Synthesis Essay
Making a difference
After a 14-year career in the U.S. Army, I was looking for new challenges. I wanted to further my education, but I was not sure what I wanted to focus on. My bachelors’ degree in International Politics was interesting, but not fulfilling. During that same time period, my daughter was growing up and approaching school age. My wife and I started talking about schooling options and ended up deciding to homeschool. Eventually I discovered that teaching my daughter and watching her learn was the highlight of my day, however, I also realized that I could do much better. I knew then that I had to invest time and effort into becoming a better teacher if I really wanted to give my daughter the education that she deserved. When my daughter decided to join the soccer league at the local YMCA, I volunteered as a coach. I had never coached or even played organized soccer, but I thought that this might be a good opportunity to teach my daughter important life skills. I remembered all the valuable lessons that I learned from my own experiences in youth sports and how they helped me throughout my military career. I thoroughly enjoyed being a coach, and a good example to young athletes. I knew that I needed to develop as a coach and as an educator. Michigan State University’s Master of Arts in Education Degree program was a perfect fit for me.
I knew it would not be an easy task, but I knew it would be rewarding. My first semester in the program was eye opening. The science of learning was much more complex than I had initially thought. I learned about different methods that educators used to help students understand better, and how different methods might be better suited for different students. I was able to immediately use this new information. I evaluated the methods that my wife and I were using with our daughter and was able to adjust them to better fit her learning style. We noticed our daughter learned through movement, so we took a kinesthetic approach. When it came time to teach her the letters of the alphabet, we made sure we engaged her in a style that included movement. We did activities like ABC’s scavenger hunts to get her moving to engage her mind.
I also transferred that knowledge over to the soccer field where I was able to give my athletes a better experience. I was able to look at each of the athletes as an individual and give them an environment conducive to their styles. I experienced a lot of social learners and realized they needed the opportunity to work with groups and not a coach that just demanded them to listen to instruction. I incorporated groups into our skills sessions, so they were able to have that. I also added a fun stretching exercise where they were able to come to the front before each practice and do an animal stretch of choice that they created. It gave them the ability to engage.
The following semester was a challenging one, but it also confirmed to me that I had chosen the right degree program. I took two courses CEP802 Developing Positive Attitude Toward Learning and KIN857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sports. These courses were exactly what I was looking for when I initially signed up for the program.
In CEP802 I learned how to foster a healthy environment for learning. It made me reflect on my own childhood and how I grew to dislike school. More importantly it helped me avoid some of those same mistakes with our daughter. Having a teacher who is concerned with a student wellbeing makes all the difference in the world. This is where I was able to see that I needed to provide my athletes a safe environment. They need to feel comfortable coming to practice and knowing that it will be a safe environment for them to express themselves and to fail. Even with our own daughter we constantly work to acknowledge her big emotions and provide that safe environment for her. Sometimes as a parent it is easy to just brush those big emotions off and carry on. When we made a point to acknowledge her emotions it allowed her to feel understood and made a safe environment for her to grow and learn how to deal with those big emotions.
KIN857 taught me how important relationships are in coaching. I worked hard to build those connections with my athletes and their families. On one specific occasion I noticed an athlete who seemed bothered and disengaged in practice. It was unusual behavior for him. After speaking with his parents, I was made aware of the heartbreaking news that the young boy had lost a grandparent. Because of the strong relationship we shared, I was able to understand why he was struggling in practice. This experience helped me realize that youth sports is about more than winning or losing a game. It is about strengthening young people to handle the most important life challenges.
CEP802 changed my perspective on coaching. I would like to share what I learned with other novice coaches. I believe most new coaches mean well they just do not have the information to be as effective as they could be. Essentially, these recreation league coaches are set up to fail. They are expected to perform like experts, but they are just parents trying to show up for their kids. I want to not only help my athletes but all these families that look to the local recreations league to be an affordable way for their kids to be active and part of a team.
