This last weekend Jo and I headed up to Maine to take in the Bowdoin vs. Bates rugby game at Bowdoin.  On Friday, we headed up to Bowdoin because I wanted to stop in at the bookstore and pick up a shirt and sweatshirt (the store was going to be closed on Saturday).  The bookstore is in the student union and it was really cool to go back in there for the first time since I graduated in 1999.  Even walking on the campus put a smile on my face.  I really enjoyed my college years and it was nice to see the places where so many memories happened.  On Saturday we headed back to Bowdoin for the game.  Now here was a place where some of my very best memories take place….the fields behind the fieldhouse where I learned how to play rugby.  The pitch I played on is gone replaced by a turf field hockey pitch.  But no worries, since I’ve been gone Bowdoin Women’s Rugby has become a varsity program so now they have a nice pitch dedicated to rugby with permanent uprights

Seeing my coaches again was a great experience.  They were the first coaches I really really respected for not only the knowledge they have about the sport, but for the way they presented it.  I really believe that one of the reasons I fell in love with rugby the way I did, is because I had them on my side, helping me learn and encouraging me on and off the field.  I know that Jo and the other Batesies don’t like my coach and see her in a different light than I do.  But at the pitch this weekend, I saw the same MaryBeth I learned to play rugby with.  Her husband Bob was my forwards coach.  He is a soft spoken guy and has a very similar coaching style to MaryBeth.  He saw me and gave me a big hug and chatted with me after the game for a while.

While talking to MaryBeth, she pretty much asked me if I would like a job as assistant coach in the near future, with the idea that after a couple years I would be head coach.  She told me they really want to pass the program onto an alum and they know that I’ve been coaching and love it…and that I’m back in the area.  I think it would be a great opportunity and something I would be interested in.  The question becomes, do I think that I would want to move back to Maine.  And more importantly, would Jo want to come with me   Brunswick is a great little town, a college town.  And Maine is a truly beautiful place.  I wonder if I could live in a small town again (I mean I do know of a really good thai place and an excellent little pizza place ).  But would being 2 hours away from a big city really work for me (but only 40 mins away from a small city in Portland).  I guess all these questions really don’t need to be answered anytime soon.  I told MaryBeth that I would consider it,  but in the meantime I would love to come up and help out at the start of the spring season and with any camps/clinics she might need a hand with.

And don’t worry folks, slowly but surely, my mind is getting wrapped around the idea of motivating to get fit enough to play again   I’m even going to ask my parents for money to pay for a trainer at the gym for my birthday.  If that doesn’t do it I don’t know what will.