The "Fret Heart Attack"

On Thursday night at softball practice there was a rain and thunder storm off to the south-east part of town. The sun was shining and it was hot where we were. But the sky on the other part of town was really dark and we could see some lightening. A couple of the little girls started getting distracted by the storm. They were standing there (not paying attention to practice) waiting for another lightening strike...then they would start counting. One-one-hundred. Two-one-hundred. Three-one-hundred....and so on. Then they would chatter about how far the storm is away from us. One of the parents came up to me while I was trying to get the girls to focus on practice and said, "The girls are learning about weather this week in school." Ah! Ok! Emily, one of the girls, came up to me with tears streaming down her face. In a squeaky voice she said, "Ummm... Coach Emily...I won't touch a bat...lightening! LIGHTENING! I get upset...and my heart races...and I get fret heart attacks...I can't breathe... I get FRET heart attacks...they are not as bad as a real heart attack...but I get them...and they are baaaaaaad." (Insert sobbing and a quivering chin here) I look at her with my eyes as big as saucers and say, "What? Emily? What is wrong?" She starts in again on the same speech...and I interrupt her and tell her to go talk to her mom (who was over with another group of girls pitching to them.) Whoa... a freaking "fret heart attack?" Who is feeding these phrases to these kids? I had to laugh. I went over to my dad and explained that the girls are freaking over the weather...and suggested that we call practice. We did. We picked up all of the equipment and called it a day. The storm never hit our part of town...it got close...but it was the right thing to do. I still crack up at "fret heart attack."

Coaching has been fun for the most part. I would describe coaching 8-year old girls as "herding mice." I got that phrase from another coach. Trying to get them all to follow instructions and pay attention is challenging to say the least. One great thing that has come of my coaching is that I have lost 15 lbs. I am thinner right now than I have been in like 10 years. Gotta love that.