Community Service

This Summer I volunteered as the assistant coach for the Vermillion13-14 Year Old Teener Baseball Team.  This experience exposed me to the "behind-the-scenes" of coaching.  Communicating with parents, transportation, field preparations, season scheduling, and hosting a District Championship Tournament are just some of the new responsibilities that I experienced.  We had an extremely successful season, finishing with record of 22-10.  The Head Coach and I hosted the District Tournament in Vermillion and were responsible for lining up certified umpires, scorekeepers, an announcer, the VFW Color Guard, trophies, and concessions.  We were also responsible for the costs of hosting the tournaments, which made us look for ways to create revenue.  We charged fans to attend the games, held ticket raffles, and sold T-Shirts.  Our team went on to win the District Championship and to represent our district at the State Tournament in Flandreau, SD.  Participating in the state tournament was a great highlight for myself, as a coach, and especially the athletes.  It was very rewarding to see all of the hard work throughout the summer pay off.  Our team finished in the state tournament with 4th place.  Reflecting on this experience, my coaching abilities were greatly challenged this season because of all the new situations I had never been in before.  Preparing a team for tournaments, winning a district championship, and competing in a state tournament were all new experiences for me.  I feel that I gained an immeasurable amount of experience and knowledge through this opportunity and believe that it will have a great impact on who I become as a coach.  (Summer, 2007) 

Vermillion Middle School Track & Field

This Spring I volunteered as an assistant coach with the Vermillion Middle School Track & Field Team.  This was my second season as an assistant track & field coach so I looked to build on what the athletes had learned and accomplished the year before.  I had returning hurdlers as 8th Graders and also new athletes as 7th Graders.  It was refreshing to see the hard work of last season show through at the beginning of this season.  The returning hurdlers practically picked up where they left off the year before which allowed me to help them break down their technique and fix the small things to make them more effective.  It was also easier to focus more attention on the new athletes because I did not have to demonstrate everything for the returning athletes as well as the new athletes.  Because the returning athletes had learned and understood the technique of hurdling and what I expected from them, they would also help the new athletes during drills and other exercises.  This was a great season for the athletes and also for myself as a coach.  I am now starting to see how to build a program versus coaching an individual season.  (Spring, 2007)

Vermillion Middle School 8th Grade Boys Basketball

This Winter I volunteered as an assistant coach with the Vermillion Middle School 8th Grade Boys Basketball team.  Both the boys and the girls season's run back-to-back, but still occur in the same time period as other schools basketball seasons.  This meant that when the girls season ended and the boys season started, surrounding schools were already in the middle of their seasons.  This had a large impact on how we prepared at the beginning of the season so that we would be able to compete with teams that were already well into their practice and game routines.  This was a challenging, but rewarding experience.  I feel that I learned a lot about coaching the sport of basketball and the different plays and strategies used to create a successful offense and defense.   (Winter, 2006-07)

This Spring I volunteered as an assistant coach with the Vermillion Middle School Track and Field team.  I have past experience and knowledge in the areas of sprinting, hurdles, and the proper use of starting blocks.  After a discussion with the head coach we decided that I would be of best service to coach the 7th/8th grade boys and girls hurdles and demonstrate how to use the starting blocks.  I volunteered as an assistant coach for the entire duration of the season and attended both in-town, and out-of-town track meets.  It was a great experience to see the drills and other hurdle practices show through as the athletes participated in the track meets.  I am anxious to work with the 7th graders returning as 8th graders next Spring.  (Spring, 2006)

During my field experience at Wakonda Elementary School I was introduced to the basketball coach.  I am interested in going into coaching while being an educator, so I asked her if I could help out at practices and games.  During drills at practice I would take half of the team so that the instruction could be focused on smaller groups.  I thoroughly enjoyed passing on my knowledge of basketball to the athletes at practices.  During games I did not want to interfere with the coach, so I would keep stats and run the clock.  (Fall, 2005)

During this mentoring experience I was able to work with a young individual who was in 4th Grade at the time.  He came from a single parent home and was having trouble keeping up with his studies and finding a male role model to spend time with outside of school.  I was fortunate to be able to fill that void for one year of his life.  We spent time after school working on homework or just talking about the day.  He enjoyed playing video games so I was able to use this knowledge to initiate more conversation.  He was also working on a go-kart that he had been constructing for several months so we would talk about racing and mechanics.  At the end of the year his mother finished her degree at USD and the family moved to where she found a new job.  I have lost contact with this individual but often wonder if he is racing around the track in his go-kart.  (Fall, 2004)