Abstract:

Jim Miller describes his challenging experience as a yount teacher, coaching a girl's volleyball team, and how he is still a "coach" in the classroom.

Brooks, J. (2004). When the ball's in your court. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 8 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/JB01_04_05.html

Full Text:

Entry #1

When the Ball's in Your Court

I didn't get to watch much of the summer Olympics this year; I was well into another school year with little time for leisure TV. But, I always try to see a bit of the volleyball competition. That's ever since I found myself on the other side of the net from the US Women's Olympic team.

I suppose it began the way it does for many leaders. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was a novice teacher innocently eating lunch, listening to the school's Athletic Director speaking of his difficulty filling a volleyball coaching position. "How hard could it be?" a teacher asked. "It's just volleyball, for goodness sake." I looked up and smiled. Sports had never been my forte. Music and drama were my loves. I was more at home on a stage than on a court. Little did I know that I was about to be cast into a role for which I would never have auditioned.

"Even Jim could do it," the teacher added. There was an awkward silence and I realized that everyone was waiting for my reaction. "Are you kidding?", I said. "You're crazy. Are you really serious?" He was serious. "I'll send you to some training," the Athletic Director assured me. "You'll do fine." (How many times have we heard that one? A one-day workshop is the answer to all of life's inadequacies, after all!)

Before I met my team, the Athletic Director made good on his offer for training. I needed help with fundamentals but found myself headed to Chapel Hill for a session with the coach of the US Olympic Women's Volleyball team. When I walked into Carmichael Auditorium I was a little awestruck. Even though I wasn't an athlete, it was nearly impossible to grow up in North Carolina and not be at least a little affected by the legacy of Coach Dean Smith.

The training began innocently enough — some general notes, questions and answers, nothing I couldn't handle. "Now I want everyone down on the court," the coach said. As we assembled on one side on the net, the US Olympic Volleyball team made their dramatic entrance. What followed was brutal. I even quit trying to return those speeding serves and powerful spikes. I went into survival mode. It was like a nightmare game of dodgeball and I was the target. This was my preparation for leading a fledgling high school volleyball team? I had been to volleyball boot camp and had the battle scars to prove it.

I stumbled through the early days of practice gleaning drills from a few books I had found at the public library. I was an English teacher, so I did my research. I'm sure I wasn't fooling the veteran athletes, but they played along with the charade anyway. Those coaches who got me into this mess dropped in occasionally to see how I was doing. They good-naturedly referred to my coaching philosophy as "the think system," an allusion to Howard Hill in "The Music Man," (remember my theatre background) who was able to inspire a band of untrained musicians to success despite his own lack of musical ability. Perhaps it would work with these girls. I was counting on it.

Our first match was a disaster. I shouted plays from the bench and played the role of manic coach I must have seen in some made-for-television movie. A trusted colleague who was there for moral support pulled me aside and gently pointed out that if I had the team properly prepared, I wouldn't have to bark orders from the bench. Of course. How did I let that happen?

We improved over the season. We came together as a team and my budding skills as a coach were strengthened. But we still didn't win any matches. I saw that original team through another season before passing the torch to another coach (one with a background in the sport!). My experiences with those girls have shaped my leadership in ways I could not have predicted. Under the most unlikely of situations, I found my way. I learned a little volleyball but learned valuable lessons about coaching that have helped me "coach" novice teachers, National Board candidates and other teacher leaders.

The students I teach today have no knowledge of my brief foray into high school coaching, so it was particularly ironic one day when a student raised his hand in class and said, "Coach, I need some help over here." I smiled as I thought of that young teacher who once "competed" along side Olympians.

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