Adding to My Hat Collection

As a teacher, I wear a lot of "hats." Obviously, the "teacher," sharing knowledge, giving homework, etc. Another is the "mom," showing love, taking away privileges, and nagging, nagging, nagging. My most recent hat has been "coach," which has been quite a rewarding experience. We won Girls' Class B division at the Dordt Track Meet yesterday. Woop! Go us.

The hat that I put on today was one that I was not ready for. Ump. As in umpire. Of softball. Yep.

I awkwardly stood somewhere between first and second base as I wished that I had brought my sunscreen along. I stood there praying for strikeouts so I wouldn't have to be the one to determine whether a player was safe or out. When I had to make the decision, I awkwardly made the "out" or "safe" sign. I felt so unofficial it was ridiculous.

I only messed up twice. One of those times I called "out" when one of my kids touched second base before the runner got to it. Apparently, he didn't have to run to second base, so he was supposed to have been tagged out to actually be out. So everyone kind of gave me a weird look, and he just stayed on the base while one of my girls explained the rules of softball to me. Awsome. The other time I messed up was when my first baseman apparently dropped the ball. I didn't see that happen, so I called the runner out. Everyone kind of looked at me funny again, so I just kind of paused until the other coach asked me what I thought. I told her I thought that it was out. Later, my student informed me about what really happened.

"Miss V, how many times have you actually played softball?"

"Uhh....does one intramural game at Dordt count? No? Ok, then. Zero."

Oh, and did I mention that I maybe played second base in that game. And maybe I fell over when a ground ball came at me. But maybe that didn't actually happen. Maybe I erased that from my memory....

We ended up losing. Two more softball games tomorrow. Can I just keep the coach hat? The umpire one doesn't fit too well.