Honoring our Teachers

Last week, before the Dakota Ridge game, our girls had a chance to honor their favorite teachers. What a fun tradition, and the girls did a great job: identifying and inviting their teachers, greeting them on the field, giving them a small token of their appreciation...and then they also went out and played great for the teachers who were able to stay for the game. 

As a coach, I know the bond have with their teachers, and the appreciation they show is genuine. They talk about their classes, school in general, and most of all, they show appreciation for their teachers by exerting effort in their classes. This year has been no different than every year in recent memory - no girls in this program have missed a single contest due to grades this year. They are exellent students, they take their academics seriously, and they are all focused on taking their studies to the next level at great universities and colleges across the country.

The teachers take time to commend ME on our girls, their attitudes, the way they carry themselves, the way they represent themselves in the school. The respect is genuine, and I deflect that compliment back to the girls always!

A new teacher myself, and being in the building, I know these gestures are important to the girls as well. They love it when their teachers are able to come see them OUTSIDE the classroom in other aspects of their life that are so important to them. It is amazing that I can spend 15 minues helping a student with some aspect of their academic life...and barely get acknowledgment, but if I show up at their tennis match or concert, they cannot thank me enough: )

One final thing before posting a great photo of the girls with their teachers...to the parents in this program...thank you for all the lessons you have taught these girls about being thankful and appreciative - it pays off! And you have paid one other thing forward - all of those TUNNELS you had the kids run through when they were 5 and 6 years old!  I can not upload one of the videos I got from the afternoon, but it is of the girls making a tunnel and their teachers running through it. A definite highlight!