How to survive Coach Grant (especially in basketball)
By Michaela White
DRHS sophomore
1. Understand Who You’re Dealing With. First, in order to survive Coach (Jody) Grant you need to know that it won’t be easy. You need to understand that he is going to make you so mad at times that you just want to scream at the top of your lungs at him, but you cannot do that. Coach Grant is known for his jokes and sarcastic comments. If you ever try to make a joke towards him, he will come back and get you with one 10 times worse. Understanding the little man that is Coach Grant will help in the daunting task of trying to survive life with him.
2. Prepare To Be Wrong. Always. Next, there is another thing you need to understand. I don’t believe the word “perfect” is in coach’s vocabulary. He will always find a fault with what you are doing at some point. The bright side is that there will be those rare instances of compliments that put you on cloud nine. However, as I said, those are rare occurrences. You need to understand this concept and always prepare yourself for being wrong. All you can do is try your best to avoid the mistakes that he repeatedly yells at you for.
As a defensive player in basketball who usually guards the person that dribbles the ball down the court, I developed a bad habit of lunging in an attempt to steal the ball. This strategy worked against some players, but the better ones would just blow right by me. I can vividly picture his beat red face as he screamed the words “Stop lunging!,” at me. Well, it is safe to say that I have learned to watch myself and I do not lunge quite as much. This makes Coach a little easier to deal with.
3. Learn To Keep Your Mouth Shut. Another major part of surviving Coach Grant is realizing that he does not want to be argued with because in his mind he is always right. Even if he makes you so mad that you just want to walk out, you cannot say a word or try to argue back. One of our team mottos is, “No Excuses” and whenever you try to say anything back to him he takes it as an excuse. Sometimes you might try to explain to him your reasoning for doing something the way you did. On occasions if you have a good enough reason he will listen, but be prepared for him to give you the line he gave me once, “Do not argue with me White. You are the last person on this earth I want to hear from right now!” That was said to me after a mistake during a summer basketball game. I sat on the bench for the next two quarters.
Another time at our team basketball camp at Thomas College Lauren Crane had just turned the ball over or done something that made Coach very angry. He screamed, “Crane, you are the worst passer I have ever coached!” So, after this Lauren (who has been around Coach for many years and knows how to handle him) went down the court and after the next few minutes had obtained an insane amount of assists (meaning she made such good passes that they led to other players scoring over and over again).
4. Realize You’re Being Pushed For A Reason — He Cares. Overall, it may seem like there is no point in even trying to deal with this seemingly impossible man. Like stated before, it is not a easy task. However, there is one thing you need to remember that is essentially the key to your survival. You have to understand that the reason he does all that he does, the reason he yells at every little misstep, the reason he doesn’t want to hear excuses is because he cares about you and the people around you so much more than he cares about himself. Once you realize this, you can withstand all the tribulations.
The basketball team has pretty much taken over Coach Grant’s classroom upstairs, and we are frequently found there even when he is not. One day Lauren and I were in there joking around with him about how much of a jerk he is. He didn’t care that he was called that, he knew it was true. However, as Lauren and I kept talking we knew there was one word we could never call him and that was selfish. That man has pushed us harder than anyone else, and therefore he has given us more opportunities for ourselves than we even knew were possible. So when you have to encounter Mr. Grant and you think that there’s no point, you need to remember that no matter how much of a jerk he is, he only yells if he really cares.