A disappointing semester teaching

Change is not an easy thing. It can be so difficult, in fact, that I sometimes feel like I have to make a conscious effort to not discard something just because it's different. I really try and work with change and remain positive instead of moaning and groaning.

When our school decided to go to an alternating block schedule for this school year, I was very skeptical, but I thought it would give me an opportunity to become a better teacher. I worked with an "expert" on block scheduling and tried to redo my teaching techniques a bit in order to become more effective.

Unfortunately, I can now say definitively that I hate the alternating block. As I began to make the review for my students final exams, it became clear how poorly things have gone for me this year. My trig/precal class has covered two and a half chapters in a semester. Now if you consider the fact that in a normal year, we cover around 11 chapters, it becomes rather obvious that we're getting half the work done we used to. All of that makes sense if you consider that we meet every other day.

Why is it that experts in education continue to come back to this idea of teaching on the block. It has never worked well for most schools, but it continues to come back time and time again.

Another bad loss

Well, I have come to the conclusion that we are not very good and it will take a while for us to get better. My post players played their best game of the season last night, but my guards were terrible. We handled the full court pressure poorly and we just basically stunk.

Now we have a big game on Friday against a team we should beat. We'll see.

I hit the big time

I had one of my few lifetime television appearances last night. A teacher friend of mine was interviewed about his new position as a teacher coach hear at Overton. They needed to have another teacher to put on camera and I happened to be in the office when they were looking for someone.

Here's the link:
http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=11643971

I'm the good looking one

Getting injured for the first time

I had a freshman player who sprained her ankle during our game against Hillwood. It was late in the game and she landed on another girls foot and rolled it. It swelled up big and she was in obvious pain.

What's funny is I have seen this exact same thing hundreds of times while coaching and I always ask the same thing "knee or ankle?" to the trainer. When they say ankle, it is always a relief. Almost every time, ankles aren't that big a deal.

No convincing players and parents that it isn't that big of a deal is a different story, but I guarantee she plays by the end of the week.

The first time I hurt an ankle was when I was a senior in high school. It was a Selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament and I was playing basketball by myself in the driveway. I jumped and landed half on the driveway half on the grass and rolled my left ankle. I could feel the crunch of ligaments stretching and tearing. When I came inside, my parents decided to wait until after the selection show before we went to the ER. They took an XRay at the ER and it was negative.

My baseball coach was not pleased when he found out about my injury. He asked for details on how it happened and even brought in my best friend, Todd, to confirm my story. It seems that my coach was convinced I injured myself doing something I shouldn't have been doing like playing in a basketball league (which I was). But, since Todd knew nothing of the injury, Coach Kas dropped it.

What's funny is after the initial pain of an ankle sprain, I can move just fine even if my ankle is blue. I now know that it isn't a big deal and I can just suck it up. Many of my players have figured that out as well and are back the next day after a sprain.

Responding to a win

We beat a really bad team on Friday by 23. Our effort was good. Our execution was OK. We may have found our defense in a half court trapping 2-3 zone. They really worked at it and everyone seemed engaged. I will say we still have to work on specific rotations and assignments, but I am confident we are going where we need to go.

We have a big game tomorrow and I am curious how the girls will respond after a win. Our top bench player hurt her ankle and will probably be out.

You never know what's going on at home

A couple of games ago, I had a parent come over during a game and tap me on the shoulder to ask why her daughter wasn't playing. There was three minutes left in the game and her daughter (and about 3 other girls) had not gotten into the game even though we were down by 15-20 points. I must admit that I was a bit taken aback. I told her very quickly that we were not going to talk about that right now. A few minutes later, I cleared the bench and the player went into the game.

One of the interesting parts of this story is that the girl was horrified. She knows the rules and I had a parent meeting specifically to talk about things like playing time. Her mother didn't come to the meeting, but signed the contract stating that I will not talk about playing time on game days.

Well, I had an interesting talk with the player today when I asked her "Do you get along with your mom?"

She responded by saying "When she is drinking."

It was stunning. This is the sweetest, hardest working girl on our team. She is not very good, but she is a great teammate and person. Unfortunately, he mom has a drinking problem and she goes crazy sometimes.

