At Berkeley High School, some teachers take a step outside the classroom and tackle the dual challenge of coaching and teaching, finding a deep sense of fulfillment in guiding students both in the classroom and on the field, court, or in the ring.
Balancing the workload of teaching and coaching can be demanding, but can also provide an immensely rewarding experience. BHS Advanced Math 2, AP Calculus AB teacher and head coach of the wrestling team, Benjamin Nathan, has great appreciation for the enthusiasm that his players bring. “There’s so much energy in it and they have a good time, so it makes it really easy,” Nathan said, “It makes my school year very different from everybody else’s.”
Similarly, Megan Potmesil, BHS guidance counselor and head coach of the BHS girls junior varsity lacrosse team, finds purpose and joy in coaching. She described it as “a cherry on top for three months of the year.” For Potmesil, coaching offers her a new way to connect and work with teenagers, while also combining her passion for the sport of lacrosse. “Being a coach is also a way to give back to the sport that has meant so much to me,” Potmesil wrote in an email to the Jacket. “The friendships I made over my time as a lacrosse player are some of the most important in my life, so watching my players create these is wonderful,” Potmesil wrote.
BHS guidance counselor and head coach of the BHS girls varsity tennis team, Tiffany Liew also finds coaching to be an extension of her work as a counselor. “Coaching and counseling inform each other in so many ways, believe it or not,” Liew wrote in an email to the Jacket. “At the end of the day, you are helping players learn to identify their own strengths and weaknesses … guiding players to accept the cards that are dealt, then helping them figure out a game plan,” Liew wrote.
For Liew, coaching is not just about teaching technical skills to her players, it’s also about shaping values and personal growth among the team. “I always tell my girls that ‘how you do anything is how you do everything.’ How a person shows up on court and plays tennis tells me a lot about who they are as a person and how they function in this world,” she wrote, “Whether they ‘win’ or not, the struggle and heart put into the task at hand is what moves me and drives me to continue the work that I do.”
In sports, athletes often show up each day eager to learn and improve, an energy that may differ from one in a classroom. Teachers often work with students who might not feel the same motivation or drive as athletes who voluntarily invest their time and energy to play a sport. For many students, school can feel like an obligation rather than a choice unlike sports. Coaching allows Nathan to work with students who genuinely want to wrestle.
“I get to know them a lot better where it is not a required thing. They want to be there. It’s a whole lot easier in that regard,” Nathan said.
In addition, coaching has the ability to provide teachers with skills that can grow their relationships with their students. By working closely with students who are passionate and driven, “teacher coaches” gain a new understanding and perspective of the teenagers they work with in the classroom. “While my role as a coach and counselor are very different, there is some overlap when it comes to creating a culture on my team and setting boundaries and expectations with players,” Potmesil wrote, “Both coaches and counselors have to see the person in their entirety.”
Nathan echoed this emphasis of culture-building within a team, “(What) we spend a lot more time focusing on are things like having respect for your opponents, for other people and being a good person … being part of a team, building who they are as people, a lot more than just as students,” Nathan explained. “And it’s weird to say, but I feel like in coaching, I can make a bigger impact on (a student’s) life,” he said.
Liew shared similar sentiments on her hope to make a positive effect on her student’s and player’s lives, writing, “I wanted to become a safe space for young people (especially students of color with complicated backgrounds like me) in the ways I needed.” Regardless of how BHS staff and faculty came to become part of the high school athletics world, they help students become stronger athletes, and people.