November 2025
This weekend I spent both Saturday and Sunday coaching wrestling.
One moment caught me off guard.
A little girl, tall and skinny, around twelve years old, stepped onto the mat. She was scared. You could see it in the way she moved, the way she hesitated. She was trying, but the fear was there the entire time.
The match did not go her way. In her mind, she lost badly.
As the match ended, everything came out at once. She walked off the mat and the emotion hit her. She broke down in tears and ran straight to me.
I froze for a second.
I had never given her more than a fist bump.
And then she hugged me.
It was not just a hug. It was something else. It was trust. It was looking for safety in a moment where everything felt out of control.
I did not expect that.
I held her and let her settle. I could feel how much she had put into that match. The fear she carried into it. The effort it took just to step out there. That matters.
When she calmed down, I talked to her about what actually happened. Not the result. The effort.
I told her she went out there scared and still stayed in her stance. That she attempted a shot she had never done before. That she did something difficult, even if it did not work the way she wanted.
I could see it start to land.
Not because she won. But because she showed up and tried something she had not done before.
That moment stayed with me.
Because it was not about technique. It was not about winning or losing.
It was about being the person in the corner that someone runs to when things fall apart.
I am still figuring out what that means.
Up until now, I have always been on the other side of that line. The athlete. The one who absorbs pressure, not the one who carries it for someone else.
Now I am stepping into something different.
And I can feel the weight of it.
There is responsibility in that role that does not go away when the session ends. It stays with you.
That moment reminded me that coaching is not about being separate from the athletes. It is about being present for them in moments that matter.
I am still an athlete.
But I am also learning what it means to stand in the corner.
And that is something I am not done figuring out.