Happy Birthday Mom! I am one lucky son!

So today, my Mother, Jenifer Andrus (Summerhays) turns one year older. I thought of just posting on her wall on facebook, but I felt she deserved more of an honor than just a sentence. I would like to give a little overview on how she truly makes me one of the luckiest men in St. George, Utah, if not the planet!

Many of you know my mother as a teacher at Lava Ridge Intermediate and already know she is one of the sweetest people you have met. She has made a reputation of being a caring personality who puts others first well before herself. She finds joy in making others happy and successful which I am sure is part of the reason she chose to be a teacher as her career. However, what you probably see in the classroom doesn't truly do her justice on how much she truly cares about one another 'cough, cough' especially me..'cough'. She sacrifices so much and if it makes people around her happy, she is happy. When she is happy, she has one of the sweetest grins that makes me want to give her a big hug, even though I try not to overdo it.

For me personally, I feel like she went through a lot more than, no offense, most mothers would have needed to go through to raise me up to what I have become today. In one of my previous entrys, I told about how I had to be taken to the crisis center for running away from home. About after that time, she had to make a decision, which she confessed to me recently, was one of the most difficult choices of her life and that was to transition from being under her primary custody, and making my Dad my primary caregiver. At that time, I always responded better to my Dad than my mother.

Before, I get to carried away and make this about myself, that is just one example of sacrifice she had to go through to allow me to develop into what I became. I know I sometimes say that I wish she wasn't as protective as she is, but all in all, that leaves little doubt that she truly loves and cares about me and wants nothing more for me than to be successful.

I use to be a very selfish son toward her and didn't look up to her very highly, but now adays, I love her to death and am super pleased to be her son. I am still a selfish son in a lot of ways. Much of our conversations now adays are about me going to the University of Utah next semester and looking back at what I used to be and how amazing it is to be where I am at now. I often make bragful questions like "would you have guessed I would be going to the U of U by age 22"? She would often respond, "I was just hoping you would get through high school"! I don't brag to her to say I am better or more amazing than my brothers. I just get so happy to make her proud, and to hear her say she is proud of my success fills me with tons of joy.

One of the hardest things of going to the U of U is I will not be having her live just 10 miles away from me, and I know it is hard for her to imagine that as well, but her support for me will make it OK. I am sure we will call or skype often to update each other how things are going with each other as well as updating her on my progress as a Ute.

Happy Birthday Mom!

What Coaching the Snow Canyon Girls Has Meant to Me

Last night, February 21st of 2015, was a very difficult night for me to embrace. Sure we lost to Juab and our season is now over, but for me personally, the most difficult thing was accepting that all this is in the past now. I often rave about my potential landing at the University of Utah and hoping to get hired up at Highland High to further my career goal of becoming a Severe Special Education Teacher but the idea that this was my last night being a coach of these girls was really gut wrenching. I had a very difficult time sleeping last night because of this. Getting dropped off home from that bus, and then staring at it as it drove away brought me to tears. I stared at it until I could no longer see it plus a few more seconds. It reminded me of Senior Sunset, giving me the idea that once it was out of sight, I was no longer an Assistant Girls Basketball Coach.

Often times when we went on the road, the girls usually scream to one of us coaches to come sit in the back and tell them a story. I normally pretended not to notice kind of as a form of teasing, but on the way home, I had to go back there with them. They were like a bunch of little sisters to me which says something considering I have never had a sister. Nothing against Brennan, J.J and Parker who is the greatest set of brothers anyone can hope to have.

Coaching the Lady Warriors is truly up there on the list of greatest experiences I have ever had in my life. It is up there with my senior year in high school in a heartfelt and emotional level. When I first got hired at Snow Canyon, I knew I wanted to help out with basketball so I went to Coach James Brown first. I admit at the time, I was sort of biased about the genders in the sport. I wanted to coach Boys Basketball because I felt like Girls basketball wasn't competitive enough. Coach Brown did offer me a spot on the sophomore staff but the problem with that was they practiced at 7 AM and that would have interfered with my college class schedule.

Then I went to Coach Dan Roden who had just gotten hired to be the Head Girls Coach after Coach Jensen had moved on. I was more nervous going to him then Coach Brown because Roden was a freshmen teacher of mine and I knew at one time, he viewed me as one of his most difficult students. I had only hoped that he was able to look past that after seeing what I had done at this point. When he gave me a spot on the Varsity staff, I was thrilled.

Besides the love of the sport, the greatest thing that being apart of that staff was the relationships I built. I definitely tried to connect to each player at a personal level and I believe I succeeded at that because chances are they'll still call me "Coach T". They were able to talk to me about more things than just basketball. Sidney Bott, Mada Mooring, Nikenna Durante and Sydney Hoskins often enjoyed teasing me about any relations I had with a girl which I probably often responded with "oh shut up" in a funny and sarcastic tone which made them laugh. Hoskins and her younger sister Brielle both said I was like a clone of there cousin which is interesting. Makes me kind of want to meet him.

Kaylee Brooks and I had some funny moments. She liked to tease me or give some kind of cool signal. I remember one of the weirdest moments when I was running the practice clock and Mada and her decided to get down on there knees and start mewing at me.

Or what about that time I was playing defense on Natalie Coulam and she totally bulldozed me over and every girl in that gym fell on the floor laughing like I just pulled the funniest stunt they had ever seen. Every one from Ashley Nyborg, to Grace Walton, to even more quiet ones like Sedale Sanden were just dying on the floor laughing..

I could remember hundreds of heart felt memories but the biggest picture this had created was just amazing. I feel those girls taught me even more than they could think. They taught me about being a little looser in life and not taking everything so seriously. I feel I am a much better person and happier since I got to coach them in this sport.

I can honestly say now that when I get hired at what ever other school, if they give me the choice of working with the Girls or the Boys team, I am definitely picking the girls team. Nothing against men but I just feel like they're the kind of team I need to be on. The girls were very talented at turning moments into something about more than just competition and basketball. And I will admit, the girls are just too much fun. Sorry guys!! Haha

So like I said, this was one of the all time greatest experiences I could have ever had. I wish it could have lasted a few more years but I would probably be feeling the same emotion anyway and just like they would have to move on after graduation, which our great Christee Wilson is doing this year, I need to be willing to move on to other experiences as well. It is tough but I am forever proud to just have the experience. I hope the best for all of them and there future and hopefully I will get to see how life ends up for at least some of them. Thank Goodness for Facebook!!!