Unbelievable.

That's the only word I can use to describe the feeling of coaching two consecutive teams to World Series titles.

And even that word doesn't do it justice.

But before I continue, some background is necessary to put this in perspective.

Last year, I was the head coach of Ethan's WPPA team in the 7-8 year old division, called the Junior League. We were the Rockies and we stormed through the league, going 14-1 in the regular season and winning the Junior League World Series in an amazing come-from-behind victory. There was a lot of drama that season, with false (and often ridiculous) accusations against me and my assistant coaches. That offseason, the WPPA instituted several rules (both for the draft and for game play) that was intended to prevent our kind of success from happening again ("Rockies Rules", as one of my assistants mockingly called them).

This year, with only two of Ethan's teammates from last year's championship team, and with my inexperience as a new coach in the 9-10 year old kid-pitch division, called the Minor League, we were the Rockies again and finished a respectable 3rd place in the National League. But most importantly, we still went on to win the World Series again.

Winning one World Series championship is completely amazing. With 15-17 teams (depending on league) but only one champion, many coaches never win a single championship. It's true at any level...from professional right down to youth league. So I understood the gravity of winning one. But winning back-to-back World Series championships? That is an indescribable, completely unbelievable feeling.

There are so many reasons this one was even sweeter than the first. As I mentioned, only two of our kids from last year were on this year's team. That means 11 of the 14 players were different. But we won again anyway. In addition, our coach pitcher decided he wanted to be his own head coach (his team ended up facing our team in the World Series so kudos to him) but we won again anyway. What's more, we faced teams with good head coaches who have had prior experience in the kid-pitch Minor League, whereas I was the newbie kid-pitch head coach. But we won again anyway. Also, critics who thought I sandbagged the draft last year have to eat crow this year since we drafted this year's team with the new "Rockies Rules" in effect and won again anyway.

What's more, Ethan's team won the World Series without our team's best player (Leo) in Game 3 of the best-of-three format. We had won Game 1 but lost Game 2 in extra innings. Then Leo was out of town for Game 3. But despite that, and despite the team's disappointment of losing Game 2, the team battled back to win Game 3 anyway (fairly handily, I might add). One of Leo's former head coaches was very impressed with our Game 3 win because he knew how good Leo was, and how hard it is to win without your biggest gun.

So congrats to Ethan, his Rockies teammates from last year (Ben & Rhys), his new Rockies teammates this year (Leo, Jack, Eli, Mitch, Henry, Nolan, Luke, Daniel, Sam, Grainger and Andy), this year's coaching staff (Brent, Rob, Bob, Lon and Buck) for their tireless assistance, and the parents who shlepped the kids to the practices and games. I appreciate each of you. Every year's team is special but this year's team is beyond special. And this year's team created memories I'll never forget...and hopefully they won't forget either.

Finally, but definitely not least, endless thanks to Mil, who let me coach again this summer while handling the other 5 kids. You are the best.