Tiger Tennis

When I started working at Mountain Home High School at the beginning of this school year, I was also presented with an opportunity to be the assistant coach on the Tennis team.  I thought this was an amazing opportunity because I have a real passion for the sport and have played it for decades.  I had done some coaching before at the school I worked out in D.C., but it was never a sport that I was truly passionate about or that I had played competitively growing up.  I for sure wanted to do this, but I was really worried about how much of a time commitment it would be.  I told the Athletic Director I needed to think about it and talk it over with my family.

Think it over I did.  I even asked the AD for more time to think it over when he needed an answer.  He gave me more time, and I thought it over some more, and fortunately he gave me even more time when I again asked him for more time while I was dragging my feet deciding whether or not to commit one way or the other.  There is a nice little stipend that definitely makes it worth your time, so that wasn’t the issue, it really just came down to me not wanting to find myself in a situation where I felt stretched too thin on balancing my time between, family, work, and potentially now Tennis. 

I finally made a decision.  Since coaching Tennis is something that I could possibly do every year for the rest of my teaching career, I decided that I should find out first-hand how much time it would take to coach and how it felt balancing working, family, and all my other responsibilities.  I felt like the only way to truly know if I could balance everything or not was to give it a try and find out for myself. 

I am so glad that I decided to coach Tennis.  It is tons of fun.  I get to be outside on the Tennis courts and get to know the kids outside of the classroom.  They are all really great kids and it is a pleasure working with them.  I realize now that this is why it was important to find out first-hand what coaching would be like.  I have discovered that it is really not too much of a time commitment at all (which was my primary concern).  As is everything in Mountain Home, the Tennis courts are really close to the school and our house and I often have to come home before practice. 

The plan is definitely to make coaching the high school Tennis team a regular part of working at the high school.  The pictures included here are of a recent team barbecue we had that I brought the family to.  Good times.

 This video is of Mason tracking a cat that went into the bushes.