After an early morning start and a long day teaching children, one would think a teacher would enjoy going home to rest or edit papers so they wouldn’t have to do it later at night. Coaches, however, sacrifice hours of time and energy each day not only because they love the sport but they enjoy the interaction with the student athletes. Government teacher, Jay Hook has coached football for 15 years and baseball for 12 years. During that time he has held various positions including defensive back coach, wide receiver coach, freshman football head coach, varsity baseball head coach and several others. During this time, Hook has experienced the large time commitment required with coaching.
“We’re here after school for football from 3:30 to at least 7:00,” Hook said. “On a game day we’ll be here to 11:00 or later.” Hook and other football coaches also meet on Sunday’s to talk about their next opponent. This is one of the harder time commitments for Hook because he normally enjoys family dinners on Sunday. Hook is willing to use this time for coaching when necessary because he enjoys sharing his love for the game and helping athletes improve. He enjoys spending time with his athletes so much it sometimes becomes simpler than he would expect.
“The easiest part is being with the players that I get to interact with,” Hook said. “I learn a lot from them everyday. I have to remind myself that in the middle of the season every year.”
Coaching, however, is no where near effortless. Time obligations make it difficult to fit everything in a schedule.
“Both sports which I coach are very time consuming,” Hooks said. “Juggling family relationships is a difficult task.”
Balancing coaching and family will not get any easier for Hook in the future. He is engaged to fellow teacher Beth Stombaugh and will be getting married in the summer of 2009. Hook is not overly concerned with this because he knows his fiancé will be accommodating to his time commitments while holding the positions of varsity wide receiver coach and baseball head coach.
“My fiancé understands and supports me,” Hook said. “I have to make sure I make time for us.” He also wants to make sure he has time to watch his nephew, who plays pee-wee football.
“I haven’t had the chance to see him yet but I’m going to find the time to,” said Hook.
