It’s official: I’m a working man again. Well, it’s not quite what it sounds like. I’ll explain.
A few months ago, I was looking at the web site for the local high school (long story) and noticed there was a page for their speech and debate team. It looks like they had a good group of kids, and a good program. It reminded me of my days at Francis Howell North, participating in speech and debate… which, at the time, was called forensics. I’d been thinking about how I might volunteer more in the community, particularly in the schools. It could be a great opportunity for me to help the debate team! I contacted the activities director at the school and asked how I might jump in as a volunteer. I was envisioning showing up to practices now and then to give some guidance, and maybe accompanying the team to a few meets through the season.
As it turns out, Bigfork High School had no debate team! Their former coach, who’d been managing things for over a decade, had left in 2019 because he became the principal of the middle school (fair excuse). The school district had advertised a position for a new coach, but a year later no one had applied. With the craziness of covid, it would’ve been a strange year for speech and debate anyway, so in the words of the activities director, “it wasn’t really much of a loss”. But they didn’t need a volunteer like me, because they didn’t have a team! Or a coach. Would I be interested in becoming the new coach?
I thought about it for a while. I mean, this wasn’t really what I’d planned to sign up for: I’d be required to attend all practices and go to all the meets. I’d build– or rather rebuild– the speech program at the school. I’d have to learn all the new events and rules, because it’s been 30+ years since I participated in forensics. Heck, it’s not even called “forensics” any more… apparently that died sometime in the early 2000’s and just became “speech and debate”. And the last time I checked a map, Montana was a huge state, which means that traveling to Saturday morning meets will often involve getting on a bus around 4am, riding for 4-6 hours, and not returning home until after midnight.
In the end, I think it’ll be fun. So I asked what the process would be. To start, I had to submit a resume and some work references. That was interesting– I literally haven’t put together a resume since 1999. And what kind of work references can you provide when you’re retired? Or when you own the company? Well, I slapped something together and submitted all the paperwork, then waited.
Today I received word that I’d been hired as the new coach. I’d figured there would at least be an interview with the principal or the school board or someone, but nope, I guess after a year of searching and getting no candidates, they figured they should just take the one guy who’d applied. And that was that.
This summer I’ll need to brush up on everything related to speech and debate, and once the fall semester starts I’ll need to recruit a team, host practices, and head off to meets around the state. It’s a little strange to think I have a job again, but I’m looking forward to the chance to help a handful of high-school kids develop a love for the stuff I loved as a kid.