October 15th, 2013 | Uncategorized
Coaching at the local schools over the last couple of weeks has showed me how much of an impact we are making on the kids and the relationships we develop with them and the rest of the faculty. Brittney and I have been working with the youth at a local school called St. James over the last couple weeks and it has been a great experience! The first day was tough for us because we had to improvise with the amount of kids and space that was available to us but it was a good opportunity for Brittney and I to develop games that were not only fun for the kids, but could be played in the gymnasium that we were in. We ended up coming up with different relay race games with the kids and different dribbling races for them to do. Each class that we taught we had a blast, it was good to see the kids smiling the whole time and running around having fun.
The thing that I didn’t realize though, was HOW MUCH fun they were having, and how much they looked forward to us coming every week. After the first week at the school, we would show up and we would have twenty or more kids waving to us and yelling our names with teachers telling them to settle down! It was like we were celebrities or something. I was even walking around Jordanstown campus and a little kid passed me and tapped me on my backpack, he waved and said “Hey Brian, I’ll see you tomorrow for basketball right?!” This just made me think to myself how important these days were to them and how it can serve as an outlet for the kids to get away from any sort of stress they could be dealing with or a time to get out of the classroom and run around. I remember when I was that age I always needed Physical Education class to let loose, have fun with friends, and release any sort of stress.
Not only have we developed great relationships with the kids over the weeks, but the faculty of St. James have been more than good to us. Every week we are there and they sit down and talk to us about basketball, the Sport Changes Life program, offer us tea or coffee (of course), and give us lunch after our sessions are over. They are a great bunch of people and I couldn’t have asked to work at a better school with a great bunch of kids and I look forward to the rest of my weeks there!
#VICTORY #INSPIRE
