Growing up I never could figure out what I wanted to do with my life regarding my career. Even in college I switched between three different majors in the span of 2 years. It was always lists of things I knew I didn’t want to do, never what I wanted. Between semesters at college, I finally had an epiphany – I wanted to coach high school basketball. Mixing coaching basketball while teaching mathematics seemed like a great fit for me personally. I wasn’t opposed to teaching PE, but I knew choosing math instead would significantly increase my odds of landing a job upon graduating. Now, after 5 years teaching math, 1 semester teaching PE, and 8 years coaching high school basketball, I had to leave education and coaching altogether.
Anyone that goes into teaching always hears the saying, “plenty of teachers never make it past three years before they leave the field.” However, I thought I would be different because of my love for coaching basketball. Unfortunately, not even my passion could outweigh the negatives of everything else I encountered during my time in education. My experiences in education conflicted with the way I was raised; if I worked hard, lived with integrity, and let the results speak for themselves, I could be successful. Instead, I was robbed of my success multiple times during my time coaching. This, coupled with my disenchantment with the education system in general, left me feeling empty of the passion I once had.
The Hardwood
My first year out of college, I was offered a head coaching job at a school that only won 5 games the previous season and returned just one starter. It wasn’t the best job to land, but I was delighted to have the chance to build my program up from the ground up. I always enjoyed starting from scratch and seeing what I could make work in other walks of life, so being able to do it in basketball would be the apex for me.
I accepted the job in May and wasn’t able to find housing close to the school immediately, so during the summer I drove 90 minutes one way to get to the summer practices that I had set up. I had the great idea that if I did one in the morning and one in the evening, my players could at least make one of them a day. Unfortunately, this left me with typically waiting in my classroom until the second workout occurred hours later. It was a lot of time spent, but it was fine to me because I was working hard and doing what I thought was best for the program to become successful.
Fast-forward to the season and we start off doing fairly well, placing 3rd in a small tournament and playing around .500 ball. We finally hit our stride right before the conference tournament. We carried that momentum into the tournament as we upset the 2nd seed in the semifinals to make it to the championship game. The last time our school made it was 21 years prior, an incredibly long drought for school in a conference with only 8-teams. Unfortunately, we lost the game to the 1st seed, but we felt like we accomplished something great. Though we finished the season with a losing record of 11-13, the next year was looking bright with 4 starters that would be coming back for the next year. Then, in April, after the season had already been concluded by a month, I was blindsided for the first time by school politics – I was not rehired for the basketball position, only for teaching math. Unsurprisingly, I was distraught. I didn’t know what had gone wrong to lead to this decision. I struggled to put the puzzle together as to what had transpired.
Though I never knew for sure, the best explanation came from a situation regarding a disgruntled parent. During the season, this parent’s son was the 11th best player on the team, and received playing time accordingly. Ironically, the son was fine with his playing time and never expressed any issues with it, at least to the coaching staff. As fate would have it, that parent was a board member and his personal vendetta against me lead the Board to make sure I was not rehired for basketball (even though I was for teaching mathematics). Everything I had worked for during that season was thrown away. At just 23, I had dreams of being there for 10+ years. But, one upset father later and I was out of my desired job, despite the fact that we had achieved so much that season and it was done, at least in my opinion, with integrity.
Over the next month, I had multiple people reach out to me because they thought I was done a disservice. Then, as luck would have it, the basketball coach I respected the most in my life needed an assistant and someone to head the junior high program. It was a no-brainer for me as I quickly pounced on the opportunity to coach with him. It was a true blessing. With this program, I had five successful years. The last year saw us get as far as the state quarterfinals, where we eventually fell short by 3 points. To this day, that coach has had the biggest impact on my life apart from my own father. Prior to our tenure as a coaching team, I was fortunate enough to play under him as a student athlete for 4 years. Even though I was never the most athletic or naturally skilled player, he took a chance on me as a player and then later as a colleague. Working with him revitalized me and gave me hope that I would find a new head coach position.
Finally, another area coaching position came open at a struggling school, so I applied for the head coaching job. As far as any of my references could tell, I was certain to land the job. However, an older coach that had immense coaching success in the 80’s and 90’s was called by the superintendent two days before the final decision for the head coach was made. I didn’t stand a chance after that, but they did offer me a position as the assistant coach. I was stuck in a difficult situation – to leave the job and man I loved working for to gamble working with a new coach (who I will call Coach Smith for simplicity) and be the head when he retires again. It seemed like a good fit to me, I told the high school principal I would take the job if I was to be the next head coach. He agreed, and I was onto my third school for coaching basketball.