My hope as a coach is that I can be one adult who these girls trust and respect. I want them to see my stable life and family and want to copy it. I want them to see that I deal with my mistakes and deal with my families issues and I still love them.

That wasn't on the online test

There are certain things in coaching (and in life) that no class can prepare you for. Our practice yesterday was one of those.

This was one of the few practices that we started immediately after school. Usually, the freshman team practices for an hour before we get on the floor at 3:30. However, the freshman had an away game so we got to practice from 2:20-4:30.

That was the first problem. One of my players had scheduled her driver's liscence exam for after school and she thought she'd miss just the first part of practice. Now, she was going to miss the entire practice. That left us with 8 players (since my three freshman were at their game). So, I thought we would just work on some individual skill stuff.

That's where the fun really begins. Unbeknownst to me, there was a blood drive yesterday in the small gym. When that happens, the people from the Red Cross try and finish up before the end of school and have all of their equipment out be 2:30. So, I told the girls to get dressed and we would just warm up and stretch while the Red Cross finished.

Unfortunately, at 2:30 they still had a student in a chair giving blood and they had just started picking up. If I get upset, then I look like a jerk, but now we are missing a day of practice. I started scrambling to figure out something to do and my assistant and I decided we could watch some game film.

At 3:00, we checked on the gym and it was open, but the bleachers were still pulled out and there were Cokes spilled on the floor and trash everywhere. It was 3:30 before I got on the floor and started coaching.

As my first year assistant was mopping up a Coke, I asked her if this is what she thought coaching would be like. She said "This wasn't on my online coaching test."

Teaching something for the first time

I had the kids in my trig class do a project today. We spent the entire hour and a half doing something that should have taken 45 minutes. What is interesting to me, is that everything always works this way. Whenever I do something new, it takes way too long and everyone screws it up.

It's the same way with the basketball team. If I want to put a play in or run a new defense, I have to teach it to the girls at least two games before we need it. I can't make up a play in a timeout and expect them to run it correctly.

So today we are going to work on a zone offense for our game next Tuesday.

1 step forward 2 steps back

Played another inferior opponent yesterday and lost. I am really frustrated with our execution. Against a man defense, we did great. Then they switched to zone and we were terrible. Our point guard just make too many mistakes. I may move her to the wing when we play against a zone.

We pressed for the first time and it looked good. Maybe that's who we need to be.

Reality versus Blogging

I once read in John Irving's memoirs titled Try to Save Piggy Sneed that the reality writers put in their stories isn't really true. Sure, most of it is true, but writers exaggerate it or purposely leave out parts.

This has become a source of contention (friendly contention, but still a conflict) between me and my beautiful wife. It seems that I have painted her as someone she is not (at least it someone she doesn't think she is) and I have portrayed myself with equal inaccuracy.

The problem is, she's right. I purposely leave things out or exaggerate something else in order to make the story funnier or to make it flow better. So, when I talk about the fact my wife called me at school to drive home and clean up vomit. I left out the part that school was out and she thought I would have a couple of hours to kill before that night's game.

Leaving out that detail makes her look needy and helpless and makes me look like a saint. The reality is, she would have cleaned it up (albeit, reluctantly) if it would have happened at 10 in the morning.

I think you get my point. It's not an easy balance of truth.

Video games

I just got home last night from visiting my family for Thanksgiving. As always, it was a good time for all. One thing that does surprise me is how addictive video games are for my children and for my brothers kids. My mom put the Wii in the basement and I truly didn't see some of the children for the three days we were there.

Let me be the first to say that I completely understand the addiction. I was first in line when it came to playing my Nintendo as a kid. I was really good at it and could sit for hours. The problem that I have with it now is all of the conflict it causes with my kids and my extended family. My eldest son will dominate the play and only a few of the other kids will try and get in and play. Then, when the day is done, at least one of the kids is upset by the fact he only played for 5 minutes. (By the way, 5 minutes is code speak for 1/2 and hour.)

On Saturday, we finally made the kids stop playing and we had a pleasant time playing board games and cards with the who family.

