, I began to subscribe to his material and took a genuine interest in peak performance strategies. I began to introduce some of these concepts to our baseball players at Edmond North. The 200ft principle was one that seemed to take hold in the months leading up to the 2012 season. We discussed approaching the season, the week, the game, the inning 200 feet at a time. We wanted players to try and break these components of a season down into smaller more manageable parts that they could focus on and give more intentional energy to every aspect of their game. Ask a pitcher if they feel they have a better chance to throw ten strikes in a row or throw one strike ten times and they more than likely will feel more confident about the latter. We continued the 200ft approach throughout the season always trying to focus on winning one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, and one game at a time. With the 2012 season culminating in a state championship, the 200ft mantra was commemorated on the state championship ring as we felt it was a contributing factor to the season’s success.

I try to convey the same 200ft philosophy to my students as well as to all aspects of my life. I was asked by our principal this year to “launch” our faculty into the 2021-2022 school year. In my talk, I explained the 200ft principle and how it pertains to the school year ahead. Instead of thinking about 178 days of school, which sounds daunting, perhaps we should instead think about accomplishing one day five times in order to complete one week or even better accomplishing one period four times to complete one day. I express to my students daily to try and complete one math problem and then move to the next problem as opposed to thinking about the entirety of the assignment altogether. My students have the ability to earn wristbands each quarter that gives them some bonus opportunities throughout the year and every year the wristband always has “200ft” printed on it to remind them of the step-by-step approach to each day.

Life tends to throw many obstacles our way on a daily basis and often times we are left feeling overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” that seems to accumulate on our to-do lists. The 200ft principle helps me daily to focus my attention and energy on the tasks that require immediate attention before moving to the next task. As our world has become more advanced, the speed of life has increased exponentially and with that, there seems to be more and more “finish lines” put in place for all of us to cross for ourselves and others. These so-called finish lines come with small races that must be navigated in order to deem the journey successful. Without segmenting these races into smaller, more manageable pieces, we can easily crumble under the pressure we put on ourselves to finish all the races we are trying to run every day. The 200ft principle has helped me keep my lists of to-do items in perspective as I run the daily race we call life. I hope you can find more structure and peace in your day by applying the 200ft principle.

It’s Time!

February 2022, a new year has begun and with that the start of another baseball season looms on the horizon. Tryouts have come and gone, and young men brim with excitement at the anticipation of what the future season promises for their teams. For many, this time marks the beginning of a new journey. Some players are getting their first taste of high school while others are awaiting the challenges that come from competing at the varsity level, to those that are lucky enough that will continue their journey at the college or pro levels. This time can be just as exciting for parents as they know the time and effort that goes into trying to make the team.

Ten years ago today, I started my third season as the head baseball coach at Edmond North High School in Oklahoma. To kickoff the season, we held the First Pitch Banquet for the players, their parents, and coaching staff. Edmond North is historically a very successful program with its share of victories over the years, including a state runner up finish in 2004. The program produced many a player who went on to play at the collegiate and professional level. The previous two seasons were full of ups and downs as we tried to continue to push the program forward. The 2011 season ended with frustration; We believed our team was better than the early exit we experienced at Regionals the season before. As with any program, the summers and off-season are spent implementing new ideas in order to enhance the overall success of the program for the following year. Heading into the 2012 season, we made positive gains with our players on many fronts that resulted in improvements over the previous two seasons.

All of this recent program history was present in everyone’s mind during the banquet. Following a great speech from our guest speaker Mickey Tettleton, the time came for me to deliver my take on the upcoming season. As I began my speech, I reiterated to the parents and players the history of Edmond North Baseball and the success it had seen over the years. I revisited the ending of the 2011 season and the disappointment and frustration that came with its ending. And then, with what seemed like a long pause on my part, I raised my right hand, clinched my fist, and slammed it down on the podium while exclaiming “IT’S TIME!”

After this obvious attention grabber, I told the parents and players it was time to put Edmond North baseball back on the map. The speech was met with enthusiasm and the saying “It’s Time” made its way onto a t-shirt, which proved itself to be a prophetic statement. The Edmond North High School Baseball team went on to win the school’s first 6A state championship in baseball that very season. For several years after that night, parents would come up to me and share how impactful my “It’s Time” speech was and how it served as an inspiring prologue to the fairytale ending of the 2012 season.

My wife Christy and I are starting this blog with the intention to share all our combined 50+ years of experience of teaching and coaching. Just like how in 2012 it was time for a program to rise to prominence, today IT’S TIME to start this blog.

-Christy and Karl aka Burchy and Big Guy