It’s 3:45 p.m., and school has been dismissed. While many people hurry home, P.E. teacher Austin Warner’s day is only beginning.
He and his cross country athletes remain on the Midway Plaisance, standing clustered together in echoing, animated conversation before they begin to warm up. The soft, golden glow of the school lights flickers as the smoky blue sky subtly darkens, marking the quiet shift from the school day to practice.
For Mr. Warner, being both a coach and a teacher allows him to connect with students more than he otherwise could have. Having two roles is a rewarding experience according to him, and while occasionally the overlap of sports and school can lead to missed classes or minor difficulty with time management, it has given him the opportunity to develop better relationships with students.
Yet Mr. Warner isn’t the only teacher who shares these two roles — several other teachers throughout Lab are in the same position, and they largely seem to find that the benefits of greater connection with students outweigh any possible disadvantages.
“Teaching comes first, here at Lab,” Mr. Warner said, “but being able to tie teaching in with coaching is important.”
He thinks that having faculty as coaches is helpful, and emphasized that relationships with students are carried from school to sports practices.
“Last year I was able to teach both 9th and 10th grade P.E. and really connect with my students as the months went on,” Mr. Warner said.
Lisa Kirchhoff, an eighth grade humanities teacher and the varsity volleyball coach, feels similarly. Ms. Kirchhoff finds that players who have also had her as a teacher share a mutual respect with her and come into the gym already understanding she will be there for them.
“I really like being in the same building with my student athletes,” Ms. Kirchhoff wrote via email. “I love when they pop in to my classroom or to my office during my free period or lunch to talk.”
Despite these benefits, there are occasional challenges regarding balancing coaching and teaching, particularly because of limited time.
“As a humanities teacher, I have many papers to grade, and when we have late games and tournaments, I can feel overwhelmed at times trying to keep up with everything,” Ms. Kirchhoff said.
Balancing teaching and coaching isn’t difficult for Marty Billingsley, a computer science teacher and cross country coach, since she sees the two roles as somewhat separate. She said coaching gives her a variety of ways to interact with students over multi-year periods and — like Mr. Warner and Ms. Kirchhoff — thinks that sports lead to significantly greater connection than teaching alone.
“In the classroom, we only get a one-sided view of students,” Ms. Billingsley said, “but coaching gives us a multifaceted understanding.”
