Coaches

One evening, after a debate meeting, I asked my LD coach if he read my blog. He said, "I didn't even know you had a blog." I replied, "Oh good, I can keep writing mean things about you. Bye!" And then I left before he could respond.

At this point in the story, you, dear and faithful reader, should be thinking, "waaaiiit a minute. She's never said anything mean about her LD coach. She's only mentioned him once or twice. And she doesn't say anything mean about anyone! All that is capable of coming out of her sweet kind and mouth and fingers is pure hilarity."

Oh, stop it. You're too kind.
But you're at least a little bit right. I don't really say mean things about people, especially someone like my LD coach when a) it would be really easy to figure out who I'm taking about in real life, b) if I was him, I would read my blog just in case I did say something mean, and c) even if I'm writing about people who never will read this blog and no one knew who they were, I still don't want to say mean things about people. And certainly not about one of my coaches, because I love those guys!

Coaches are marvelous inventions, aren't they? Think how uncoached the Christian Homeschool Speech and Debate community would be without them. There are, conveniently, three kinds of coaches who deserve our immense gratitude.

1. Parent Coaches
2. Alumni (and other student) Coaches
3. Other Coaches

Contention 1) Parent Coaches
I remember when I found out that my speech coach had kids that were younger than me, and I thought, yes! He'll be around to coach forever! That's something pretty neat about coaches who are parents. If they ever get tired of coaching, they sure don't let on. My club has this neat thing, and I honestly have no idea if this is what every club does or maybe just us because we're a ginormous club, but what happens is all of the parents disperse into the many rooms of the church where we meet, and then us kids go and hand them notebooks so they can write down things while we speak at them. It's quite commendable of all those people to do that. And they have great insight because they're the type of people who will be judging us. Parent coaches are certainly meritorious.

Observation 2) Alumni/Student Coaches
I plan on being one of those alumni one day. Fortunately, it is inevitable at this point as I currently do compete in speech and debate, and someday, this will not be the case. I've talked about alumni coaching us before, and all that I said about them having been there and done that is still true. They know how it's done, people, and they're sure to advise you to do a bunch of crazy things they wish some alumnus had told them to do back in their day. 

Application 3) Other Coaches
Once upon a time, I learned that my club's main debate coach, who's been around for a several years longer than I have, decided one day that he wanted to coach homeschool speech and debate and then he found us and he was only planning on staying for a year, but he's been around for, like, seven years or something and we all lived happily ever after. He totally doesn't have to help us. He doesn't have kids or younger siblings in the club that he has to help, he just shows up because he likes us and we give him food. I think that's pretty snazzy.

So to my happy speech coach, my great LD coachie, and my hilarious TP coach (from when I did that thing), thank you. You're the best. Coaches are so nice and useful. 

You're homeschooled, and so I know you appreciate them too.