Basketball Wife

   There is a famous quote by UCLA coach John Wooden about being married to basketball and his wife being his mistress.  I refuse to be like John Wooden's wife.  This basketball season has been one of the hardest and I will readily admit that I say that each basketball season because each basketball season it does get harder.  Last season I was DONE!!!!  Chad and I discussed his being done coaching, but after the season was done he really wanted to do one more year.  Now as we come to the close of that one more year another year looms. 
   Basketball is a year round program like all organized sports now a days.  It is 345 days of practice, games, strategies, worrying and exhilaration. For 20 days a year I get my husband to focus on us and it is great.  For 3 months of the year, end of November to end of February, it is a jam packed schedule of non-stop basketball broken up by Christmas Day and New Year's Day.  My husband is gone 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm on a good day.  There are a few days here and there when he is home early, but basketball is at the forefront of his mind.  I'm explaining this for all the people who tell him that he needs to be a coach.
   If I was working maybe Chad's basketball schedule wouldn't have been so bad this year, but I'm not working, so it's neither here nor there.  Chad's been a coach for 11 years and it's always been hard, but having 4 little boys ask me if daddy's coming home and me having to be both mommy and daddy is hard.  I miss my partner, I miss having Chad experience all the good and the bad things that go on with having boys and I especially miss my companion.  Trying to impart all that happened the day before in the bathroom in the morning is not an easy task, especially with little boys running around. 
  Chad has told me time and time again that basketball is his dream.  I get the dream and I want him to have the dream, but sometimes it feels like dreams can be put on hold for a later time and be made better with maturity.   Now is not the time for either of our dreams, it's the time to raise our boys to have dreams of their own.    And as John Wooden has also said, "Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read."