The main thing I don't like about the video games is how it separates the generations. I have little interest in Pokemon, but I can at least fake it. My parents don't even know where to begin. A good board game, or, in my family's case, card game is great in that it brings my 7 seven-year-old into social interaction with his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents alike. That is how I got to know my grandparents and aunts and uncles. My grandmother could not have cared less about Super Mario Brothers.

A better loss

We played two games last week. One versus an inferior oppponent and one against a team more equal to us. In the first game, we were losey. Ravenwood played a matchup zone and we got shot after shot in the paint and couldn't finish. Our big girl got into early foul trouble and then fouled out on a terrible call by an official.

With less than a minute to play, we were up by two and then they hit a three pointer. We came down and our best fould shooter got fouled and missed both free throws. It only got worse from there and we lost by five. We went 1-7 from the line in the fourth quarter. My point guard, at the end of the game, was 2-12 for the season from the foul line. I told her I could kick in 2-12.

On Tuesday we had to come right back and play David Lipscomb. They are usually a good, well-coached team. Before the game, I took the point guard to the gym and I tried to kick in some free throws. Unfortunately, I was 1-12. We worked a bit on her form and thought process at the line.

Against Lipscomb, our effort was much better. Now, our positioning and execution wasn't much better, but our effort was better. Even though we lost by twenty, I can honestly say that things looked better. We actually accomplished some things.

Looking to outsiders

Coaching is too often about ego. I remember going to a camp one year and playing a team in a very close game. We were at some remote gym and our teams were the only teams there (plus a couple of parents). The coach of the team was calm and seemed very patient with the kids.

A few hours later, the same team with the same coach were playing at the big gym with several other teams and coaches watching. This same calm, patient coach was ranting and raving up and down the sidelines going off on his girls.

What struck me is how this man changed his personality in front of the crowd. He wanted everyone to know what a tough coach he was. He wasn't going to let anything by him. He ran a tight ship. His girls must have thought he was schizophrenic.

I made a vow to myself that I would always act the same with the girls. This was not about getting other coaches to respect me. It was about the needs of my girls and the needs of my team. Sure, there are going to be times when I get mad or act silly, but the outsiders shouldn't affect how I act.

That brings me to last night. We lost a game we shouldn't have lost. I was very upset. I said some mean things to the girls (which were probably deserved) and then I spent the rest of the evening pouting. Then I realized how I was doing the same thing as that coach. What's bothering me is that other people will think I am doing a bad job and I won't get the respect that I want. Well, I am going to try to let that go.

All the stuff that fans never see

If I could only coach, I would be in heaven. Unfortunately, like everything else in the world, there aspects of coaching that drive me crazy.

For example, shoes. Organizing a shoe purchase is a massive undertaking. First, you have to pick the shoe? Having 15 girls come to an agreement on a shoe is nearly impossible, and usually the shoe they pick looks like a clown shoe.

Then you have to get the sizes of each player. That may be easy, but what if your girls are buying a boy shoe? Does the shoe run small or large? Does it make me look too fat or too skinny? Did I mention that I don't like the shoe?

Only after ordering the shoe does the company tell you that 30% of the shoe sizes you ordered are not in stock. They do "think" they'll have some next week, but they're not sure.

When the shoes you have ordered come in, most of them don't fit and it is a mix and match game to see whose will fit and whose won't.

I haven't even mentioned collecting the money.

This is just the first of many headaches. We ordered sweats and Tshirts and that is a lesser disaster.

Nerd alert

I went to the NCTM conference today and yesterday and there were thousands of nerds walking around wearing calculus t-shirts or making pi jokes. I went to a couple of interesting sessions, but wasn't able to get into the Math in Art session. That's where I saw the king of the nerds. He was guarding the door as if there was some sacred treasure inside.

I walked by him looking for a seat and he said in his most nerdy voice "Eh, can I help you?" Have you ever been around someone who has no confidence at all unless they are in one specific situation? This was this man's moment. His place to shine. He was going to exert his authority and throw me out. Not realizing that I had invaded his temple, I said "I am just looking for a seat."

