Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - coaching

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Continuing looking at my first job - Teaching High School Math at West Grant High School - 1969-1970.

Eventually, the teaching got better, I hit a stride.  My teaching was good, my testing was good, life was pretty good - and they even paid me for it!!!

Administration:

This was my first “real” job.  So, yes, I had managers and bosses before - but this was REAL.  John Gehn - if you read this - I was in awe and scared.  Thinking back it is like the car in front of you with a bumper sticker “New Driver”; maybe I needed a sign “New Teacher”.  

But, John - superintendent; Charles Minsky - principal - was a delight to work for.  (At a later point I took some classes in educational administration to be a principal/superintendent. You set a high standard!!!)

And, Sherri!!  My father loved cheese and I wasn’t much of a cheese eater.  I had been told to bring some cheese from the Patch Grove Cheese Factory when I went to visit my parents in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  But that was run by the President of the School Board - the one who signed my checks!!!  I didn’t know quite how to buy cheese - but your father was amazing.  He loved his cheese (and his daughter) and loved good education.  I felt like family when I sampled cheeses and had to swallow the tastes (I have learned to like more than Velveeta!!!).  And, he had a wonderful daughter!!!

And, back to John Gehn - I had the superintendent’s son in class - and on the baseball team.  What if I had to correct him on some little homework point or some minor baseball play?  But, fortunately, Mike was a great student and a great baseball player!!!

COACHING:

So, I had made a bit of a boast to John Gehn, the West Grant superintendent when he asked if I could coach basketball and baseball.  “Sure,” I said.  That didn’t mean too much!!

BASKETBALL

I was the Junior Varsity (or JV) coach.  That meant I coached the freshman and sophomores.  The varsity coach was Vic Reichmann the science teacher.  He pulled me aside before the season started and gave me a book about coaching.  He said he wanted me to put the team into a 1-3-1 zone defense as that was what he used on the varsity team.  Easy enough.  Actually, that was easier to teach and made my coaching better.

So, friends, what does a junior varsity basketball coach need to do?  

I worked on fitness - they ran wind sprints.

I worked on fundamentals - passing, dribbling

I worked on defense - the 1-3-1 (one guard closer to midcourt); three across the middle and one defender closer to the basket).

And, I worked on offense - give-and-go, screens, hit the open man.

I was not a good coach, but I wasn’t a bad coach either.  

That first year, the JV team won four games and lost fourteen!!  But, the varsity team only won two games!!  So, relatively speaking we did well!!

The high school had a nice gym - but it was used by the varsity team.  The JV team took a bus from the high school to the old high school - now an elementary school - in Patch Grove.  There we practiced until we had to get to the bus for the return trip.  Randy Adametz was my team manager - and he kept us on time (we would hate to miss that bus back to the main building).  From that main building, a late bus would take all those who had stayed after school to their homes.  The district had three towns and lots of roads.  Getting kids home was a priority!!!

I (we) played the first game three times.  Once in my dreams before the first game - we won.  Then the actual first game of the season - we lost.  Then a third time in my dreams - with the adjustments that needed to be done - and we won.  But, dream wins don’t really count!!!

It was about the seventh game of the season when we won our first game.  I had gotten used to the end-of-the-game handshake with the other coach when I could say something like “You’ve got a good team coach.  Congratulations”.  Actually, that first win was against another first-year teacher who had gone to Winona State - that I knew a little.  At the end of the game where we won, I was almost at a loss of words and I said “Better luck next time”.  (Pretty callused response!!).  We did play every team in our conference twice in a season, and we did beat this team again.

Coaching at this level was interesting.  One of the gyms was so old, it wasn’t a standard basketball size.  So, after the other team scored, we had to bring the ball in and across the ‘mid-court’ line to get into the forecourt.  But after we got across the mid-court line, that line moved back.  In other words, there were TWO mid-court lines - not just one.   

I also was amazed at our school district’s sportsmanship.  After home basketball games the cafeteria staff had food for the visiting (and home) team!!  What great hospitality.  

Our conference was made up of very small schools like West Grant.  We rode busses to the game (both varsity and junior varsity teams and cheerleaders rode the same bus.).  The ride home was generally very quiet - after all, it was late, and we (probably) had lost both the JV and Varsity games!!  There was no horseplay or bragging like ‘did you see how I faked out that number 21 and drove to the basketball for a layup?’.  I think we played Tuesday nights and Friday nights.  Coming home on a bus on a Tuesday night, then getting into my cold car and driving the 15 miles into Prairie du Chien - and then getting up on Wednesday morning to go to school to teach was a challenge.  At least after the Friday night games, I could sleep in on Saturday.

One last comment.  I liked to get all the kids into games.  This wasn’t a big-time sport - where winning is everything - this was rural Wisconsin where it was a commitment to play basketball (and really any sport).  Most of the boys were from farms where they could help out with the various chores.  I used to kid that the biggest discipline problem at West Grant was the boys who helped milk cows in the morning didn’t get their boots cleaned before coming to school.  

I had a young man who had such a nice shot, Tom.  Tom wasn’t the fastest kid on the team - and didn’t get as much playing time as others.  Even now some fifty years later, I’m sorry I didn’t get as much playing time for Tom as for others.  (Tom, I’m sorry!!!)

(Oh, I'm still doing basketball - except now I'm playing on a Granny Basketball Team - go figure!!!)

*****

BASEBALL COACHING:

I had coached some baseball.  And, by the time spring sports came along, I was a “seasoned” coach and at least had some semblance of coaching ability.  

Coaching in a rural district did have its interesting sides.  There were some good natural athletes that didn’t play spring sports as that was time for crops to be planted and also for calving.  You had to take the players you had and make a go of it.

In baseball, we were almost 50/50 - about as many wins as losses.  It would have been more wins than losses if I could have pitched Kurt Millian in every game.  (I’m a friend with Kurt on Facebook and he still calls me ‘coach’ and that is so satisfying to me!!)  

These were such great kids - and I was sure a ‘green’ (inexperienced) coach.  They deserved much better than I.  

There was a senior boy who was our catcher.  He loved the game.  There was a freshman boy who was probably a better catcher and stronger hitter.  I kept the senior playing when the younger boy would have probably done a better job.  Tinker - I’m sorry!!!

One remembrance was when our second baseman decided he could steal on the pitcher.  He got thrown out by a good distance, and he was contrite when he returned to the bench.  “Coach, he wasn’t watching me, and I knew I could take a little longer lead and make it!!”  Such enthusiasm and motivation.  (Maybe that was where I adopted the slogan that “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”). 

And like basketball courts, some of the fields had special rules. Some baseball fields were next to farmer's fields so a ball hit over the fence into the neighbor's field was an out!!! (Potosi had a player Keith Krefle, who played football at Iowa State University and the Philadelphia Eagles - he hit a couple of home runs on us!!!)

And, one last baseball memory.  

We were in Wisconsin where at that time if you were eighteen you could drink beer.  I was out with some fellow teachers when we went into a local bar, and there was one of my star baseball players drinking beer.  Of course, that violated the athletic concept of no alcohol.  I benched him for two games (without saying why, although he knew).  Neither one of us said anything about it.  I was kind of surprised that nobody called me on that.  

*****

So, there we are coaching.

Tomorrow, one last look at my first job - teaching math at West Grant High School!!!

LOVE WINS!!

HUGS!!

Karen