Beyond the bell: teachers who coach

Athletics are a large part of the high school experience for many students at Aragon, but teachers play a huge role in them as well. In addition to teaching, many teachers coach sports at Aragon.
P.E. teacher Annette Gennaro-Trimble has coached volleyball for almost 30 years and currently coaches the girls varsity team. As a P.E. teacher, she has always loved sports and has been coaching since her first year as a teacher.
“Way back when … if you [were] a P.E. teacher, you were required to coach,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “All of us that … go into physical education love to coach. That’s one of the reasons we … go into it: because we all played sports growing up and we all probably coached along the way … before we even became teacher[s].”
It is a constant struggle for teachers to balance their free time with both their teaching and coaching responsibilities.
P.E. teacher John Abrams has been playing and coaching sports his entire life. At Aragon, he is an assistant coach for track and field and cross country as well as the head coach of the girls junior varsity soccer team. Growing up, Abrams played basketball, soccer, baseball and football and continued to play football in college. Abrams coached for about 10 years at his previous school and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
“I don’t [balance my time],” Abrams said. “It’s work, coach, eat, sleep, repeat. That’s what my life is. I’m coaching year-round, so it’s the whole year.”
Gennaro-Trimble has had a similar experience coaching at Aragon.
“During the season, it’s really, really tough,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “I coached all the way through having four kids. I have a fabulous husband that helps me out, … but during [the] season, … it’s hard because [it takes] a lot of hours. [Volleyball has] Saturday tournaments [that] … go from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at night. You do it because you love to do it.”
Linda Brown, P.E. teacher and badminton coach, has coached many sports at Aragon in addition to badminton, such as softball, basketball, tennis and volleyball. Coaching allows teachers to connect with students on a more personal level.
“You can have a much deeper interaction with your students because you see them every day for a couple of hours on end,” Brown said. “You go to your away games on a bus [and] you’re just able to have deeper connections than you would [normally have] with students. [A] team [is] smaller than our classes so you’re just able to spend more time and you’re doing something that [you] love that [the students] love. So it allows you to … improve your relationships.”
To Abrams, coaching allows him to be less strict than he is during his classes.
“[Coaching] enables me … to get to know students on a personal level … because I get to work with them one-on-one,” Abrams said. “I work with them in smaller numbers than [in a] class of 40. You get to see them outside the light of being structured within the four walls of a classroom and see them get goofy, so it creates a … different dynamic. They can also see me and my personality outside of trying to manage 40 [students]. I loosen up a bit [and am] a little more goofy … and just don’t take things as serious.”
Aragon teachers expend time and effort to coach students in athletics and gain valuable personal relationships with student-athletes through the process.