No More Late Sign Ups

It occurred to me that Leah has not been in the gym for a few days.  She only showed up once.  We went over jabs, straight rights, and basic footwork.  Sahia had talked to Leah's mother about the class and encouraged to register her child.  I signed the girl up because Leah's mother was so upset about her daughter having been picked on during the summer camp at another field house.  Normally, I don't sign up anyone after the middle of the session has passed by.  This will be the last time I do that as long as I am the boxing coach at LaFollette.

One of the reasons it's not a good idea to sign up people so late in the session is because of what I observed with Leah -- people immediately stop showing up  Some coaches keep their park district gyms open during the two, three, or four-week breaks between the 10-week sessions.  I learned quickly that people who haven't been showing up regularly to train during the normal sessions aren't necessarily going to be dedicated enough to show up during the break periods.  That alone is part of the bigger issue of participants not being motivated, signing up for boxing for the wrong reasons, indifferent parents, and guardians, etc.  Also, I have to get stuff done like clean the equipment and enter attendance numbers.  I can't do those things easily while class is in session.

People will point out, you have a volunteer.  But all supervisors don't view volunteers in the same way.  They certainly don't give all volunteers, regardless of the program or activity, the same privileges.  For example,  when I volunteered in the boxing gym at Loyola Park, I could run the gym in the place of the coach if they were not available on any given day.  However, the supervisor at LaFollette does not allow Sahia to open up the gym and run the program if I'm not there.  The program is officially not going on during the breaks so the volunteer would not be able to run it during that time, either. 

Etonia is another person I signed up late, as well.  She hasn't shown up yet.  I'm not calling her to find out what's up with that especially in light of the fact that next week is the last week of the summer session.  If people are really interested in participating, then there's no need for me to chase them.  I don't have time - nor interest - to do that anyway.