Sports are a large part of Leesville’s culture, and sports teams can’t run without their coaches. Due to the multitude of sports, LRHS employs several coaches who teach and several from outside the school staff. Both types of coaches are effective, but just enough different that there are noticeable pros and cons to both teacher coaches and out-of-school coaches.
“For out of school, they definitely kind of teach you more as only an athlete, and for in school it’s more like making sure you balance both of them out,” said Corrie Moore, sophomore. Moore plays soccer and tennis. For soccer, she has both a teacher and an out-of-school coach; for tennis, she has an out-of-school coach.
Because teacher coaches see their students for more hours in the day, they can develop deeper relationships with their students. “They get to know you on a more personal level, and they connect with you better I feel like, so it’s a better relationship,” said Lily Bendell, junior. Bendell plays soccer and basketball; she has the same soccer coaches as Moore – Coach Vega and Coach Paiva. She had a teacher coach for basketball.
“I think one of the greatest benefits of being a teacher coach is creating a relationship not only as a student relationship but also as a player relationship, and being able to see the student-athletes throughout the day,” said Jenna Lyon, staff.
Lyon is the varsity volleyball coach at LRHS, as well as the school’s Interior Design teacher.
“I am able to interact with the players, their teachers, and other students, which allows me to get to know them outside the field as well,” said Ben Kolstad, staff. Kolstad is one of the varsity football coaches and a physical education teacher at LRHS.
However, there are some negatives to being a teacher coach. “Sometimes when there’s upsetness … and they get mad at you, it feels weird to go back into their classroom,” said Bendell.
“Holding our players to a standard in all facets of their day, while seeing them every day gets tiring,” said Kolstad.
“It’s definitely long hours… it gets exhausting,” said Lyon. If the coach also teaches at LRHS, then that means they’ll be at school from 6:55 a.m. to whenever their practice ends in the afternoon – typically around 4:30 – 5 p.m.
There are also benefits for out-of-school coaches. “You don’t have to run into them awkwardly at school,” typed Viren Sadhwani, sophomore. Sadhwani plays soccer for LRHS and has both a teacher and an out-of-school coach.
“I think the biggest benefit of being an out-of-school coach is the fact that I’m not in contact with the kids all day, so therefore when I come into practice, I’m excited to see them,” said Amy Sellars. Sellars is the varsity cheer coach at LRHS.
“It’s good that they don’t know you, like your background and your school stuff, they know you for your sport you and not your school you,” said Bendell. Because out-of-school coaches only see their athletes during practice, they aren’t affected by how the athletes act during the day.
“Before I was teaching, I was just a coach, and it was a lot easier because I wasn’t already here like I got to come here and coach and then leave,” said Lyon. One major benefit of being an out-of-school coach is they don’t have the same hours that teachers do unless their jobs start at the same time school does, meaning they can dedicate more time to coaching.
Out-of-school coaches have their disadvantages as well. “I cannot keep up with how they are behaving at school, whether they were in class, how they are doing academically,” said Sellars.
“It’s harder to build a stronger relationship with out-of-school coaches because they can’t relate to the stuff that goes on during the day at school,” said Sadhwani (via text).
“Sometimes when they don’t know what school stuff is going on it can be challenging to balance it out,” said Moore.
Both teacher coaches and out-of-school coaches have different benefits and drawbacks, but we are always grateful to have coaches for our teams.
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