Coaching

= **The Importance of High School Coaching ** =

** High Schoolers are Greatly Influenced by their Coaches ** ** By Sean Corrado **
In reality, a high school coach is a teacher, who instructs the players how to live within their sport. However, the players take what their coach gives them and embraces their teachings past high school. Just like a student will always remember that great teacher, a player will always remember that great coach. And of course, it works the other way around with negative aspects as well. Since players see their coaches about 18 hours a week, coaches must believe that they leave a significant impact on their plaer’s lives.

Senior James Harrity has seen many coaches throughout his years at Hopewell Valley. He has many Varsity years under his belt with his experience in the baseball and basketball programs. His high school sports mean so much to him that he looks shoot toward a higher level with baseball. Whether he is taking shots in the paint during the winter or throwing strikes on the mound in the spring, James feels it is essential to have a good relationship with his coach. Even when he leaves high school, he will always keep his coaches in mind. “I mostly like will look back at high school and remember these coaches who put all their time in for me and our team,” James predicts. Although James projects that his thoughts will always trail back to high school, sometimes it is hard to believe that college athletes will have time to look in the past; as they are looking toward their future. Julie Jablonski, a member of the Hopewell Valley Class of 2010, now runs at Syracuse University. She’s running against tough competition at the Division I level, yet still remembers those important coaches she had in high school. Julie states how “[her coach] was the one that jump started and developed into the athlete that I am now.” While they are busy conveying such tactical instructions that drive their teams to victory, coaches do realize that they become a big part of these students’ lives. Mr. Aaron Oldfield has been coaching the running teams for several years and has seen plenty of young students prepare for their college lifestyle. Coach Oldfield says he uses a relationship based on trust with his runners. He also believes that the most important part of his coaching job is to “make better people”. Oldfield wants to see his young high school stars grow into well-rounded confident individuals. By doing so he mixes his trust in his runners with great communication in order to form an everlasting effect on the rest of his players’ lives. When asked if he believes his atheletes will remember him as an important piece to their lives, Oldfield answered, “I hope so.”

Although many bonds with coaches and players are very memorable, many may be memorable for the wrong reasons. Joel Lopez graduated from Trenton High School and now attends Mercer County Community College. During his high school days, Joel participated in soccer. During those four years, he had a terrible relationship with his coach that crippled his enjoyment for soccer. “To be honest, I never had a positive relationship with my coach,” Joel said, “He showed a lot of favoritism against me and a grudge toward me.” Joel did not let his coach damper his expierence outside of soccer and tried to forget about what happens on the field. However, Joel remains to ask himself questions. “What if I had a different coach?” he asks to himself, “a coach that believed in me a little more. How big of a difference would that have made?”

It seems as if Joel got another chance to play at the high school level. Since he is younger than most of his peers, Joel is elgible to play club soccer for the Hopewell Avalanche under the instruction of a new coach, Scott Markulec. In his second year, Joel is having a time he describes as “an overall great atmosphere to play soccer in.” His bond with Coach Markulec allows him to have more fun and go back to enjoying the sport that he loves. Joel also understands that later in life he will realize how big of an impact that Coach Markulec was in resurrecting his soccer expierence, and his hope.

Yes, high school coaches do not get paid as much as the million dollar salaries that college coaches receive. Nor do they get the primetime publicity that the professional level coaches have. On the other hand, high school coaches provide the entrance to the path of a young student’s future, in and outside of sports. Arguably, coaching at the high school level is the most important level to coach.

[|Local High School News]

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A high school coach in Texas had winning on his mind; however, he was fired after a 100-0 blowout win. The athletic department did not agree with his decision to push it to the limit, so winning is obviously not the top priority in this certain high school's district.

**__ The Perfect Recipe for a High School Coach __** **__ By Sean Corrado __** They can be math teachers or gym teachers, substitute teachers or middle school teachers. They can even be substitute gym teachers, but once they take the role of a high school coach, endless responsibilities come to them.

According to a poll conducted on Hopewell Valley students in the winter of 2010-2011, students believe the most important piece to a high school coach’s resume is the ability to “make better people”. At the college level, coaches should “make better players” and at the professional level, winning is a coaches highest priority. ESPN’s SportsNation conducted a similar poll for college coaching. The entire nation agreed with Hopewell in saying that college coaches should focus on the improvement of players.

On a more moral note, high school coaching seems to be the most important out of the three. Former Hopewell Valley student Julie Jablonski, now at Syracuse University, describes the difference between high school coaching and collegiate coaching as more reliable among the individual players. “In college sports, they expect you to be a lot more independent and do stuff on your own. They basically expect more from you in general,” Julie states. So if college focuses more on the individual, coaches at the high school level must be able to hold everyone together as a team.

So, now athletic directors around the country want to find this perfect specimen of a coach that has such a huge impact on their student athletes. These directors want to find the exact amount of ingredients they need to search for in order to grant their students a positive and memorable experience. Therefore, the athletic directors must look beyond the surveys and find what they are looking for directly from the past, present, and future students. For this article, past Hopewell Valley students were interviewed, current students, and future students.

The best trait to find in a coach is the ability to respect the game and the players. Fairness and equality among is the first level of respect. Joel Lopez from Trenton experienced a coach who played favorites and did not give many players a chance. In retrospect, Joel wishes he had a different coach, one who “gives everyone a chance to show their talent”.

The last trait seems to be common sense, but many coaches may lack it. Coaches should be able to give their players a fun experience that will live with them until their old age.

[|Look at the Transition Between High School and College] Newsday.com sports writers hold their own blog about high school football in the highly populated Long Island area. Throughout the offseason, the blogs mainly consists of student college decisions and high school champions. Coaches are often highlighted in the great aspects of the high schooler's college decision or school's championship.

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This documentary is adapted from the hit movie, //Coach Carter,// where the story of Coach Ken Carter at Richmond high school is widely published and made famous. Ken Carter realized that over 75% of the school's students were not moving on to a higher education, so he made these athletes better people. The players fought against diversity and rebounded their lives to achieve happiness, all through the help from Coach Carter.

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Entire page was created by Sean Corrado.