This is where he got that tone that says your an idiot and said "I am sorry, but this session is full." Now notice, what he said wasn't bad. It was how he said it. Well, let me tell you, the only people in my life that can treat me with that kind of disrespect are my children. So, I got a little upset and said "What about that empty seat right there?"

He had a line ready for that one. "Obviously, that person went to the bathroom. There is a line outside for people who are trying to get in."

I walked out calmly and saw a group of five people standing and talking. This didn't look like a line. It looked like a bunch of math geeks hitting on some slightly plump elementary school teachers. This is the one night of the year the math geeks might have a chance to get a girlfriend.

(I say all these things and completely understand that I am also a math geek/nerd. I just like to think that I am really cool. I will say that my wife is hot and I am good at sports. But, first and foremost, I am a math teacher which means, by definition, I am a dork.)

What do you do when you get beat by 42?

There are two ways to take a drubbing. You can realize you are not very good and need to work to get better. Or you can mail it in. Neither is easy to take, but the former can turn a negative into a positive.

There ups and downs in every season. Last year, we were beaten by Hillsboro by 50 and then proceeded to have our biggest win in 8 years less than a week later. What's different about this team is we are young and immature. They were embarrassed last night and there is a possibilty that they will fold.

Cleaning up Vomit in My Family

Gender roles in a marriage can be a dicey subject. But, in my house, there is one gender role that is not up for debate. I have to clean any vomit.

Case and point, yesterday I was in a meeting at school when my wife called. It seems that one of my sons (who was home sick) had vomited in the truck our our SUV. Now, I still haven't gotten a good explanation for why he was in the trunk, but that mystery will remain unsolved.

Anyway, my wife calls and basically is in a panic because she can't clean up the vomit. She needs me to come home and do it immediately. (For her defense, she would have cleaned it if I couldn't have come home. She just would have vomited herself.) When i got home, my son was standing on the side of my curb throwing up in the grass while my wife was trying to keep the dog inside so he wouldn't eat his favorite delicacy. (my daughter let him out).

Eating pork

I had an interesting discussion with a Muslim student the other day. He was very upset that he had been tricked into eating pork. Basically, a girl in his previous class had what she called a turkey sandwich and he took a bite of what turned out to be a ham sandwich. He was very upset and claimed he was "doomed to hell". Now, he said it in a semi-joking way, but he was ticked.

So I asked him, "Doesn't Allah determine whether you get into heaven on if your good deeds outweigh your bad?"

To which he said yes. "Then, you better start doing some good stuff. But, if your doing good things out of selfish motivation, then are they really good?"

He didn't really have a response, but to say that Allah forgives those people who sin accidentally.

This brings up an interesting point. Allah must not be that good if he allows evil to go unpunished. And what about the fact that you can't really do enough good to outweigh your bad.

Thankfully, the Christian God has answers for both of those issues. Evil must be punished, but, for Christians, that punishment was taken by Jesus on the cross. And all of his good works are given to us so when we stand before God, he sees Jesus' righteousness. It's a done deal. Now, I can go out and do good things out of gratitude, not out of selfish ambition.

Preparing for a game you think you'll lose

Now, don't get me wrong, I want to win and I will do my best to help us. That being said, what can we get out of playing a team that could be us badly.

#1-It gives us an opportunity to see what a good team really looks like. It humbles us and encourages us to work harder.

#2-We see where we truly are. If we play well, we'll have confidence. If we play poorly, we'll know our deficiencies.

#3-We can really see who can play well in a tough spot.

When we play a team like Whites Creek that has some unknown to it, we don't know much. Was that a great win last night? Or was it the type of win we should be disappointed with? Thursday, there is no mystery. Mt. Juliet is very good. We'll know where we stand.

A dramitic come from behind victory

It wasn't pretty, but it was a win.

I sometimes have to step back and remember who my players are. I really only had one player who played with consistent poise last night, and she was the only starter I returned from last year. You can't fake experience.

My point guard, who is a tremendous talent, had 11 turnovers. My small forward, who is my most versatile offensive player, looked terrible in the first quarter. My center, got into foul trouble and at one point looked like she was going to get into a fight. My off guard played pretty well and my power forward was great. The bench really struggled.

