Past my prime?

For those of you that don't know, I'm helping out with the freshman basketball team at Mason High School. It's only been a few weeks, and I absolutely love it. The guys on my team are really fun, and being able to teach and encourage these 14 young men has been both challenging and life-giving. We've got our first game tomorrow night...unfortunately I have to miss it, but there'll be plenty more!

Anyways, I decided to condition with them tonight. I've been thinking of doing this for a while now, but tonight was the first time I did everything conditioning-wise that they did. I'm hoping that joining them will inspire them to work harder and take on my attitude as well, which is (hopefully) one that works hard and encourages others.

Obviously, part of having said attitude is being in shape, of which I am dreadfully not in. We only did about 7 down and backs plus a man-maker (perhaps a more PC term for a suicide), but I was huffing and puffing by the end of it all. I'm not sure if I would have been able to finish another set of those. Sad, but true. I just can't run and jump and move like I used to. I'm not strong anymore either. Now, I'm sure not many share the same desire to possess these qualities as I do, but they're important to me for better or worse. At least kind of important.

As I took off my shoes and got ready to depart after practice with the rest of the team, I was joking around with a couple of them. As I joked with them to not let the "old guy" beat them in sprints (I know I'm not really old, but I feel old for 21 going on 22), one guy responded "but you should be in your prime!"

He said it in such a way that he was certain that, at this stage of life I'm in, I should in fact be in my "prime." I calmly and confidently responded that my prime was ages 17 and 18, and it's been downhill since. As we laughed our way out of the gym, I couldn't help but think: I'm just scratching the 20s and I'm already over the hill, athletically speaking. That sucks.

Am I really past my prime, athletically speaking? Maybe if I put in the time and energy, I can get back to the level of fitness and athleticism I enjoyed in high school. But I don't see that happening anytime soon, for a lot of reasons. Many of these probably aren't good reasons, but still.

I'll probably have much more to say about this basketball coaching experience. It's really quite cool.