 |
|
Judd motivates his players before
the start of a game. |
When Kris Judd coaches
basketball games, he needs to be aware of time management – how much
playing time he gives each player, what his team does with the ball at
the end of quarters, and using his time-outs wisely.
Coaching basketball has also given Judd greater insight into the overall
concept of time management, as he does all his coaching while
maintaining a full load of classes at Monmouth College.
“There are some game nights when I don’t get home until 11 or 12
o’clock,” said Judd, a senior from nearby Biggsville, who spent a
minimum of two hours per day with his team during the past season. “The
state basketball tournament also took up a lot of my time, but it was
one of the best experiences of my life.”
Judd has coached the last two years at Monmouth’s Immaculate Conception
School, and the private school’s eighth-grade team reached the IESA’s
Elite Eight this season. Judd serves as head coach of the ICS fifth- and
sixth-grade teams and assists with the seventh- and eighth-grade
programs.
“Going to state this year was an amazing thing, and it was a really big
thing for the kids,” said Judd, who pointed out that only one other
school in the Elite Eight had an enrollment less than 60. ICS,
meanwhile, has just 28 boys and girls in grades 7-8.
The tournament capped a year that Judd called “fun, but stressful. For
most of the year, our fifth-grade team had just six players, and
sometimes only five. It can get pretty interesting trying to coach a
team with only five or six players, especially at some of the
tournaments, when we had to play two or three games back-to-back.”
Judd said he learned a great deal from Mike Kelly, a veteran coach in
the area who serves as head coach at ICS. He also credited his parents,
teachers Dick and Renee Goff, who have both been coaches themselves.
“As a young coach, I felt blessed to have those three as mentors,” he
said. “I learned something new every day, and I was always picking up
different ideas for drills and defenses.”
He continued, “I love coaching, and I love the environment of coaching.
My plan is to go into teaching. I want to be in the school, and I want
to be involved with the sports teams.”
Although his parents’ involvement in education certainly helped, Judd
became completely sold on working with children after his experiences as
a day camp counselor at a local YMCA.
“I feel like I’m able to work well with kids,” he said. “It’s just my
calling to be able to teach students.”
Before he could teach, Judd needed to be taught, and he said Monmouth
quickly emerged from a group of area schools that recruited him for
football.
“The campus is just so much more beautiful at Monmouth, and when I found
out that the education department is one of the best in the state, that
sold me right there.”
Judd no longer plays football, but he did pick up another time-consuming
activity in addition to coaching. He serves as an RA at one of the
buildings in the college’s Founders Village apartment complex.
Judd is an elementary education major with a middle school endorsement.
If he goes the middle school route, which he said he’d prefer, he would
focus on teaching history and geography.
“I’ve been told that being a male and hoping to get a middle school job,
I’m at an advantage,” he said. “The need for male teachers at that level
is so great.”
Currently, Judd teaches 7.5 hours per week at West Central, a recently
consolidated school district that merged his alma mater of Union with
the nearby Southern district. He said the most important lesson he’s
learned is that teaching is not a “one size fits all” proposition.
“Some students need more of an individual touch, some learn very well
through lectures and some respond very well when they’ve seen how
something is done. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that there are
different styles of teaching and the students have different styles of
learning.”
Judd said his college years have taught him life lessons, as well.
“I’ve definitely grown up a lot,” he said. “Early on, I didn’t spend
enough time working on my education skills. But now I’m much more aware
of my goals and what needs to be done.”
At least one ICS parent, Monmouth College lab manager Kathy Mainz, said
that Judd is well on his way to becoming the type of teacher and coach
he hopes to be.
“This young man is extraordinary,” she said. “He gets himself over to
ICS, and he does hours and hours and hours worth of coaching with the
junior high kids. I know whether in the classroom or on the basketball
court, Chris will lead by example, facilitating students and challenging
them to be their best.”