We got down by as much as 14 in the first half. Foul trouble and turnovers killed us. Thankfully, my lone senior (the PF) was steady. She calmed the ship and played well.

We made two adjustments at the half. First, we moved to a box and one on their best player. Second, we started to attack the back of the zone instead of the high post. So, after starting the 3rd quarter down by 7, we went on a 15-1 run to be up by 7. Then, foul trouble, poor conditioning, and poor substitution patterns allowed them to cut the lead to 1.

In the fourth quarter, Whites Creek had 2 girls who hadn't hit a shot all night knock down three pointers. We widdled our way back and took the lead with less than 2 minutes left. Then, up by one with less than a minute left, our center hit 2 clutch free throws. Unfortunately, they hit a fadeaway 25 foot three (on the bank), to tie the score.

Now the drama. We called timeout to discuss what we would do. I set up a play and (as is often the case) the play screwed up. But, my sophomore PG stayed poised and drove the basket only to kick it out to our SF who hit a three with 15 seconds left. We played good defense and finished the game.

Not pretty, but a win. Hopefully, we won't get killed on Thursday by Mt. Juliet.

Game Day

Our first game is tonight against Whites Creek. I know exactly nothing about them, which concerns me. We had a miserable practice yesterday and I kind of lost my cool and then pouted for the rest of practice. (It's nice that in some ways we all act like we're 5 year-olds.)

I still don't know exactly what to expect from our team. Should we press? Should we play man or zone? Should I play 5 kids or all of them?

I fully expect some disappointment along the way, but I hope we get better by Christmas.

A success story

My first year of coaching, we had a 9th grader who had a ton of potential. She was fast, smart, and had a great work ethic. Unfortunately, she came from a tough home. Her mother was an alcoholic who had trouble keeping a job and there wasn't always food on the table. The woman who I coached with took the player aside one day and said, basketball is your way out.

Four years later, the girl went off to UNC-Charlotte on a full ride basketball scholarship. Unlike the days before I went to college, her mother did not take her to the store to buy all of the crap that you need when you get to school. So, my lovely wife took the player out and spent an entire day shopping and loving this young lady, trying to get her prepared for dorm life.

Now, the former players has a good job and her own place here in Nashville. She still comes by every once in a while and helps out.

It's pretty cool when a kid takes advantage of opportunity.

Putting in something new

Something I have learned over the last several years is that a coach can't put in a play right before the game he needs it. You have to fail at it a couple of times in a real game before you get it right.

So, I have a play I want to run well on Thursday against Mt Juliet. (They might be the best team in the state.) In order for us to do it well, we have to put it in today so we can screw it up against Whites Creek on Tuesday. Then we'll correct the screw up and have a better chance of doing it right for Mt. Juliet.

Getting started is the hardest part

One of my weaknesses is procrastination. That is why I am typing this right now. I don't want to grade all of the papers sitting at my left hand.

Oh, I just got an email. I am going to stop writing this and then read the email. (But still not do what needs to be done.)

Jamboree

There are good things about the jamboree, and some bad things. It's good to play in front of a crowd for the first time and have the game not count. Up to this point, we have scrimmaged in front of some parents and practiced by ourselves. When you play in front of a crowd, the players forget everything.

It's also nice to have the girls go through the pregame routine and shoot around. There are so many little things that happen before a game that aren't thought about.

I also like the fact that we, as coaches, can see what we need to do before the game. For example, I thought we had a tripod, but didn't. I pulled out the stat sheets, and realized they had last years players on them. I noticed we didn't have a scorebook. You get the picture.

The only real problem I have with the jamboree is that, if you're any good, you don't want to show what you got. So, we played a 1-2-2 and we may not ever do that again. We played combinations of players that we'll never play again.

As for Saturday, we lost by 2, but looked pretty good. Two of my starters looked really nervous while three looked good. One girl on the bench surprised me and one of my freshman really appears to be coming along. We had a chance to win at the end, but I had my second team out there and there aren't too many scorers in that group.

First game is tomorrow.

