The legacy of Coach P

Some of my students needed to talk this week, so I let them. There are times when curriculum and standards and tests need to take a back seat to life. This week was one of those times.

The kind of kids I teach tend to be what one might call hard. They have seen more calamity than I could ever imagine, so I often assume them to be hard-hearted, too, unaffected by many things. That label is not meant to be derogatory, just a truthful representation of what living in constant struggle does to a person. But this week, I saw an entirely different side of my students, and I just have to share.

Many of my students are transient. They shuffle between homes like most of us shuffle between wardrobe choices. Some graduate having attended three or four of the nine high schools within this district. A handful of my students came to Jordan from Carver High and were under the tutelage of Coach David Pollard.

And so we talked about him. They shared stories of his humor and his keen ability to make them forget about their problems. They spoke about his devotion to his daughter and called him all versions of nice one could imagine. They relayed how much they respected him and enjoyed his class. They were desperately affected by his untimely death.

We all are.

There is a certain camaraderie and kinship within the teaching profession that always exists despite what the sign out front of our schools might say. When tragedy strikes, that same spirit of fraternity replaces all cross-town rivalries that usually separate even our students. Tragedy has a way of uniting, and I watched my kids shatter my assumptions and erase lines of separation this week.

They came together with softened hearts to mourn a beloved teacher and coach. All they could feel was hurt for Coach Pollard’s family and the Carver student body, especially the baseball team. They cried and made themselves vulnerable. I was affected.

We all are.

The entire community has come together during such a horrible event to proclaim and acknowledge the positive influence Coach Pollard had on his students and his players. One of my coworkers said such a terrible situation offers her moments of retrospection regarding the kind of legacy she wants to leave. So, I pause to think about what she said, what my kids said.

I write often about the wonderful work teachers do, about the powerful influence we teachers have to make a difference in kids’ lives. All of us can acknowledge that fact. But today, I want to extend the sentiments of influence to all of us, regardless of our career choice. What is your legacy?

How will we be remembered? That’s what my students remarked so often about this week. They were befuddled by the quickness of life, but hopeful, too, that they could leave a powerful impact in even just a short little while on this earth.

Just like Coach P did.

We just finished studying carpe diem poetry in senior English class — “seize the day” poetry. They brought up that mentality again this week, saying that’s what they will take from this tragedy: To work on making a positive impact every day, so that they can be remembered like Coach P will be remembered. To look at each day as an opportunity to seize and retake from the ickiness they too often see in their world.

“Coach P was fye,” my kids said. I think I spelled that word correctly, but in their lingo, that’s a high complement – one of the highest. I want to be “fye.” I want to work towards leaving a legacy, not merely just memories. That’s a difference my students taught me this week. Everyone leaves memories, they said, but not everyone leaves a legacy.

There is very little we can say to make the tragedy of Coach Pollard’s death seem anything but horrific. But for a few kids and an English teacher at Jordan High, his death has made us reconsider how we spend our days – simply mounting a surplus of memories or building a legacy. Thanks, Coach P, for your continued positive influence — for your legacy.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "The legacy of Coach P."