Reflections of a First-Time Coach
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How Odyssey of the Mind Helped to Put
My Life In Perspective
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| s I entered into my first coaching experience with Odyssey of the Mind, I often asked myself what I could possibly have been thinking ... I had a team that consisted of: |
 | Three children with parents who spoke no English (Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish) |
| One child with severe ADHD |
| One child who broke down in tears during EVERY practice |
| Two children who were so painfully shy I did not hear their voices for one month |
| Two children in the struggles of a bitter divorce |
| One child who had a parent diag-nosed with a life-threatening illness two days before a competition |
| Plus, my team fought non-stop for eight weeks. I did not know what I could possibly accomplish with these kids. |
| Well, the day of the competition, they pulled it all together and took 7th out of 14 teams. (They would have scored higher if it had not been for my misinter-preting part of the problem. Of course, that made me feel even worse!) I left the competition feeling pretty blue but thankful that it was over. |
| I always heard the little voice in the back of my head saying, "It's the process, not the outcome." It is hard for a coach to keep that in perspective. On the surface, I did not notice very much in the way of greatness during the process, and the out-come seemed disappointing. But, as I met with the kids at school on Monday and I looked back over the past three months I realized that the following had happened: |
| The kids whose parents did not speak English (and had not lived in the country very long) were picked up by the coaches and were trans-ported to the performance to watch their kids -- we broke down a lot of cultural barriers trying to communi-cate with each other. |
| The child with ADHD learned to interact with a team. |
| The child who cried at every practice gained confidence and performed beautifully. |
| The painfully shy kids were running around the competition laughing and interacting with other children. |
| The parents going through the bitter divorces were at the competition enjoying their children's performance -- as a family. |
| The child who had an ill parent spent the day with us and was thankful it took his mind off troubles at home. |
| The best part of the whole experi-ence: On Monday morning, one of my shy kids asked, "Is this the end of Odyssey of the Mind? Am I really going to go the rest of the year without seeing you?" |
| I realized then that Odyssey of the Mind had made a huge impact. It was not the scores, it was not the performance, it was the process of getting there. It was the POSITIVE changes that I saw in all the kids. It put my life in perspective. |
| Theresa Lundy |
| Sherwood Park Ele, MI |