Why I coach

In some future posts, I am going to tell a few stories of some players and students that really stand out in my past. But before I do that, let me first explain why I coach.

First, I coach because I love the relationships I build over several years with my players. It is always neat to see how a kid matures. When you play a sport, there are always good times and bad times. Watching a player work through those struggles is awesome. They come to high school as little girls and leave as young women.

I also coach because I love to compete. I really don't mind losing if it makes me better. The bigger the challenge, the more I enjoy it.

Lastly, I love seeing how a team comes together (or doesn't). Last year was one of the few years where I have been a part of a team that went as far as they could have. We lost in the tournament when we should have. We won all of the close games at the end of the season. It was great

Two years ago, we really improved throughout the entire season, but just couldn't win any games. It was still neat to see how we progressed, even as we lost.

Teaching common sense

It's funny all of the things we think we just always knew. As a teacher and coach, you can't just assume that the students know what you know.

For example, in practice today, we talked about where to stand during a time-out. That may sound silly, to have a time-out play, but that was a lesson I learned the hard way. Late in a game one year, I call a time out and one of the girls didn't know I had taken her out. When we went back on the floor-6 players=technical foul. So now, the only people allowed to sit during a time-out are the people who are in the game. If I have 6 sitting, then I know I have a problem.

We also practiced our warm-up. Now, you may find it silly to practice something like that, but if you don't they'll trip all over themselves and not get anything done.

I remember an old Bill Cosby routine where he talked about telling his kids to take a shower. He said you had to tell them to get in the shower, turn on the water, get wet, wash your body with soap, rinse off the soap, turn off the water, and use a towel to dry. If you left out any of those steps, there was no gaurantee that the job would get done right.

A Call from Georgia

Last spring, I was sitting in my classroom eating lunch when I got a phone call from an assistant coach at the University of Georgia. That, by itself, isn't that unusual. I'll get calls from college every once in a while and they will ask about a local player or tell me about a promotion. What made this call unusual is that he was calling to talk about one of my players. Or, at least he thought she was one of my players.

He said something like "You've got a real special player there and I just wanted to touch base and tell you we're interested in getting to know her."

I started racking my brain. Who is this man talking about? I have a rising senior who is a good player, but not Georgia good. I have two rising sophomores who might end up that good, but not yet. So I asked him, "Can I ask which of my players you are talking about?"

And he told me a name of a girl I had never heard of before. I laughed and said "You've got the wrong Overton. There is one in Memphis that made the state semi-finals last year and they have a lot of good players. It happens all the time. Let me know if you ever need anything."

But he persisted, "No, it says on the form, Overton in Nashville."

Then I remembered that some of my players said a girl from another local school had transferred into Overton. I looked up the name and there she was, enrolled in my school. I told the Georgia coach that I didn't know her and he said "Coach, you got yourself one heck of a transfer."

I went and talked to the girls former coach and he said she was really good and that this wasn't a joke. Then I went and found the girl and I said "Are you that good?" and she said "Yeah, I am pretty good".

Let me tell ya, the girl is a monster. Six feet tall and amazingly physical. She could make us really good.

Scrimmage with the boys

There is a big difference in men's and women's basketball. In all of my 13 years coaching, we may have had one or two girls that could have come off the bench on the boys team.

That being said, it is great for us to practice with the freshman boys team. They aren't as big or skilled, but they are still bigger and more skilled than most of the teams we'll face. We are going to practice with them today. I hope we can get something from it.

NCTM comes to Nashville

The National Council for Teaching Mathematics is coming to Nashville next week. I find these trade shows absolutely fascinating. The ideas and materials are great, but most are totally impractical for a normal classroom of 30 kids. My hope is to get some ideas and try and implement some of them.

It also makes me laugh the amount of BS and jargon that gets spouted by many of the presenters. Words like "rigor" and "differentiated instruction" and "project based learning" are some of my favorites. Oftentimes, the most important thing is coming up with a new catch phrase, not the actual content.

A tough balance

I have heard that players win games and coaches lose them and I think that there is some truth to that. Too often, coaches over analyze and overcoach. It can confuse players and make them too mechanical.

