Warrnambool College and Emmanuel College teachers use classroom lessons in sport coaching roles

ONE of the region’s best coaches is a teacher first and a mentor second.

Adam Dowie’s time in the schoolyard honed the characteristics which have seen him rated as “one of the best coaches outside the AFL-VFL system”.

The six-time Hampden league premiership mentor says his teaching background taught him the importance of relationships, communication and clear direction which he has used to compile an enviable coaching record.

“There’s so many parallels between football and teaching,” Dowie says from the Warrnambool College gym.

“I think being a teacher, the students keep you young.

“We’re obviously getting older but your school kids aren’t because you’re always getting a new lot of year sevens in and year 12s are going out the other end.

“I can imagine if you’re out doing a job where you don’t interact with young people a lot, then the gap between the people you’re coaching and yourself could get wider and wider.”

Dowie is among a plethora of teachers using their career choice to enhance the south-west sporting landscape.

Teachers who coach are on trend.

The pillars of a modern-day classroom – adaptability and two-way communication – are equally important on the football field, basketball and netball courts or in the swimming pool.

The one-size-fits-all approach has been shelved in both settings too.

“Some like that real hard line ‘this is how we’re doing it, I expect more of you’ and others you have to nurture,” Emmanuel College teacher and former Koroit netball premiership coach Kate Foster says.

“I think that’s what’s changed and that’s why teachers have come into coaching a lot more.

“That punitive, authoritative aspect has been pushed to the side and we’re better at catering for everyone.”

Dowie believes the one-on-one mentoring success rate speaks volumes of 21st century teaching methods.

“We’ve all known coaches where it’s been ‘it’s either my way or the highway’ and I think your best coaches now know you have to approach players differently to get the best out of them,” says said.

“If you have the one-style approach for everyone, you might get 60 per cent, but you’re not going to get the best out of the other 40 per cent, so you’ve got to be flexible.

“How you communicate and what they need has certainly changed over the last five, 10 years.”

Dowie’s workmates – current Kolora-Noorat football coach Danny Finn, South Rovers counterpart Adam Matheson and ex-Koroit netball leader Kasey Owen – are believers in the current system.

So too are Foster’s colleagues Shane Smith, who mentors a Warrnambool Seahawks junior basketball team, and Warrnambool Swimming Club coach Paul Aberline.

“These days it’s more important to look at individual talent and work out how you’re going to give them the confidence to extend themselves,” Smith says.

“You’ve got to get back to that relationship and get them to want to join in because if they feel daunted by not having good skill, they’re going to sit out.”

Identifying how a student or athlete best learns is crucial.

Finn, who guided Kolora-Noorat to the 2017 Warrnambool and District league flag, believes a technique Warrnambool College uses to gauge a student’s mindset helped him settle into life as a senior coach at the Power.

“We talk about a red triangle and a blue triangle at school in terms of mindset,” he explains.

“A blue triangle would be open to change, embracing failure and looking forward, whereas a red one is blaming others.

“If students are in the red space and you’re in the red space, it’s not effective at all.

“You try and get them into a blue triangle. You probably have to be a really good listener and acknowledge their emotions and where they’re coming from and put some things in place so they feel like there’s an outcome.”

That honest feedback is another integral part of the teaching and coaching repertoire, as is mutual respect.

“With teaching and coaching it’s about building those relationships. For me, that’s probably the biggest thing,” Aberline says.

“If you build the relationship with kids in the classroom, they’re more likely to do things for you and it’s pretty similar for coaching as well, that trust.

“Just getting to know them as a person and sparking up a bit of an interest between both of you. It means there’s a bit of mutual respect straight away.”

Finn suspects the emergence of technology has fostered a culture of communication which benefits all parties.

No longer is the teacher or coach exempt from feedback. If anything, it’s now encouraged.

“I reckon as a young player and a young coach, the amount of feedback you got then compared to now was really minimal,” he says.

“I think that’s a change with generations. They have that much access to information these days and the fact you can communicate, not only verbally but via an email or text and we have private online platforms too.

“It’s almost an open book in terms of getting feedback from the playing group or individuals.”

Matheson, who rates Dowie as one of the best coaches outside the AFL-VFL system, believes this approach sparks initiative too.

Players and students are empowered to have a voice – and to think on their feet. They’re no longer spoon-fed information.

“I am trying to get out of them in my second year at Rovers for them to solve the problem, so ‘if this isn’t working on the ground, don’t wait until quarter-time’,” Matheson reveals.

“And that’s what we’re trying to get our students to do – if it’s not working, don’t wait for me to change the class. How can you make it a bit different and make it work for you?

“With a senior group, leaders will automatically do that, whereas with a young group you have to develop that within them.”

Owen, who along with Finn was taught by Dowie at Warrnambool College before joining the staff, believes a small act can leave a lasting impression.

“I think teachers, and particularly PE teachers – I am not sure if it’s the hands-on approach – are really empathetic and build really good relationships with the kids,” she says.

“With teaching and coaching, you can get through by doing just what you need to do, but you can’t do them well unless you put in the extra work.

“They’re not going to perform the way you want them to if you don’t put in the extra work.

“Teachers and coaches know that they need to put in some hours that might not be recognised or paid for, to really push your students and players.”

Matheson has witnessed the rewards that stem from such dedication – they’re why he does both jobs.

“Sometimes clubs find it hard to find coaches and we can certainly see why,” he reflects.

“You certainly don’t do it for the money, it’s for the love of the job.

“Teaching is a comfortable wage, don’t get me wrong, and we do get good holidays, there’s no doubt about that, but it is only a certain type of person who could be a teacher. 

“It’s for the love of the kid and trying to make them the best person they can be.”