Coaching

One of the most rewarding and challenging roles we have here is coaching.  John is coaching soccer with three other teachers and Daesha is coaching volleyball with one other teacher.  The school is relatively young and the sports program is even more so.  One of the soccer coaches is the unofficial athletic director and she works very hard at scheduling games with other schools and setting up practice schedules and a variety of other behind-the-scenes tasks.  Everyone involved is learning much about the importance of academic eligibility, personal discipline, positive attitudes, and good teamwork.  Pictures appear at the end of this post.

The girls played the first ever AIS volleyball game last week and it was certainly an unforgettable experience.  An overwhelming number of students and parents came to show their support.  We loved it, but, unfortunately, it made the girls VERY nervous.  Even though we lost, the girls came away with positive perspectives and accurate ideas of how to improve.  Our team verse (you can see it on the shirts) is Ecclesiastes 4:9: “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their work.”  Volleyball practice has become the highlight of my week. Dedicated beginners improve in leaps and bounds.  It’s incredibly rewarding to high-five a beaming sixth-grader after she gets her first serve over the net or to give a sophomore the opportunity to be a team captain for the first time.  This past week we had a huge, freak thunderstorm, which started during practice.  It resulted in spontaneous childishness from teenagers and coaches alike.  These pictures might give you an idea of how much fun we have together.

The soccer team has played two games so far, with one win and one loss.  Soccer is, of course, a big deal here.  It has been fun to see their excitement when they do well and difficult to see them struggle to improve.  The team begins practice every day by running from our current property to the field on our new property about a half-mile away.  (The school has bought land and is currently preparing to build.)  After this warm up, they work on drills and conditioning.  They have also been able to scrimmage neighborhood kids, who offer pretty tough competition.  When the season first started, practice was spent clearing dangerous rocks and debris from the field.  A special note to any JI students and teachers reading this: Be grateful for your astroturf field!  The AIS soccer team is just grateful to have a field at all.  One of the especially rewarding things in soccer is seeing leadership develop.  Certain students begin to emerge as natural leaders. For example, one lunch the boys organized themselves to have a meeting to discuss personal weaknesses and goals.  There are also certain guys who are the first to help an opposing player up off the ground or to get in line to say, “Good game” in the end.  We look forward to seeing them develop even more.