Published: January 15, 2008

In Praise of Coaches

I am a recovering anti-coach. For some years, I taught at a very (athletically) competitive high school. We were forever locked in battles for state football and basketball championships, and we were contenders in rowing, baseball, softball— just name a sport. If we’d changed our name to Sports High, the majority of our community would have been delighted.

As we continued to improve our athletic records, the administration began to make some interesting teacher-hiring decisions that appeared to be based more on coaching resumes than classroom prowess.

I was a social studies teacher—the department most often dominated by coaches—and eventually found myself as one of only three teachers who did not also have a coaching assignment. Many of our coach-teachers matched the traditional stereotype. They tolerated a classroom assignment for a few hours a day so they could pursue their true profession on the fields and courts of our campus. They rarely attended our department meetings and avoided service on teacher committees....