Why do I push my athlete and student?

Todd+Dutch

Diamond Butler

Todd Dutch

By Diamond Butler, Staff Writer

Many people think that coaches coach or teach because it’s their job, or because they are getting paid for it. What they don’t realize is that it is so much more than that. The school coaches don’t teach or coach because of that particular reason, they do it because it’s a certain goal that they want their students or athletes to reach before continuing their road after high school. Coaches expect for their students to be on top and have the opportunities that they once had when they were in high school.

Coach Todd Dutch, the track and football coach, said “The reason why I like to coach is because when I was an athlete coaches invested in me, so I’m using the knowledge I was given and giving it back to the next generation.”

Students that are athletes use their coaches skills or what their coaches taught them in their everyday life, just as if it were a drill for them when they are on the field.

Coach Vrba, the softball coach said, ” I want them to use their skills in everyday life and for them to be able to use what they learned on the field.”

It is a process that the athletes go through when they are on the field or court and when they are in a classroom. Playing a sport is what kids do because it is a passion to them and they love to do it, but for the ones teaching the sport, they not only want them to enjoy it, but to also learn from the mistakes along the way.

Coach Jenkins said, “I wanted to see kids mature our time, not in just age but in actually learning the game.”

To some coaches, the athletes are considered their children, they are treated as they’re one of the coaches own. Even if the athletes don’t get known for what they do after being taught from their coaches, it really isn’t a downfall moment, it’s more of a “now I know what to do next year in order for me to succeed” type of moment.

Coach Dutch, track and cross country coach, added “Coaching is an extreme passion for me. It was the drive that pushed me into the education realm. I am able to coach and teach student athletes to the point beyond their definition of success. Regardless if they attend college to participate in the sport I coach them in, I am more concerned with their enhanced growth as young women with their four years of athletics under my direction.”