thanks for your advice, but we've got this.

I wrote this a while back, and saved it to my phone. We were on a 4 game losing streak, and the Bleacher Coaches were foaming at the mouth. I never had intentions of posting it, but hey this is my personal blog, and I can do whatever I want!!

Dear Father reliving his glory days, the Fantasy Football League Champions, and the know-it-alls,

If you feel as though you have missed your life's calling of becoming a highschool coach, I've got great news! Colleges across the state are enrolling into their coaching and exercise science programs as we speak! And it's never to late to teach an old dog new tricks! 

But here are a few things you might want to consider from someone in the biz...

1.  There are 6 year olds in Vietnam making sweaters for more money than you will get paid. Time/pay equals about 20 cents per hour. We ain't Rollin in the dough here. 

2. Everyone will consider you an idiot or hard headed, because let's face it, what kind of idiot would choose a career that every single person in the bleachers could do better. 

3.  IF you have a supportive wife, know that she will have to smile at the fans, put on a happy face, work for you, the team, and the school for FREE, all while listening to how stupid you are and have your every flaw picked apart like buzzards on roadkill. 

4.  If you are lucky enough to keep said wife around, go ahead and let her know that she will be a single mom, you might not see her or your kids for days, but she will be required to hold it together because she's gotta work too to make up for the fact that although you work the hours and stress level of a neurosurgeon, you make equivalent to a rodeo clown. 

5.  You will have to take all the blame. When you call a play and a kid doesn't run it right, or chokes,  it's YOUR fault. Every time. 

6.  you literally place your career in the hands of 15 year olds. Then have 100 experts evaluate "your" performance. 

7.  You will receive phone calls and anonymous letters at all hours of the day and night. Even at the high school level. Trust me, I'm not making this up. 

8.  You will have to practice great self control, and learn how to separate the kids from their parents and not hold it against them. I suggest enrolling in a meditative yoga class. 

So, let's assume you still love a certain sport and the kids who play it to want to continue on to "the career that got away". We are considering handing out whistles next Friday, and you are welcomed to join them on the sidelines. Have fun, you are in for a bumpy ride! 

Love, 

The Coach's Wife

In The Beginning

I think when most married couples reflect on their early days of marriage, the memories are often so sweet. In the days before kids, when it's just the two of you, and you are so broke and foolish and madly in love.

Coach and I got married 3 months after graduating from college, and threw ourselves full force into our new jobs. I had just purchased an existing salon and was attending cosmetology school at night, and Coach had already started his first season at Yazoo City High School. I will never forget the day he wheeled into my shop parking lot, so excited to show me his first paycheck. $1,800.00 for the month! I distinctly remember saying "oh my gosh, how are we going to spend all of that?!"  Man, those where the days. Now I have a house payment just a little shy of that first paycheck. 

In the early days, I was so consumed with cosmetology school and building my business, that I really wasn't as involved in the football world. I went to games, but I probably wasn't as supportive as I should've been. Yazoo City HS is an all black, critical needs school in the poorest region of Mississippi. I remember being nervous at the first one, sitting alone in the stands on the edge of my seat. I was afraid that at any second a riot would break out! Of course, that never happened, and as the weeks went on I became more and more comfortable on Friday nights. The announcers were hilarious! Press box comedians! And the band and the dancers were quite a sight to behold. There is nothing like a Mississippi delta  high school band... They get with it!! And the raw talent on the field- it couldn't be matched. 

The kids in our area are very underprivileged. Coach was one of the only one on staff who actually lived in this area, and so every day during summer practices he would ride around town and pick up players and then drop them back off at the end of the day. The players knew it wasn't safe for a white man to be driving into some of these neighborhoods, and they would just tell him to drop them at the entrances. Recently, we went to Philadelphia to watch one of his former players who ended up going pro as the 13th round draft pick. After the game, we all went to his house to relax and play pool. During the game he said "Coach, I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for you picking me up every day in that white Chevy ". Those are the small things that one day mean something great to an individual. 

During his time at Yazoo City, he sent 13 lineman to college on scholarships. This is a big deal in a school where the graduation rate is only about 30%. All of the football players graduated every year. Academics are a priority on and off the field. It been so amazing to see these kids make something of themselves. Even to this day, those boys will randomly show up to practices he is running or other school's games where he is coaching. I know this means the world to Coach.

He was an assistant coach at YCHS for 9 seasons, with 7 playoff appearances. In his last year there, the school was taken over by the State Department and the athletic programs were going to be suspended for the following seasons. Luckily, Coach was approached with his first Head Coaching position at Manchester Academy, a small private school in our same town, separated by a cotton field from YCHS. We were so excited about the big new change, but we will always look back at the days at City as some of the sweetest in his career. 

Love and football,

Jamie Wallace

Introduction

I am a football wife.

I am NOT a writer. 

I am a lot of things.  I am an artist, salon owner, hairstylist, mother of two, and a wife.  A football wife.

I decided to start writing about my experiences as  more or less of a way to preserve these memories for myself.  If anyone else ever happens to read this lowly "blog", maybe it will give them a better perspective into this crazy life we lead on the other side of the sport.

When you think about the people involved in the sport of football, three come to mind- coaches, players, fans.  But the person most people don't really think about is the wife.  A coach's wife is a rare breed.  Like most good wives, we support our husbands and their job choice.  But to a coach, it is WAY more than a job.  I know plenty of women who have husbands with stressful jobs.  I know wives of pilots, over-seas military men, farmers, police officers, and surgeons.  These wives experience a type of stress that I will never experience.  I can relate to the long hours, low pay, time away from home, and the responsibilities of being a single mom at times.  But what is different for a coaching family is knowing that your husband's career is in the hands of CHILDREN and during the times of losing programs, you can be the most hated person in town.  Take a moment to imagine this scenario:  Your husband goes to work, but has a 14 year old perform his tasks.  Then your husband will have "his" performance evaluation judged by 100 bosses and experts. Imagine that level of stress!  This is a level of stress that is only understood by the small sorority of coaching wives.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this life.  I do not want my husband to ever be anything BUT a football coach,  Nothing gives me greater pride than standing behind my man who has PASSION for his job.  Maybe because I'm the same way as a hairstylist.  We are both blessed to have jobs that we love going to every single day, even if the hours are long and the pay is terrible.  My coach has a serious love for the game and for the individual athletes.  He loves teaching and becoming a mentor to boys.  And I love him.

So from here, I will reflect on some of our highest of highs and lowest lows.  All in the name of High School Football.

My coach and I met in 2002 while in college at Delta State University.  He was a 5th year transfer football player from Mississippi State, and I was a 19 year old sophomore. I knew from the time we met that he was going to follow his dream of coaching high school football.  I was completely not a football fan, or any sport for that matter, but have grown over the years to finally be able to understand what's going on down on that big grassy field.  Coach has had his feet on a football field for 28 of his 35 years of life:  from peewee, Jr High, Highschool, SEC, Division II, to 12 years of coaching.  This is his life ride, and his family is in the passenger seat!

love and football,

Jamie Wallace