Coach or Dad?

As the little league season rolls on, I find myself wondering if I'm in the wrong line of work. I mean, I'm not wondering if I should quit my job as a consultant and be a full time professional little league coach (although I imagine it'd be pretty cool if I could keep the same salary), but I am wondering if I'm coaching the wrong sport.

Kaylani is a good 4-5 years away from playing organized softball (assuming that she wants to play softball at all). Softball and baseball are fairly similar when you look at them (pitch ball, hit ball, run aorund bases, stop other team from running around bases), but they're actually pretty different from each other. So should I be coaching softball now instead of baseball?

Despite my basic description of both games, I only really know how to coach baseball. I've worked with 15-18 year olds at Trevor, and now with 10-12 year olds in Lawrenceville, and both those groups sound pretty different from 5-6 year old girls, or even just girls in general. Then, add in the fact that I've watched somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 baseball games over the last 25 years, and you can quickly come to the same realization as I did that I know very little about softball (or girls because who has time for girls when you're watching upwards of 3000 baseball games).

That brings us back to the question around me coaching softball. I have plenty of time to switch sports and start to coach softball next year and on, but I'm not sure I want to. It really comes down to if I want to be a Dad or a Coach. Sure there are some Dad's (and Mom's) that do both, but I'm not sure I can do that. Well, not sure I can do that without favoritism. I played on a few little league teams when I was a kid that had coaches favoring their own kids and it was really annoying. Plus, I think I'd rather watch Kaylani play instead of coaching her (and the other 10 kids on her team).

As of right now, I think I'd rather just be a Dad and a spectator if/when Kaylani starts getting into sports. It'll be a lot easier that way and I can pay more guilt free attention to just her. At least that's my stance for now. Who knows if I'll be able to resist her when she asks if I'll be her coach. Yikes, that would mean she can talk for real. Okay, I think that's enough future talk for now. She's already getting so big. No need to speed the process along, even if it is only in my head.