This is a letter for my coach. I can't help but wonder how different things would be if you had believed in me. I hope you wonder the same. I hope you lay awake at night wondering how different our season would have ended if you had seen me to my full potential. Maybe things would have been different, maybe they wouldn't have. It's too late to find out now because the chance has fled and my career is over. You blew it.
However, I can't put this whole thing on your shoulders. It's just as much my fault as it is yours. I let you demolish my confidence in my play. I allowed you to make me question every move I make, thus putting me behind in my skills. You let popularity get the best of you. You wanted to please the complaining parents, rather than the hard working players. You wanted to make the fans happy to come to our games. Instead you made the fans stay home because they figured we would do what we did last game, lose. You took the team that had the greatest chance in franchise history to go to state, and allowed them to lose in a game they were heavily favored to win.
I didn't refer to you as coach because to me you were. To me you were a dream crusher in disguise. Every single player on our team went into the season certain we would go to state. We had no reason to not think that. We lost only 6 players from last season, we had 14 returning varsity players, we moved down a level, we were in the states easiest section, and we were even projected to go to state. How did we respond to that level of encouragement? We had an 11 game losing streak. We were an embarrassment to the program. Why did we do that? You forced us to play in your outdated style, putting us at a disadvantage to every team we played. It was only when we rebelled against you and started to play how we wanted we were successful. It is because of us we made it to the section final, not you.
I'd also like to thank you for ripping my confidence apart. Because while you helped destroy my athletic career, you also brought me closer to the people around me. The people around me kept encouraging me to play hard every day while you encouraged me to give up. The people around me were the ones that kept me coming back to practice every day while you tried to make it so I wouldn't want to.
There is one thing about you that when I think about, I smile. You always told the story about your first week as a coach, and how someone told you you will make everyone in this program happy. Some people will be happy you are here, and the rest will be happy when you leave. I can give you a never ending list of the people who are happy you are leaving, and you can bet on the fact that my name is on the top of that list.
