San Luis Obispo High School athletics has gained many new coaches this year. The junior varsity girls swim team is now being coached by Kara Randall, a student teacher for history teacher Dale Overland. Randall is excited for the experiences and accomplishments that this swim season will bring. Expressions chatted with her about her thoughts going into the season and her double life of being an aspiring teacher and a swim coach.
Expressions: Have you ever coached high school swim?
Student teacher and Junior Varsity girls swim coach Kara Randall: I have never coached at a high school level, but I’ve coached for about seven years now. I used to volunteer when I was in high school and I also taught lessons for mostly younger kids, and that experience was awesome. I’m excited to try something new.
Expressions: Why did you become the swim coach?
Randall: Well, I became the swim coach, and more specifically the JV coach, because I have a lot of kids who don’t have a lot of swimming experience, so it’s super fun for me because I get to teach them and coach them, whereas for varsity, you don’t see that extreme improvement from day one of the season to our last meet.
Expressions: Why did you become a student teacher?
Randall: I love teaching. I think that it started with teaching swimming actually, it’s great to be a part of someone’s growth and development, and I love to see someone go from point A to point B, and knowing that I was a part of that accomplishment. I also, in particular, love working with teenagers because high school is a really neat time in life, and I love mentoring and being there for students. I had a lot of great teachers who had an impact on my life and I want to be that impact on others.
Expressions: What do you want to teach once you’re a teacher?
Randall: I want to teach kids, so just give me whatever. I studied economics for four years at University of California, Santa Barbara, so if I got to teach economics, that would be ideal because that’s what I know the most about. History is also a possibility, but what I’ve enjoyed the most is working with the Advanced Via Individual Determination (AVID) program.
Expressions: How has your previous experience coaching compared to what you’ve seen so far from the girl’s JV swimmers at SLOHS?
Randall: It’s higher level. It’s a lot of technique and racing strategy, whereas when I taught younger kids, it was drowning prevention. It’s nice to go back to technique, like flip turns, and race starts. It’s nice to see the team grow close.
Expressions: Did you swim in high school?
Randall: I started swimming when I was six years old, and I swam all the way through high school, until I was 18. During high school I swam year around, including summer league and school league. I swam butterfly and backstroke, so I was in most events that included those.
Expressions: When you become a teacher, would you want to be the swim coach as well?
Randall: That would be the dream life.
Expressions: What do you want to see out of the team this year?
Randall: Well, of course, I would like to see us win our meets. More importantly, I want to see the girls develop a sense of community, and sportsmanship, while creating an environment of encouragement. I would also like to see each of my individual swimmers grow and get faster.
Expressions: What are you most looking forward to for this season?
Randall: I am very excited for the meets, and cheering everyone on. Also all day tournaments that are held at our school are always fun.
Expressions: What is the most important aspect of being a part of a team?
Randall: I would just say encouraging one another. You don’t ever want to be a part of a team where it feels like you’re competing against one another. It can be easy in a sport like swim to get competitive with one another, or wish that you could be the swimmer someone else is. It’s important to remember that it’s a team sport and we should always be happy for other people’s success and our own.
