I have a Junior Coach who loves kickball. Absolutely adores it. He spends every recess—twice a day—fielding, kicking, and running the bases. If Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours theory is true, Julian should be a kickball master by the end of 5th grade. The only time he has not been able to play kickball has been, ironically, when he’s junior coaching. Due to his recess schedule, he can only help out with kindergarten recesses, and I have not had the chance to teach the kinder classes kickball in their Class Game Times yet.
Well, as such a kickball aficionado this inability to play kickball nagged at him, and one recess he asked me if he could play kickball with the kinders. I explained to him that I had not taught them that game yet, so he had to lead a different game. Julian then asked with supreme confidence if he could teach it. I decided to give him the chance to be a true leader for his school, and he did not let me down.
Julian rounded up as many little kindergartners he could, regardless of who normally played what, and split them up into two teams as fast as he could. In a twenty minute recess, time moves quickly. Once the game got going, teams were transitioning from up to bat to out in the field fairly efficiently, and the kids were having fun running the bases and kicking the ball! Not only did Julian teach and run a game that had many different kids playing, he also got them moving around in a fun, organized way. He exemplified two of the four core values—healthy play and inclusion—in one fell swoop.
–Coach Eric, Thomas Edison Charter Academy
