Time Management

In a teenager’s life, responsibilities abound.

From homework to jobs to household chores, my fellow peers and I have a lot going on—and just about all of us value sleeping in and taking leisure time to watch Jersey Shore, play Xbox, go to concerts and kill time with each other.

So why then would someone who has four rigorous classes and two jobs, is trying to do more writing, needs to finish preparing for college and has parents who are early starters on yardwork take on the responsibility of being a manager for the lacrosse team?

The answer lies in my own experience. I recently began my duties as co-manager of the Hopkins boys lacrosse team. I will be working with my good friend and a player who has a broken wrist and cannot play but still wants a part on the team.

There is no monetary reward for being a manager, nor is there any sort of glory or recognition. The team is not any sort of interesting spectacle as they are a fledgling program and have yet to develop into a strong competitor in their conference.

The reasons I became a manager are very simple: I want to create some good memories in the last quarter of my high school career. With a number of friends on the team and managing alongside me, I expect to experience some laughs and memories that I will take with me to college.

Also, I would like to have some experience in sports management, even if it's just a high school lacrosse team. And although my duties mostly involve taking stats, setting up the field and helping announce games, I will be able to observe how the coaches go about teaching an inexperienced group of players the basics of playing the game.

I hope to one day coach a sports team. Whether it is my child’s recreation baseball league or the local junior high’s basketball team, I want to have the experience of teaching, mentoring and motivating young people through sports.

Having been able to talk to and observe the coaches at the two scrimmages I have helped out with, I  have already seen things that have given me insight into exactly what it means to be a coach. I have seen how they observe a game and notice what needs to be changed, how they capture and sometimes lose the attention of the players and how they to create an identity for the team.

Finally, having a bit of extra responsibility may help keep me sharp and ensure that I don’t struggle to keep up with work in my first semester of college. With a little luck, the time spent managing for lacrosse will go by quickly and lessen the time it takes until I will be able to graduate and enjoy my final summer at home.

Managing my time will be extremely important in college and—with my job with the Twins starting up this past Friday, managing coming into full swing this week, and hopefully some more writing for Patch—I will gain a lot of experience in time management.

(Editor's note: Clemen's first sports article for Patch was published Sunday. You can .)