If a coach is able to kill your passion-you don't have a passion. Take it from someone who never genuinely "loved" any sport. I played them because I was decent, and it was fun to be with my friends, but did I ever work after school for hours to improve? Did I join summer leagues in hopes to be better than I was the previous year? Did I eat, sleep, and breathe the sport I was playing? Hell no, I played it just because and that's okay.

To be a coach, you're most likely truly invested into that sport. You want to see kids succeed in something that always gave you such a high. It is not a coaches goal to want to see their team fail. Most of the time, if you fail at something it's because you weren't working as hard as you could have. There's really no one to blame for that but yourself.

I think what some kids don't get, is that coaches have the hardest job. They are constantly watching for improvement, and when they see someone working hard then reward them by giving them a spot in the starting line-up, kids and parent's get mad because their spot was "stolen".

The real truth of the matter, is that your spot wasn't stolen. Your spot was outworked for. You were replaced because you didn't work. Whether that's because you want to blame it on your coach killing your passion, or because you were too busy with other obligations-you just didn't rise up to the occasion. You can't continually blame it on those around you. Eventually, you'll have to own up for the shoes you just couldn't fill.

When I was a senior in High School, I noticed my spot was on the line by younger kids that were a bit quicker than me and had that natural athletic ability I just wasn't gifted with. I was worried as hell, but not enough to work harder to get better. Did I blame that on my coach for "not recognizing true talent" or "picking favorites"? No, I just owned up to the fact that I didn't work for something other kids did, and it was my own damn fault.

With this realization, came years of watching young kids just not have that click for them. It's so easy to blame your failures on someone else, so why not do it to the person reasonable for your team's success? After all, if your coach didn't put you in, then you lose, you feel like it's your coaches fault for not recognizing true talent. Even though at the end of the day, it's because not everyone put in the same equal work. As much as you'd like to think-not one person can make an entire team.

Your coach didn't kill your passion; my parent's didn't kill your passion. You soiled that all by your damn self, and so did I. I skipped open gyms, I made excuses not to go so I could sleep in an extra day, and instead of signing up for that volleyball camp in the summer, I went on vacation with my best friend.

I will not sit here and blame anyone else for my shortcomings besides myself. One day down the road when I have kids, I'll remind them that if you truly love something-not anyone, including your coach, can kill that passion. That's all on you.