A Universal Language in Sports

Sorry! Tried to post this about 2 months ago, but forgot that the photos couldn't load at that time. So.. better late than never, I hope?


Due to unforeseen circumstances, this year I have become the “Sport Teacher” at St. Therese J.S.S. Although this means lots of extra work (and an unfortunate amount of time spent with kids when they are full of energy and more likely to get in trouble…), I have been loving it so far because of the amount of time I’ve gotten to spend with my learners outside of the classroom environment!

Term 1 in Namibia means athletics (track and field). However, we also took some boys for rugby got the soccer teams started, and began to train the marathon runners! (One thing many people here don’t seem to get is that procrastination with long distance running just doesn’t work well.)

One of my favourite parts about getting to coach sports is that it lets some of our less academic kids be successful at something. I have learners who are absolutely brilliant in playing games, but they can’t perform well in the classroom. It is a chance for them to succeed, and for them to show their friends and teachers that yes, they ARE skilled in something.

Athletics

Our school hosted our Zonal Trials for athletics – which meant that first, my school assisted our sister primary school to host the primary school zonals … and then we did it all over again the next weekend for the secondary schools. Luckily there are only 2 secondary schools in our zone, so it wasn’t too huge of a meet. It’s the first time I’ve had to organize something so big by myself though, so it was definitely a learning experience!

Hosting a track meet is more than just that, here… you first have to measure out a track, rake all of the thorns and rocks off of it, and lay down the lines!

I have never been so proud of my kids as when I had more than 20 qualify for our Regional Trials, which is almost unheard of. They worked hard all season and actually trained and listened to my coaching, which is a huge improvement from last year =) I’m not sure if it’s because I’m more of an established teacher now, or if it’s because they’ve seen me running so much that they decided I might actually know what I’m talking about.. but either way, we got on great this year.

At regionals, I had many kids set personal records, win races (awesome when we are coming from a small farm school and competing against all of the town kids from Luderitz and Keetmanshoop!), and really try their hardest. My distance runners won the boys Under/17 3k, boys U/19 5k, boys U/19 800, girls U/17 1500. I was pretty proud! One of the funniest things though – one girl fell out of the 1500 because she cramped up. When I got to her, basically all of her muscles were tensed up and she was having trouble getting them relaxed. Once she finished crying “Oh, Miss! Oh, Miss! Oh, MISS!!”, the first thing she said? “Miss, I always thought the boys were lying. But this hurts.” Awesome. Granted, probably wouldn’t have happened if she had come to practice every day… but still.

One of the nationals qualifiers

A grade 10 high jumper

I got coerced into working at Regionals, but the bar was consistently over my head!

Athletics ended during the last weekend of the term, when I accompanied 3 of our boys to the National Trials. I had a U/17 3000, U/19 400, and U/19 100m. A pretty good distribution. They had a pretty rough time with the level of competition at nationals, but it was a great experience for them and they were so proud just to have the opportunity to go.

Rugby

Do I look like I understand rugby? No? You’re right. But due to popular demand, I am coaching rugby again this year at our school! Luckily for me, I have a few boys who have played for years and are actually very good at rugby. I have taken them and they help me coach the others – I do my best to get them fit and make them stay on task, but they do all the technical work. I tell myself that it’s a good learning experience for them to practice coaching and teaching others, but it’s also the only way it could work with a sport that I totally don’t understand!

We went to town to participate in Zonal Trials for rugby, and one boy was selected for the Regional Trials! It’s not a great selection rate, but still a first for our school!

Soccer

The soccer season will officially start now during term 2, but we tried to get practices started last term since soccer is by far the most popular sport around here. Boys and girls alike love to play around during their free time. The worst problem that I’ve faced is that soccer kids seem to be the same the world around – we have the same problems with cliques and meanness as I remember many high school soccer teams having in the states. One fight between my boys culminated in one stabbing the other in the face with a glass shard. I’m now treading a thin line of trying to keep the kids in line (including suspending those with outstandingly poor behaviour from the team), but also giving them the opportunity to practice and play. Because we actually do have a really skilled team this year that could make a good showing!

Marathon

I have to put it in here, because I don’t know where else… Not only have all of my learners started training for the 4x10k “marathon” they run in the spring (American fall, sometime like September or October), but I have also been training for long distance races! A few of the volunteers went to Cape Town during our April holiday to compete in an5 6k ultramarathon. Called the Two Oceans, we ran between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, up two mountains, and through a lot of different suburbs and areas around Cape Town. It was the most beautiful place I have ever run, and also the farthest (and potentially slowest) I have ever run. I’m proud to have come in within the top 150 women in the 20-40 year old age bracket, since there were more than 11,000 people participating in the ultramarathon! I think my practicing (and the fact that I came home with a medal) have won me a few respect points with my kids, which is always good too ; )