When I realized my daughter was going to have to play on a soccer team with 18 kids, it was overwhelming. I thought there was absolutely no way I could do it. I had zero experience coaching and I had never played on a soccer team. I recall the program director telling me that it didn’t matter if I had any experience or not, which is essentially true. Now thinking back on it, I believe it should matter. When you have an inexperienced coach setting a foundation for these athletes that is like a missed opportunity. They need to be given some basic guidelines, general tips, maybe a coaching website or something to guide them. I thought about the different level of coaches and how one athlete could get an experienced coach and another could get a new coach. This could lead to entirely different experiences. While this isn't fair it is what is happening across recreational leagues. There is obviously no quick solution but getting educated coaches in all youth programs not just the club level programs is a start.
I reached out to the program director and offered to help make recruiting coaches easier by offering them some basic knowledge. The program director thought it was a great idea but wasn’t sure how the other repeat coaches would respond. I asked for their input so we could work together to develop a new coaches guide. While this is still a work in progress due to the pandemic it has not moved as fast as we would have hoped. However, I do have some hope that we can provide new coaches some knowledge and comfort to provide that solid positive foundation for these young athletes. I think the more seasoned coaches might even have learned something during this process.
I enjoy being a coach and watching the athletes develop a new skill. I also enjoy watching our daughter learn something new from her first steps to learning to read. There is something about witnessing those “ah ha.” moments. When I decided to take TE842 Elementary Reading Assessment I was more focused on helping my daughter. She was at the point where she point blank asked to learn to read. As homeschool parents this was exactly what we hoped for; her to be able to do things on her own timeline. Little did I know we were not as prepared as we thought we were. We all learned to read how hard could it really be.
TE842 alone made me appreciate every teacher I had that taught me portion of the reading process. However, taking the reading curriculum book Words Their Way and being able to dissect that with current teachers who are in the classroom and using it on a reoccurring basis was more beneficial than anything I could have imagined. The value of this course can be seen when I watch our daughter sound out tricky words and explain the soft c sound. This was exactly why I took the course.
This course also helped me grow as a coach. It taught me that you can coach all day long, but you also have to have some sort of evaluation to measure the success of your plan, just like reading. As a newer coach I wanted to grade my performance, but I knew that winning games wasn’t what made a coach successful. However, I didn’t know exactly what did. This course led me to develop my goals as a coach because having goals is a necessary part of the evaluating process. I knew that I wanted to give my athletes a foundation and a positive environment to grow. I combined that with looking at each athlete as an individual to achieve the framework I needed to create a successful coaching plan. This course also gave me a way to show parents who might questions what I am doing or why I do something a certain way the method behind my madness. Being able to show them I am constantly evaluating what I am doing as a coach to better myself builds their confidence in my abilities. This knowledge helped me show I am willing to do whatever it takes to get these athletes the solid foundation they deserve to move forward in any sport they choose.
Overall, I am not the perfect coach. I am still learning, I still get caught up in certain teaching methods and I overthink practices. However, at the end of the day I know my time at Michigan State University has given me the knowledge to pursue my passion. To reach out to the future of the world and give them a stable foundation in sports that will transfer to so many other aspects of their life. This is something I can’t even put a price on.
The professors I have been able to work with have given me such great guidance and hope in the future of education and coaching. They have given me constructive criticism and helped me develop the ability to questions myself and inspired me to always look for room to grow. I can honestly say this experience has not just grown me as a coach but it has helped me as a parent and an individual. Additionally, having the opportunity to work with current teachers and coaches who have many years of experience allowed me the opportunity to gain knowledge through their experiences.
At the end of the day I look forward to becoming the coach that will have athletes coming back years down the line to say that I made a difference for them. As well as the moments I will have watching my daughter grow as a student and an athlete in whatever sport she chooses. I will forever be thankful for the opportunity MSU gave to be the best coach and parent I can be today and tomorrow.