news
Jeff Norwood
Norwood, an assistant men’s basketball coach at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, replaces Grant Pate, who resigned last month to become men’s coach at ICC.
Tupelo played this past season in the Class 6A state championship game.
Norwood is a Tupelo native and played college basketball for Mississippi State.
Read more about this story in Friday's NEMS Daily Journal newspaper.
The point of my post stems from the fact that the TPSD requires that coaches be teachers. Administrators are banned from coaching teams, as are coaches not otherwise employed as teachers.
Thus, I hope we are hiring people to be educators first and coaches second - else this rule makes zero sense.
As to how we define the success of the educational aspect of his position, that had better be part of his job description. Every job that exists in industry, medicine, schools or government, should have measurable standards to assess growth and performance. If it were me defining success, it would involve improved graduation and attendance rates, and performance approaching grade level in major academic subjects for the students under his guidance.
By the way, I have kids who are active in Tupelo sports, and am thus a big fan. The THS hoops team had a great run last season. I wish Mr. Norward, his students and his teams nothing but the very best.
Great Choice!!
A question that might arise is: how do you measure success?
I would measure it like this. If he helps 1 student, then would that be successful?
If you say no, Change the statement a little. If he helped your child, would you consider it a success.
I hope you wake up tonight and stump your big toe and I hope it hurts like Hell ! Jeff graduated college, which is probably more than you did. Jeff will take great pride in making sure his kid's are excelling in classroom, hoops court and in life. He is a tremendous person.. so shut up!
It would be great if we could hire great teachers who also coach, versus great coaches for whom teaching is a second thought.