As the fall sports season comes to a close and winter sports commence, many coaches have had to switch their communications platform to Remind, as per a district-wide change that was introduced at the preseason coaches meeting earlier this year.
This change in communication methods hopes to protect the privacy of both coaches and students. While previous means of communication, such as iMessage, may have publicized a player’s or coach’s phone number, Remind provides the same functionality while keeping personal information concealed.
Principal Evan Powell explained, “We don’t need staff members sharing their personal numbers and information and that’s where the app of Remind comes in.”
With many coaches not working in the school themselves, it is easy to forget the professionalism required of student-coach relationships. Coaches, however, are held to the same standards that other staff members and teachers are, and establishing a professional relationship is necessary.
“All coaches are expected to have a professional relationship just like a teacher or a counselor or a classified staff member,” Powell said. “And so we want to make sure we keep the lines drawn that we are district staff.”
Coaches are intended to be mentors for the athletes, and eliminating any personal attachments between player and coach fosters a more productive environment in which both parties can focus on their respective goals.
“Coaches are there to coach, to mentor, you know, to support,” said Powell. “However, when they’re outside [of coaching time] we have to be careful that we’re friendly, but we’re not friends.”
For the most part, these changes have been accepted by the coaches.
Powell explained, “Once they made the switch, they realized it wasn’t that bad. And they found it fairly easy and they like knowing that the kids are protected.”
However, the football team hasn’t changed their communications to Remind, despite strong pushes by the district to get every team to switch.
“It’s not like we chose not to use Remind, it’s just out of convenience,” varsity football coach Jakob Ramsey explained. “Hudl has our playbooks and our game footage.”
With professionalism already being fostered by their usage of Hudl, an app that allows coaches to review game footage, the switch to Remind wasn’t as necessary for the football team,
“[Our] communications are very professional. It’s usually just big announcements and the occasional question about some misplaced equipment,” Ramsey explained.
The switch to Remind has received mixed feelings, unsettling for many student athletes, like sophomore golf player Nathan Lee who said, “I feel like we’ll eventually make the jump smoothly, if that’s necessary, but I think it’d be a lot easier if we just stuck with iMessage.”
On the other hand, those who have already been using Remind for communications have found it effective and easy to use.
“[Remind] is definitely a big benefit or big resource for coaches to have,” junior Arrin Sagiraju, a varsity cross country athlete, explained. “I think Remind is like a good platform where it’s like a good mix on both the casual and formal side.”
