Ever since I started this after school program that is mandatory for athletes to attend, I have been enveloped in the world of sports at my school. What I thought to be a rather insignificant part of our school has turned into almost 50% of my daily effort at work. The politics are overwhelming, the children are hilarious but taxing, and I spend more time thinking about the adults and catering to their needs than the children. Politics aside, there have been many things that I have been shocked by...
1. Our complete lack of school spirit.
2. The disorganization around various events.
3. How little people make it about the students.
4. What students consider to be acceptable on the field/court.
5. How students and adults react to wins/losses.
Here are some events that may explain how I came to believe the points above:
Our first "Pep Rally"
It was the day before our boys' first game (away) when one of the higher ups in the athletic department messaged me about organizing a send-off for the boys. Realizing that nothing could realistically be put together within the next 10 hours, we decided to hold off on the send-off until the following week's game. However, that game was forfeited by the opposing team due to lack of players.
Finally, 2 weeks later, we had our first send-off for the boys. I spent all week making posters, organizing people to be there, and getting people to make decorations to hang in the hallway that led to the boys' locker room. On the day of the game, running on about 3 hours of sleep due to poster making the night before, me and a few other teachers decorated the locker room with streamers and personalized posters for each player, then decorated the hallway leading to the locker room. The plan was to have the boys run down the hall while onlookers cheered and chanted for them. Come 4pm when the boys were supposed to run down the hall, we were only able to find adults to cheer them on, and the boys were taking quite some time to assemble in the stairwell before running down the hall.
Then, the big moment came... they came through the doors, went through the first banner, and proceeded to funeral march down the long hallway. They pushed through the second banner with one finger, and proceeded, silently, into the locker room.
While this was going on, all the adults were chanting, screaming, cheering, and stamping their feet. I ran up and down the hallway patting the boys on the back and screaming out their names. They were stone cold. Absolutely no reaction.
When I asked them later about the pep rally, they mentioned it was really cool and appreciated the efforts. As to why they funeral marched down the hall? "We were in the zone. Pumping up like that only happens right before the game."
Huh.... who would have thought?
Pre-Game Time
After the pep rally, I was hanging around helping some of the boys get their heads screwed on, and it was quite the site to see. Boys were running all around, the coaches were on the phone with downtown trying to figure out who was cleared to play and who wasn't, people were half dressed or not dressed at all, few were fully ready, and several were just chatting with me about their day. I was trying to get them pumped for the game but they weren't entirely interested in being pumped, but more just talking about it. They always seem confident going into these games, but are never surprised when they come up short on the field. It isn't until about 2 hours after school has ended that they begin to get organized and start paying attention to directions. Several of them sit with me for homework help, others just chase each other around, and most are just lounging, begging me to go buy them food since they are starving. Excellent pre-game focus time.
Game time
When it comes to game time, the boys look the part... for the first 20 minutes. They are zoned in, balls-to-the-wall football and hold their own on the field. It's about a quarter of the way in where they begin to lose focus... they're looking for us in the stands, they're goofing around on the side lines, they're looking at the cheerleaders... their attention begins to drift from the game. While it's always sweet to have a kid do something awesome on the field and then look for you to make sure you saw it (love MD), but it is indicative of what they really care about: they want you paying attention to them no matter what is happening on that field. This happens with both good and bad things. When one kid says a snarky comment and they think you may somehow have heard it from 50 yards away, they look over nervously and wave. When a kid makes a touchdown (this has only happened once this season) they look up to make sure you saw it. While it warms my heart, their head should be in the game, not on whether I saw it or not. The frequency with which they check the stands increases as the game continues, until they are down a large amount and have pretty much given up on winning. At this point they begin shouting up into the stands to talk to you about what you saw, what food they want, or if you can drive them home after the game. While the coaches attempt to keep the kids focused on the game, there is only so much you can do when you're losing 52-0...
Post-game
For away games, I drive several students who are either on the team but not playing or don't play on the team at all. Once I drop off the kids who have no association with the football team, I swing by the school to pick up my other boys who played. We grab some food before dropping them off at home. These car rides are interesting because of the attitude. The boys are relatively cheerful, considering they have usually just survived a trouncing. They talk about the great plays they had, how their coach ripped them a new one and they don't care, and then what they're going to do better in the next game. Maybe I'm just a sore loser, but whenever I got crushed in a game I wouldn't talk to anyone after, or I would talk about how pissed I was that we lost. These boys focus only on the positive, speak very little of the negative, and seem to focus on the future. I assume this is a coping mechanism for losing all the time - you can only be so angry about losing. However, when I talk to the coaches about this mentality they express a lot of frustration. Apparently, the boys don't quite register the seriousness of the situation and the coaches are irritated at the lack of motivation amongst the boys. This is likely because the coaches jobs are on the line based on how the boys perform in a game and there are no real consequences, other than losing, for the boys.
Study Hall
In the past 2 weeks the coaches have cracked down on the boys for study hall attendance. Athletes cannot play unless they get their hour of study hall in during the daytime. The boys have started to fall in line, for the most part, and show up with work to do as they know we will bother them until they get busy doing something educational. Based on how I saw them behave before, during, and after games, I had been very anxious about the foolishness that I was going to deal with during study hall. However, to my surprise the boys now show up on time, if not early, and go straight to their rooms. Yes, it took us 6 weeks to get there, but they know the expectation and meet it. Boys even stay late for tardy hall when they come to the program late. Yes, there is always room for improvement, but it's interesting what happens when you make the program about the kids. There are many adults who have tried to make programs for after school and for our athletes, but these programs have failed due to the students not taking it seriously, the adults poorly organizing it, or the heart being in the wrong place. With our current program, I consistently message to students that the entire program is there for them to benefit from and based on their needs, and they seem to appreciate it. They ask for math tutors, I got them math tutors. They wanted snack earlier, I got them snack earlier. They wanted a specific teacher to be there more often, they got it. Once they saw that it really was about them, they became much more receptive to the entire program. Imagine that... kids liking something because it's about them. Craazzyyyyyyy.
Meetings with Coaches
The expectations are different, but the mentality seems to be the same. Mentality: Support our kids so they can succeed. Expectations: What does "success" mean?
I find myself continually confronted with different expectations for children. I expect nothing but the best. I want kids to be accountable, present, and willing to learn. With that said, I do tend to have much more patience for those who take longer to get on track, and I try and work to find out how to help a kid want to learn, teaching them what it means to be accountable, and flex my time for what is "present".
The coaches who see kids in the classroom tend to be on the same page as me. However, those coaches that don't see these boys in the classroom have a different set of expectations, depending on the kid. This has made it extremely difficult to be consistent with students because of the flux in expectations throughout their day. While I'm trying to keep us consistent by meeting with many of the coaches/teachers during the week, it is extremely difficult to convince someone that you know better than they do. Coaches would love to think they clearly know their players best because of that special team bond. Teachers would love to think they clearly know their students best because they have data to back up their statements. However, it is important that the coach and the teacher communicate to create a set of expectations that span across the school and field/court in order to help a student be successful. It is my students whose coaches I am closest with that are performing the best on the court/field and off because the expectations are much more consistent. We're working on putting systems in place so this will be the norm, but unfortunately it usually means that a person needs to set their pride aside and be willing to accept that someone else might know more than them... Pride vs. kids... Who wins?
I'm still feeling out the world of athletics in a public school. It's a completely different jungle than my lonely ol' cluster, and I'm not sure that I brought my machete to get through the thick of it...
