Considering volunteer coaching at local HS

I think a conversation with the current coach is your starting point. You need to understand their goals and limitations to know if it would be a productive fit..

If you have no personal connections to the school you would probably need some great references from your other school just to volunteer. Every school is different but you have to be very careful who you let volunteer.

tycobb wrote:

If you have no personal connections to the school you would probably need some great references from your other school just to volunteer. Every school is different but you have to be very careful who you let volunteer.

Actually in some areas coaches are very hard to find and you might find a nice fit depending on the current coaches and athletic director. I would contact the head coach and ask if he could use some help and give it a shot. I have had some great coaches that have approached me looking to help and I'm always looking for someone knowledgeable and confident in coaching the pole vault. Good coaches are hard to find and if you have the time , talent, and patience to work with teenagers, I'm sure there will be a spot for you.

Good Luck!

Good luck finding the right fit. There is nothing more rewarding than coaching, under the best circumstances, but it can also eat you alive. Be prepared to be completely unimpressed with what you see going on. You are going to need to be patient to find your niche with the team in a way that does not make the coach feel like you are stepping on their toes. In some cases, you will find a perfect fit. In other cases, there is no chance of making it work.

Most high schools could easily use several more coaches. Hopefully you find one and it works for you.

What are you looking to do? All around helper? Distance? Field? Sprints?

any or all?

Some coaches are completely helpless when it comes to delegating. This is the situation I dealt with when I came into coaching. No direction. I showed up with a stop watch. Got excited about taking splits, and learned everything I could about the opposition and setting meet lineups. My relationship with the other coaches grew from that and I ended up loving everybody I worked with.

Trust grew and I took over more and more duties until I was able to do everything I wanted to do.

Looking to coach XC and distance runners. I could coach other events if asked, and I'd do any other help that was asked of me. I honestly don't feel like I know enough to really coach sprints effectively, and if that was the one area where they asked me I'd probably pass.

Again I'm not paid, I'm working for free so I feel like I do get the chance to call my shot. (If I were actually HIRED as a paid coach obviously this wouldn't be the case. )

2coachOrNot2coach wrote:

Looking to coach XC and distance runners. I could coach other events if asked, and I'd do any other help that was asked of me. I honestly don't feel like I know enough to really coach sprints effectively, and if that was the one area where they asked me I'd probably pass.

Again I'm not paid, I'm working for free so I feel like I do get the chance to call my shot. (If I were actually HIRED as a paid coach obviously this wouldn't be the case. )

If they are bad at distance you probably have a good shot of a paid position. Schools that have good distance traditions typically have solid coaches, those that don't, don't. Hopefully the Head Coach hires you and gives you complete control of the distance runners that you will be able to grow in size and ability. Hoping you can make a positive impact on some young runners in need of some guidance.

High school coaching is fine if you can mesh with the current coach, had/have HS kids so you have a clue, and you realize that high school team success is managing to have a star already, who then inspires others to run fast, too.

You can't (quite) recruit, you're just dealt the cards they give you. Hopefully there's a good one in there.

You say you coached HS several years ago but are concerned about going into it with rose colored glasses. That sounds like something a newbie would ask.

First, if you volunteer for the season, stick the season out.

Second, what is your motivation to coach? Is it you have free time with nothing else to do? You sound really focused on the team being competitive. Well there is a limit to how much impact you can have there, but you have a lot of control over teaching them to love being active and develop life skills that go beyond sport. In distance running HS is still a time for development, not outcomes. Take the great outcomes, but focus on developing each runner to his/her best.

It's been 20 years since I coached HS... stuff changes.

2coachOrNot2coach wrote:

It's been 20 years since I coached HS... stuff changes.

Hear, hear. I came back to college coaching a couple years ago, also after Rip Van Winkling for 20 years.

TBH the most striking difference in my personal experience was in warmup. People are actually actively *warming up* now cf. the stretching that was big BITD.

I guess the main things I worry about are how delicate kids seem to be now and how paranoid parents are now.

I worry that a simple thing like telling everyone to run 5M around the paved bike path will get me in hot water if I don't personally stand and watch everyone run. I worry that things that seemed so common sense to me are now considered controversial.

I feel good about running stuff. I've been very active in the local running scene, I've stayed in touch with training and such. It's more the mechanics of it all that I'm concerned about.

Another example, I read a multipage thread on here about texting with athletes. Something that should be SO simple, a way to message everyone at one time and let them know the when, where's, ifs, and not's of practice is a highly debatable practice! (And I really do see where it could go sideways very easily, both for coach and athlete. )

I'd like to do this myself but don't yet have the time. I remember one of my HS coaches would drive us to meets while smoking camel unfiltered cigarettes while another was an NCAA champion 10K runner

Just go for it and pray to sweet Jesus that you get some decent runners. It takes a few years to turn around a dead program with some serious effort on the coaches part. You’ll have to recruit kids on your own and make them not quit after their first practice. If the team culture is toxic or there’s a bunch of bad apples in there, you’ll have to fix that without turning away any of the hardworking runners. The biggest thing is to get the kids to buy into the training because if they don’t think it’s worth doing, they won’t even give it a shot. Of course you know this, but it’s just a whole different world coaching kids who are already invested and dedicated than it is trying to build a good team from scratch. It’s possible, but it might not be worth the effort.

Yeah, I've thought about all that stuff. You are correct in everything you said about starting a program from virtually nothing. The real hard part will be as someone outside the school trying to get kids to come out. I'm not a classroom teacher that sees kids in class and in the hallways. I don't know who's who in the school.

There are positives:

1) If I stepped into an already successful program they are going to question anything I do that is "different", not wrong, but different.

2) There's no pressure because this team cant really get worse.

3) If I start out with a few kids, and they stick with it, I'm fine coaching a handful of runners. It's the great thing about this sport. You can compete as an individual.

4) Facilities- this school has a great track on campus, and a huge greenway trail that runs right in front of the school, ample access to a few grass fields for reps and hills on grass away from the asphalt.

5) this is a BIG school, lots of kids, surely I can scrounge up 7 guys & 7 girls that can run 3.1 miles.

"I coach HS a number of years ago, then went into the private sector. Now I am in a position to dial back my time at work and I am considering coaching at a local HS."

I am doing the same thing. Dialing back work and getting into coaching running. I am starting off just volunteering for everything that I can get involved with. We have a new Track and Field Club that I am involved with.

Also, Spokane just built a 200-meter six lane indoor track so they can host the 2022 USATF Indoor Championships. I will be volunteering there as well.

Best of Luck!

Sounds like you have a great opportunity if the head coach is okay to work with. Look into The Band app or the app called Remind. You can list all your kids and their parents and communicate with them in groups or individual and it's a third party site that will save all messages so you have more protection than straight on texting which is now frowned upon at many schools.

If you have one single dedicated kid, you can not walk away mid season. Parents are the biggest problem with high school sports. As a volunteer, make sure that the school staff has your back. If not, you won't find the experience to be pleasant or rewarding.

I did this for four years recently. Some of the best experiences of my life. Going into I think the biggest thing is establishing your role. Nothing would be more infuriating than showing up as a volunteer and then having to implement someone else's stupid ideas. But tread lightly to start off...

So, I would talk with the head coach about your role and expectations. The head coach may be overwhelmed because he or she hasn't had any help and is ready to delegate. If so, you show up organized with a plan and you've just found your niche.

Since you've been away from this for 20 years - more kids have zero baseline fitness, so you've got to really watch the newbies and think about gradual progression. As you well know, these kids aren't ready for any sustained running. More like a good warmup with dynamics, and some light reps./athletic movements to start.

Good luck.