Wednesday, August 5, 2020

The Unknown

As a coach’s wife, I have spent the last 19 years training for the “unknowns” that go along with the crazy football life. Like times spent wondering if our season would be good enough to stay put for for another year, or if we would be on the move once again. Or times in transition, when I didn’t know where our football journey would take our family next. This year, however, the unknown is so much different.


I look back to the fall of 2019. I was cheering on my husband in the stands proudly with a growing belly. I was excited for another year in the playoffs while also anxiously awaiting for our 5th baby to be born in March. So much to be thankful for!



Then just weeks before my baby’s arrival we were quarantined from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our little girl was born in a crazy and scary time. I had a new baby, and my husband was home more than he had ever been with any of our children (#coacheskidprobs). An absolute blessing to have him around more, but I’d be lying if I didn’t also say challenging at times. Countless zoom calls with players, staff meetings, and recruits....and when you have 5 children in a house....it’s not exactly easy keeping things quiet. I was wearing a lot of hats. Helping children with remote learning, caring for a newborn baby, and basically living with a football office set up at my kitchen table. All on my “turf.” It was a lot.


Now, like many other coaching families right now, we face an unknown. We don’t know what our season may look like or even if we will have a season. I know plenty of coaches’ wives that have already been told that there will be no 2020 football season for them. Some of their husband’s are or will face furloughs and some are even worried about their college staying afloat in the face of declining enrollment. 


This will be my 19th year as a football wife and I can’t imagine not being in those stands come fall. To not spend my Wednesday nights with flour on my apron baking for my husband’s players. I’d miss seeing that scoreboard lit up on Saturday so beautifully with a WIN glowing against our faces. I want to be able to race down at the end of the game and kiss my husband proudly...congratulating him knowing all his hard work that week has paid off. On cold nights feeling the warmth on the field from happy families hugging and taking pictures proudly with their sons. I want our new baby girl to experience her first football season. I want football. It’s not just a game it’s our family’s livelihood.



The one thing I have really grasped from being a coach’s wife...is that there will always be unknowns. So I am reminding myself, as I type this blog post, to never take those happy moments for granted. There will be better days ahead. I never thought when this pandemic had started we’d be worried about a football season.....but here we are. I believe sometimes things go wrong so you can appreciate them when they go right. Football will be back. Until then I will have faith and embrace the unknown. 



Prayers and thoughts to all the football families struggling right now with their personal unknowns.