The Wrangler: How long have you been coaching and how long have you been at the ranch? 

Coach Mitchell: I’ve been teaching at George Ranch; this is my third year. I’ve been coaching at George Ranch all three years. [I] Coached football my first year, took a break last year from football, coached track all three years, and I’m coaching [football] again this year. I coached high school track at my old school for the three years I was there as well. 

The Wrangler: How did you decide to become a coach? 

Coach Mitchell: I decided to be a coach because I just wanted to impact young people, not just for the sport they were playing but allowing them to understand that the lessons that you’re learning on the field are things that you can apply to your life and then take the knowledge that I have with the sport and being able to pass it on. That’s something that’s really special to me having done some pretty cool things in terms of high school and college athletics. 

The Wrangler: How did you end up here in George Ranch? 

Coach Mitchell: It really was one of those things where at the place that I was at, time was just up. It was time for me to leave and I wanted to go to a school that I can fit in, that I can actually be able to coach sports because I was at a charter school that didn’t really focus on sports a lot. An opportunity presented itself to me to able to teach science here and to also coach and I’ve loved it. 

The Wrangler: What do you like about coaching? 

Coach Mitchell: I really enjoy being able to encourage those students that may not feel like they have the athletic ability to be successful. When I think about sports, I think about the life lessons that go along with it. You can find yourself as an athlete really competing for positions with people that may be better than you, people that may have more talent, so to speak, than you and being able to for me personally see someone who may not have that it factor and encourage them to be able to reach their full potential. 

The Wrangler: What are your expectations for them as a student as well as an athlete? 

Coach Mitchell: My expectations is that they become the best that they can be. Here at George Ranch, we have four core values: their class, character, accountability, and family. Class means the best of its kind, so my desire is to push kids to be the best that they can be, and as a coach I’m supposed to keep them accountable to that. They’re coming out here to be the best that they can be, so why not as a coach to keep them accountable for that and to help them understand that when you’re trying to be you will live your life with character, you will live your life in a way that allows people to not look down on you or disappoint people because you’re trying your best to be a person of character. 

The Wrangler: What are you excited about the school year? 

Coach Mitchell: I do feel like it’s been rushed in some ways for me personally, just recently getting married, as soon as I left the honeymoon the first day, I was back the kids were here for me and I just felt rushed in that aspect. I’m excited for this school year, but at the same time I feel like I’m rushed in a lot of ways so I got to catch up. But I’m looking forward to doing it and just like I would tell an athlete, you’re going to face type of tribulation at some point, and do you quit? No, you push through, and you allow it to make you better; and so I’m excited to get better as a teacher, [and] as a coach to see that as well for my students and my athletes. 

The Wrangler: What are your expectations for the team this year? 

Coach Mitchell: I think with varsity football we’re going to definitely win districts, I think we’re going to make the playoffs. The goal every year is to make it to state. I think we have a good core of seniors and a good core of juniors and freshman and sophomores to help us get there. For our freshman football team, I definitely think that we’re going to see a lot of improvement from guys that we’ve had a chance to evaluate over those last few weeks. I feel like for track you’re going to have some state champions, you’re going to have some school record holders, you’re going to have a lot of successful athletes to make it to state meet and come back with medals.