There are times when I see another publication put out a story and I think, “Wow, that is such a great idea. Wish I thought of it.” Other times I see a great concept and decide it could be done better.
About three years ago I came across a story by a daily newspaper in the region that recounted a day in the life of a high school football coach outside of our coverage area. It was a one-off, though, and I felt like that it was a great idea but just not well executed. Someday I would try to take the concept and expand on it. While high school football coaches get a fair amount of attention, I thought it would be more compelling to follow around several coaches in all kinds of different sports. I knew I couldn’t execute this concept effectively on my own.
I am thankful that when I pitched the idea to my colleague, Katherine Smith, she liked it as much as I did. A couple months ago we talked over the details and decided to follow fall sports coaches around. This will be a short series split into two parts featuring coaches from football, girls soccer, cross country, girls swim and volleyball from Tahoma, Kentwood and Kentlake.
What I found compelling about the idea is that as a sportswriter, I know well what the demands are of coaches and how the paltry stipend they receive does not come close to covering the amount of hours a coach will put into it during the season. In our area, athletic directors prefer to hire people who are also teachers in their buildings, so we chose to focus on coaches who teach, as well. That creates a separate list of challenges.
All four of the coaches I contacted were more than willing to allow me to shadow them and chat with them about what they do in the classroom as well as on the field, or in the case of cross country or volleyball, the trails or court. Several warned me they arrive at school quite early, usually by 6:45 a.m., but that’s not a problem for me when it comes to visiting them. During the summer I began getting up at 6 a.m. regularly to go out for runs and workouts as well as to manage my busy schedule. On Fridays recently I get up at 5:45, do some volunteering before I head into the office and then cover a football game, which means I am not getting home until after 10 p.m. I am starting to understand how coaches must feel on game, match or meet day: simultaneously amped up and exhausted.
These educators, coaches, parental figures, guidance counselors and mentors, just to name a few of the roles they play, do this because they care deeply about our student-athletes. They also juggle many responsibilities and we wanted to give everyone a glimpse into the lives of coaches in hopes we all have a better understanding of what we see when they are on the sidelines. We hope to clear up some misconceptions, too. Typically we try to focus on the teens we cover when writing about high school sports but sometimes we like to show the human side of the story the adults experience. And I am curious to see what patterns emerge in terms of scheduling, balancing teaching with coaching and families as well as philosophies.
It will surely be enlightening for us. We hope you find it educational, as well. The first part will run in the Oct. 4 edition of the paper.