So, here is my dilemma. I am coach that loves to run plays. I see weaknesses and know how to expose them. The problem is an inexperienced team gets confused by those plays. Do I:

1. Sit back and let them make the mistakes, hoping that good outweighs the bad?
2. Try and control what they do to limit the mistakes and potentially take away their natural ability.

We'll see as the season progress.

Another student bites the dust

I had student expelled from school yesterday. He was involved in a fight and he took a major cheap shot on a kid and injured him pretty badly. Fights happen in every school, but there is no excuse for a cheapshot that really can injure someone.

I really have a heart for the student who got expelled. (I don't know the other boys.) He is a bright kid from a terrible home. His mom has a boyfriend who abuses her. The student tried to stand up to the man and then his mom kicked the student out of the house. School is a safe place for him, but he doesn't see the value in the work. He was a 17 year old freshman.

All that being said, he has to take responsibility for his own life. The sins of the family definitely do affect future generations. But, by the grace of God, some of these students can overcome those sins.

My prayer for him is that he doesn't take the easy way out now. I pray he gets a job, learns to work, and becomes a good man. My fear is that he will get into trouble and be in prison within a year or two.

Please pray for this boy that he becomes a man.

A Problem we haven't had in a while

In 1999-2000, our team was so good we had to practice against boys in order to get anything done. That is happening again. Our first team is so big, that our second team can't compete. I guess we'll have to work against the freshman boys again.

Lots of potential, very little depth

Our basketball team has as much potential as any I have ever been a part of. My fear is we have no depth. If just 2 players can develop to fill a role, we could be very good.

Our starting five has what most teams don't have, size and athleticism. The bench has neither. We'll see if we progress. One week to our first game.

The Sky is Falling

One of the other issues with teaching in an old building is all of the band-aids and additions that are put on the building in order to keep it functional. At Overton, there have been 2 major additions and several minor ones (including one minor addtion that finished this year.)

The first major addition happened in the 70s and put on a vocational building. That was back when every kid took machine shop, wood shop, auto mechanics, home economics, etc.

The second addition was completed in the mid 90s and put a bunch of up to date science rooms/labs into the building. (Also locker rooms, an auditorium, and some other stuff).

I tell you all of this to set up the fact that sometimes one wing will have AC and others won't. On one such day, I moved my class to a different classroom because it had air. There was one problem, however. The new class had a ceiling that was leaking. Two of the drop down ceiling tiles were wet and I felt a couple of drips of water as I stood in front of the class.

Then, in an instant, it all came down. Both of the tiles and all of the water they were holding up fell directly on my head. The kids erupted and I stood in disbelief.

Why is it never easy

So my new transfer skipped practice on Friday.

Why can't it ever be easy? If anything will show you the depravity of man, it's working with high schoolers. That being said, I love the process. I love looking at group of broken young women and helping them come together for a common purpose. I love how they grow together. I love seeing kids with great families essentially adopt kids with horrible home lives.

So, there will be consequences for her missing, but we'll continue to love her the same.

I hate this class

There is a woman I work with who had the greatest comeback to any student I have ever heard. Now, I don't condone the language, but it is really funny. If you knew the woman, it's even funnier. She doesn't curse and is very loving to the kids. Here goes:

A young man in a Nashville high school walks into a young female teacher's room and says under his breath, "I hate this f---in class."

Now, it was loud enough that the teacher had to respond, but instead of a reprimand, the teacher took a different tact.

She said "I am so sorry. You thought this was f---in class. Let me tell you, I would be upset, too, if I signed up for f---in class and got geometry. What a huge disappointment. Do you think we should call your guidance counselor and see if there are any openings in the f---in class?"

Now, that is classic.

Teaching in a 52 year old building

Any time you get 1600 14-19 year olds in one building, there are going to be issues. Put those same 1600 kids in a 52 year old building, and the issues get worse.

Issue #1-Trash-Since the building is old and falling apart already, students have no problem leaving there trash around. Granted, they would leave trash and junk in a new building, too. But, a new building wouldn't have issue #2.

