Before I became a teacher, I was a coach. I coached my sister's field hockey team for 5 years and then later (while I was in university myself) I coached the UBC Junior Varsity team for 2 years. In my opinion, coaching is really just teaching. Except that it's in a different setting and that there are team dynamics going on (not unlike a classroom mind you) but they are perhaps a bit more integral to how the games work out. So, when I began teaching I was also coaching... Soccer, cross country running, basketball, swimming, ultimate frisbee and (even though I'm terrible at it) volleyball.
My favourite thing about coaching is seeing students (sometimes ones who are in my class) in a different setting. I have found that when you are coaching a student on a team it is somewhere that teachers/coaches get to see "an authentic version" of that student. You'll know how hard these students are willing to work (for themselves or the team) and you get to learn a lot about them. It can also be rewarding to see how much they can improve over the course of a season.
Our grade 7 boys team played a game against a fairly strong team from McKinney (blurry photo above shot as I was running/reffing the game!) It was a good starting point and now I know we have a bit more work to do in our upcoming practices. Coaching grade 6 and 7 basketball, I always want my teams to have the basic skills and fundamentals down, so I spend the first part of the season doing a ton of layups and work with the ball instead of "systems" or running set plays. That will come...
Check out the Diefenbaker basketball blog too for updates on the Girls' and grade 6 Boys' and grade 7 Boys' teams as the season progresses...
http://diefenbakerbasketball.blogspot.ca/
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