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As a new coach, there are so many things on your mind. I remember feeling completely competent until the day of the first speech meeting, and then suddenly I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Sometimes I would find myself getting hung up on the day to day things, meeting students for practice and developing schedules. During these times it helped to reflect on the goals that I had for the year. These goals helped get me focused on the team again.

Realistic goals for a new coach are really very personal. I think it is so important to identify them before you start the season. I sat down with my speech materials alone in my classroom and just thought about my goals. I was lucky enough to have another coach to work with and I shared my goals with her. We had very different goals so it worked out well. It helps the team have more direction if you are directed yourself. Even though I didn't say the goals directly to the students, I portrayed them through my actions. It seemed that in my first year it was good to have a few goals, a few very specific goals, so they can be attainable.

 For a new coach with a small team it might be a good goal would be to get one or two students into every event. A good way to get the information to complete these goals is to make sure you know how to work the categories which your students are competing. If you are suggesting persuasive speaking you better have done the research to be comfortable coaching that student.

My goals for the first year were to get my students excited and involved with speech. I was the junior high speech coach so I felt that excitement and passion for speech was paramount. I wanted students to feel that they could join and try out speech. I also had the goal of increasing the number of students involved in speech. I was able to get a group of students involved at the beginning and keep them going throughout. Though it wasn't a huge number, it was a smaller school I coached at and I was happy with the number. My students were out for the experience and had a great time during the season. We started what could be a long speech career for these students. It was exciting to work with them on this level. After the season was over, I was able to say I felt pretty good about the work that they did.

I truly believe that students will succeed more with the better coaching. It sounds almost cliché but it is often times overlooked.