As it goes with life, the older you get, the more health problems will occur. This was especially true for Coach Smith that I was working with. He may have once been a great coach, but his time was past and I quickly realized if we were to have success, I would have to do much more work than I had taken on as an assistant previously. It made sense to take on the challenge. After all, I was to be the next head coach, right?
At the beginning of the season, we struggled mightily on defense and that led to an embarrassing blow-out loss to our conference rival. However, I convinced Coach Smith to let me take on the defense and use what I had learned from my mentor. It worked – we fell one win shy of winning 20 games, won the conference championship, and made the district championship game. Things were looking great as we just had the best season in probably 20 years for the program. The next year we returned a good portion of our players, but COVID was still looming when the season was to start. Coach Smith had cold feet since he had health problems and was now 70. He didn’t want to do anything during the summer or open gyms before the season started – so naturally, I did them.
Right before the new season was going to begin, Coach Smith had news – he was to have eye surgery. He was going to miss two months of the season. So, I was to be the head coach until he returned. Coach Smith didn’t leave me with any plans of what offenses or defenses to work on, so I installed the same defense and used an offense that would be beneficial to our team makeup. However, a week before the season began, our senior leader had a major knee injury. We were in trouble, but we still had to play the games now without Coach Smith and our most important player. We had some adversity in games, but for the most part we found success. We took 5th place in the biggest tournament in the area, which was a massive accomplishment and took 2nd in overtime in another tournament.
Coach Smith came back, but quickly changed everything we had been working on. The defense we had used the previous season and the one we used in both tournaments was going to change to something we hadn’t practiced much. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t pan out. Our senior leader did eventually come back but wasn’t quite the same player he once was. Luckily, we still found a way to win the conference tournament (another game I had to head coach due to Coach Smith’s ailments) but our district had been realigned and we had the best team in the entire area in our district. We didn’t stand a chance of beating them, even at our best. We won our first-round game and the best team easily crushed us. It was a letdown of a game, but when Coach Smith announced his retirement, it was all looking like I was the next man for the job.
Rewind to two years prior and not many people even wanted the head coaching job at this school. But now that we had success for two years, a strong JV, and an improving junior high team it was suddenly desirable. Another head coach in the area that I had developed a good friendship with said that it should be a no-brainer because he knew I was the main factor in the success we had found at all three levels (Varsity, JV, and JH). This was also echoed by my former mentor and coach. When it came down to making a decision for the head position, administration seemed to want me for the job, but the board wanted to go in an entirely different direction. They chose a man with no head coaching experience and less overall experience than me. I knew every coach that received an interview, this was the one with the least amount of experience. It didn’t take me too long to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The coach that was chosen had some friends that were on the board and they had been wooing him since before our season was over, even before Coach Smith had turned in his resignation. My thoughts were, where was this man two years ago when the program was in the middle of 10 consecutive losing seasons?
Where was this man two years ago when the program was in the middle of 10 consecutive losing seasons?
Politics had reared its ugly head again and cost me a job that I felt was stolen from me. I can’t help but wonder if I’m just delusional, and I never was the best man for the job either time. However, I greatly doubt this was the case as many of my colleagues came to my defense and some even went as far as to condemn the school because that is how they always seem to operate. Nevertheless, I was left with a stronger blow than the first time this had happened. I really thought I had found a home with this school, but some key people did not feel the same way in return. Of course, I could have stayed on as the assistant coach, but I could not see me and the new head coach working harmoniously together. Yes, it was best that I would take my leave as well.
When it comes down to it, coaching small school basketball is not lucrative at all. You spend countless hours preparing, planning, scouting, practicing, and coaching in games for little pay. If I just was able to coach and not have to deal with the political side of basketball, it would without a doubt be worth it to me. Be it as it may, my passion, at least for the time being, has been drained. As I am currently not planning on coaching basketball this winter for the first time in 11 years. Maybe one day I will find the right fit or take another chance on doing what I had loved, but for now the cons outweigh the pros to me. It was just demoralizing to see that integrity and hard work did not matter to the individuals who determined my future employment.
The Classroom
Teaching mathematics was the best way for me to secure a job for coaching basketball. In school I was always adept at math and in a way, teaching was like clashing coaching and math together. In my time as a teacher, I enjoyed teaching the lesson and working with my students. But as most people who look into the hardships of teaching know – it’s all the extra stuff that causes issues.
I was no different than most teachers in the regards of enjoying the actual teaching but hate all the extra stuff that is thrown our way. However, there was one big issue that bothered me more than most – I didn’t believe in the system. I find the education system that is in place in the USA to be broken and doesn’t work well anymore. Early in my teaching career, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube and I happened to agree with it wholeheartedly.