#2-Pests-I have so many ants in my room, that anytime I have an itch on my arm, I think it's an ant. (Often times it is.) I have killed 2 mice this year and some of our cockroaches are two inches long.

#3-Heating and cooling system-When this school was built, school started after labor day and finished before Memorial Day. Schools didn't have air conditioning back then. They were designed to have a constant air flow to cool the building. Now, much of that airflow has been stopped and that creates stuffy classrooms. The retrofitted AC is too cold. The boiler system is miserable. My room was over 100 degrees when I came in this morning. (Not an exaggeration)

I am fully aware that no school is perfect and that our administration is restricted in what they can do. I just want a room that isn't so hot.

The girl who died in my class

OK, she didn't really die, but I thought she was dead.

Several years ago, I had a young lady who came into my class and immediately put her head down. Now, she was not the type of girl who was really excited about her academics, so I didn't think anything was unusual. She was the type of student that showed up a couple a days a week and didn't do anything while she was in class. Most of the time she was pleasant and rarely caused disruptions.

Anyway, I might have given her a little nudge, but she didn't ever wake up to listen to my great teaching and I didn't think much of it.

At the end of class, I was up front talking to a student when someone came up and said, "Coach Douthit, Jane (not her real name) didn't wake up when the bell rang." This wasn't the first time that had happened (and it won't be the last) so I walked over to gently nudge Jane and get her up.

After the first nudge, she didn't move. I patted her on the back--Nothing. I started to shake her gently--Not a move. When I really started to rattle her around--She moved like a rag doll.

Now let me tell you what was going through my head. First, there was no panic (shockingly). I was totally calm and completely in control. But there were a stream of thoughts that flew through my brain.

1. Huh, she's dead. How am I going to explain that a girl died in my class and I didn't realize it.
2. I really should have taken the CPR class that Vanderbilt required of me. (I had a friend of mine who taught a CPR class and sent me a card)
3. I wonder what I am going to do now that my teaching career is over.

I am serious when I say that I was completely calm. Absolutely no anxiety at all. I had just discovered a dead girl and it didn't seem to bother me.

After looking around the class and seeing my living students start to freak out, I decided it would be best for me to look like I knew what I was doing. So I called the SRO and told him I had an unconscious girl in the class. And, although I didn't know how to find a pulse, it seemed reasonable to at least act like it so the students would thing I was in control.

I walked over to Jane, picked up her arm and started to try and find her pulse when, all of a sudden, she sat up and yelled in a slurred voice "I'M ALRIGHT. IT'S OK. I'M ALRIGHT". Now, I almost peed my pants she startled me so much, but I was able to say "Honey, you're not alright. We've got Officer Fleming coming down right now". She was insistent that she was OK, but I held her in the class because, unbeknownst to her, as she was sleeping, she had drooled up her face and her makeup was smeared. She looked a mess.

It turned out that she had a drug overdose. I never saw her again after that.

Sorry for the weak ending, but I have found that most of my life has great stories that end in a very normal way.

Another Transfer

One of the struggles with coaching at a public high school in a city is that there is no continuity from year to year, let alone from middle school to high school. I grew up in a suburb of Indianapolis where basketball is king. Every member of my junior high basketball team knew every offense and defense the high school varsity team ran.

At Overton, there is little continuity. In the years that I have been the head coach, there are only 3 kids who have been involved in the basketball team for all four years. Some have moved in, others moved out, some quit and come back out later, others quit and never play again.

Well, this is the second straight year we have gotten a good transfer. Last year, we had a junior transfer in and she helped us go from 5 wins in the 07-08 season to 16 in the 08-09. Now she is a senior and we had another junior has moved in.

We could be really, really good. I am talking top ten in the state good. But, because of our lack of continuity, we won't know how good we are until around Christmas.

This team is a once in every ten years type team. (At least by Metros standards).

Why I am doing this

I really don't care if no one ever reads this blog. This is simply a place for me to record what has happened in my teaching career. Several people have told me I have stories that I should share and I thought this would be appropriate.

I'll write about my family, my teaching, and my coaching.

I think this may turn into a place for me to chronicle what may turn into a great season for the girls basketball team I coach. We'll see.