Introducing...Coach Justin!

Back in May, I "announced" that my husband was going back to school.

As I explained in the original post, it was not a long-term commitment.  Rather, he would be taking a Summer Intersession class at Kansas State University to finish up his coaching certificate.

July 5 was finally here and Justin was ready to be a student again!

1st Day of School...Not the best picture, but at least you can see the straps of his backpack!

The month of July went by fast...Justin went to class Monday through Thursday and reported to work on Fridays.  The weekends were spent studying and preparing his major projects.

That is...except for one particular weekend.

The weekend that Justin finally met Frank Martin...in person!  Justin had accidentally called him earlier in the summer and had quite an entertaining conversation with Frank.  When their conversation wrapped up, Justin made sure to mention to Frank that he'd be seeing him later...

Long story short, the time finally came for Justin to spend his weekend assisting Frank at his Father/Son Basketball camp.  Ironically enough, two of K-State's current assistants had recruited Justin when he was playing Junior College ball in Illinois.  At the time, they were both at different schools and both fighting for him.  Obviously, they didn't win as Justin ultimately chose K-State...but now they're both coaching here.  Talk about a small world! 

Speaking of a small world...small town...whatever...Frank couldn't figure out how Justin has been in Manhattan this whole time and Frank didn't know about him.  After all, it's kinda hard to miss a nearly 7-foot tall, athletic black man walking around a predominately white, normal-stature, not-necessarily-athletic community.

It proved to be an exhausting weekend, but I haven't seen Justin so excited in a long time.  He loved Frank.  Some of Frank's buddies from Miami were in town to help and were super fun to work with.  One of Justin's former teammates is now the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the team so he was able to catch up with Darren...and a bunch of the current members assisted with the camp, allowing Justin to relive the "good old days" for the course of a weekend.  Even more exciting, at least for the kids, was the guest appearance by Jacob Pullen as he came back to help with the camp.

But do you want to know what REALLY tripped Justin's trigger?  Frank and his coaches told Justin they wanted him to come up to Bramlage and practice with the guys!  Justin was PUMPED!  You may be wondering, "How often does he practice with them???"  The answer: never.

I could kick him.  Not gonna lie.  Now that all the guys are back in town and practicing, Justin comes home from work and is beyond tired.  Maybe when things slow down at work this winter, Justin will have enough energy to go shoot some hoops and do some drills!

However, that really doesn't matter.  What DOES matter is that Justin finally received his coaching certificate in the mail!  It took a while but nonetheless, the credentials are all there and he can start coaching college ball shall he ever decide to!