Even though I totally agree the system needs to be revamped, but how to do it? I do not know. So, this left me with an awful feeling of doing something I did not believe in but also didn’t know how to fix.
Do I find math important? Yes, but in certain situations. Some of my students were forced to go into Algebra II before they would be able to graduate high school. Except I believe Algebra II should only be for students that intend to go to college. If someone is not going to college, they do not need Algebra II. Geometry and Algebra I is all a typical person needs to have enough knowledge in mathematics to be successful and still apply what they learned for their adult lives. Even when I, a math teacher and someone with a math degree, teach Algebra II there are some things that I need to reteach myself if I didn’t teach Algebra II the year before. That tells you how meaningless these things actually are for those that don’t plan to pursue higher education.
I have gone over the standards for what needs to be taught in Algebra I and the state that I have taught in keeps cramming more and more Algebra II standards into Algebra I. I already find Algebra II to be an unneeded subject to many, this just causes more chaos and issues. I found myself being forced to teach to a test that is most likely pointless for many of my students because the state test usually consists of only math problems that one would encounter at the end of the course (Algebra II things usually). Teachers are typically judged how successful they are by how their students do on these tests and it is incredibly unfair because sometimes a teacher needs to spend more time on a vastly more important concept that will apply to their lives in the future – which of course isn’t on the test. So, a teacher will typically have to make a decision, what is best for the kids or what is best for their personal evaluation. This should not be a situation that arises because the majority of the teachers I have worked with truly care about their students and want to do the best for them. The power of how to teach subjects should rely on the teachers themselves because who knows what the students in the class need the most than the teacher that is currently teaching them?
We are currently in a time where a B or even an A is expected by parents/guardians and students alike. I have had administration question me that when I gave an A- to someone. Honestly, I was offended that was even a problem, as I had to give reasons as to why this student got what they deserved, an A- instead of an A. Many parents/guardians assume their student is worthy of a grade that they sometimes didn’t earn (although, most parents that I have worked with are understanding and not a problem).
One time, I had a parent call the school and the secretary took me out of my own classroom I was teaching in order to take the conversation. Her son had missed a full week of school and was falling behind in my class. I had offered to help him out individually before school or even after so he could catch up. His mother explained that it was impossible for him to do either of those because of his schedule. She wanted me to take time out of teaching my class and helping the other 20 students in my class just to make sure he gets caught up. Personally, I found this to be an outrageous request since that would literally require me to stop everyone else in the classroom from progressing. I tried to even offer to come to their house one night to help him out but this was met with a strong opposition as she immediately got upset and hung up on me.
Obviously, this was just one scenario that I had to deal with in my time teaching. If these issues were very isolated it wouldn’t be a problem for the most part; however, they occur too often and when this is mixed with other issues that a teacher has to deal with it really makes one reconsider if education is the best career choice for an individual.
The Final Buzzer
So, this is where I find myself in my adult life – for the first time I will not be apart of the education system. It was sad to leave my classroom and even the gym where I spent so much time teaching, coaching, and mentoring. Every year I loved my students/players just like the next teacher/coach.
One of the biggest issues I see with the entire system came down to one of my last months when I still thought I would return to teaching math and being the head coach. My classrooms were bursting full as I was teaching just shy of 30 students per class, I even had to go get more chairs from other classrooms to make it work. I talked with my principal about hiring another math teacher or a part time math teacher to help out with the excessive students in the math classrooms. This idea was shot down by either the superintendent, the board, or a mix of the two. At first, I thought I understood as we may not have had a classroom or the funds to hire another teacher and that made sense to me. But what ended up happened really infuriated me as an educator. The new basketball head coach had a new PE position created just for him. The school shot down the idea of giving help to a core school subject but instead created an unneeded position just for the new basketball coach. Meanwhile during every school day, both gyms and the weight room were full every class period and one junior high class had to just sit in the bleachers if they couldn’t go outside because there wasn’t anywhere for them to go. The school chose sports over the education of students and that appalled me. Yes, I may have been biased due to me wanting the basketball job, but the teacher in me found this unjust to the students as well.
The school shot down the idea of giving help to a core school subject but instead created an unneeded position just for the new basketball coach.
I haven’t completely closed the door on returning to coaching. After all, I had many exciting times with it and loved the connections I created with my players. But when hard work and integrity don’t bring the results I was taught to expect, it’s difficult to find peace with that choice of career. On the other hand, I don’t see myself returning to the classroom in the same capacity I had been before. As anyone probably knows, it’s difficult to continue doing something that you don’t believe in. The system seems broken to me, and since I did complete my fifth year of teaching, my retirement is now vested and that leaves me with knowing I can easily transition into a new career without leaving money on the table. So, this is where I find myself with my career in education, five and out.
