good afternoon and welcome back to another episode of the scoop my name is carly burster today myself and danielle bake you will be interviewing two coaches here at peters township peters township sports are a huge part of our high school and without the help and support of our coaches we wouldn't cheat all that we have balance the two after school responsibilities today we'll be talking with coach phyllis about her past experience with tennis and her time being a coach thank you for joining us today really appreciate it so what made you decide to be a tennis coach well there was a need so that was the first thing we needed a j v coach about six years ago and i play a lot of tennis so they had approached me about you know possibly taking on that responsibility and then it kind of evolved from there are just after there was an opening for a parson coach i decided to do that as well just as love tennis what kind of challenges have you faced while being a coach i think it's always you know whenever you get a group of teenage girls together or even boys you're going to have challenges that matter what activity you're doing so i think that just the inherent nature of being a teenager is challenging especially in today's society so some of the typical challenges are always in front and center in my mind wanting to make sure that the girls are confident comfortable able to do you know what they enjoy what does it take to become of our city coach  i guess it depends on which sport you're doing in my case for tennis and i think the passion for tennis was the main qualification and probably the ability to relate some of that to convey some of that passion to this to the student athlete what kind of stress comes of being a parent to me now and are talking to her the same time well i wasn't sure what to expect with that and you know she is  kid and i found out this season an extremely competitive child which we hadn't seen that much from her so balancing that you know i'm always about having fun first as a coach and and experiencing joy when you play a sport i think that should be your first the first priority of any coach is to bring out the love of the sport and i hope that i did that for nina while you know some time you were there you know i had to put on my i'm a mom now or now i'm being a coach pat so stronger depends on the day i think that our bond you know there were times when i had to sort of help talk or down and it was kind of like me and i were a little bit under those under my breath and then there were times when i felt like i had it was you know experiencing the joy of seeing it click that was kind of cool to see so yeah that i think whenever you go through good and bad with anybody it builds your mind so that was i think one of the things we got from it was like a hey look we got through that yes that we can get through this that was one of the things that came from it what kind of challenges did the varsity team face on the road with the rules because i know there's tons of us and it was we weren't really in favor to get away feel they kind just happen which is is amazing and so what was it what kind of challenges we did we go through i think one of the biggest challenges for us as a team was we had a lot of talent i think a lot of role talent that we had to help to refine and make bring out the best in each player and i think at any point anybody could have played in any of those matches and i felt like i wanted to make sure that was a team experience and to find the talent where they could best you know fill that need and i feel like it was truly a team effort and i really believe that's one of the reasons it clicked is because it was ten people working together for a common goal even though seven could play at one time those seven were not always the same seven v what does it take for someone to make it on the team on to save our city yeah you know i think you can have all the skills and still find yourself not at that level because you're not able to put it to task when the emotions run high so being able to handle your emotional self at a time when you need to have both your physical self and your emotional self kind of working together i would say one of the hardest things is taming those emotions and those  negative voices in your head that seem to take front and center when you're in emotional experience so i think the people that made it on the varsity were able to do that they were able to tame their demons so to speak of you know getting to that ne having to win tennis is when the sport you have to win if you don't win then you know you can have the most the prettiest backhand the best serve but if you don't put a win up in that one column then i can't change the outcome of match so it's kind of nice because it kind of when we're feeling kind of pressured how far do you think did you think that the team would get in the twenty seventeen season i was going to be happy to get to the first round of whip deals because i knew we had to land in the top four of sections so for me i think that was our goal was to get to that first round and them after we won that i thought everything was going to be icing on the cake so i think it was really it was a c it was one that we did without i'd say any star player and that's really kind of like we depend on all lines to do the best that they could and there was never what time we went in with it all work this time you know number one singles she's a shoo in are number two or no one no one was a shoo in anywhere so it was exciting but it was also i think a true team effort and it's good to have like different skills every like court whenever you're playing so what are your expectations for next year for the parcel we're going to win with i know i have a you know it's funny because i came in last year as my first here's a head coach because i had done j v for four years and you know there's a big difference because there's no playoffs for g b and there's no extended season so it was a little bit easier that although we did have fun we did a lot of you know one stuff and we did two i feel but we also had that expectation kind of hanging out there of so i'd be happy to get to where we got this year and maybe even go one step further that's the be nice to get you know i always like to do one step further than where i've been when being on a pair of our city team whether it's like tennis or any other type of what would you say that requires more of a responsibility and like a stronger type of head on your shoulder and say it requires that to be a priority you know i mean like you can't have everything yes sometimes students want to say oh i want to do the play and then i want to play tennis and then i want to do this and that so you have to sort of say well this is going to be for me to be on varsity i have to have it as a maine pyaar kiya and other things have to other interest are great but for that six week period and it is a short season i think you'd agree that for that six week period you have to make that a priority i am pretty strict about missing so you know i think you would agree that you can do this but you know i had to be pretty good excuse  graduate this year we only have one so how do you think that the upperclassman played this year whether it be their second to last year or their last year i think that you know we had since we had so many people who graduated eight from your starting varsity team many of them were in the starting teen there's a lot of open spots so we actually took you know our number our we're number one singles player had never really played singles that she played doubles all of her high school career so we had  lot of her and i felt like she took the hit and she did her best at line one which is always your hardest line i mean those players are players that play twenty to thirty hours a week so i thought she did a fantastic  job one in two wanted to serve their both your i mean you're out there by yourself or you know singles as is i find it lonely personally i like having a person with me but i think she they both all the people that play singles i give them special credit because it's hard to not there by yourself so i was more than thrilled with their performance and i was thrilled that double stepped it up to those without winning some of those lines you can't get to the next level and i think everyone did a really good job last year and in the years before so no matter how good your team is there's always room for improvement what changes do you want to enforce in the next fall season i would like for all of us to be out in the court earlier not necessarily practicing because a small  of your practice is starting to the middle of august but like to have some more fun pick up you know playing time and i like to have everybody come in shape ready to play single should they need to get out there and start running yeah so do you enjoy being a parent and a coach at the same time during the fall of every year and if so why well i mean i'm at this point glad i don't have a third child because i don't know if i could do another one and i know when we had talked about me doing it i had to play and i'm like i can't be outnumbered like one on one so when really graduated it was easier for me to do it with me not just one family one child don't think i could handle two you know i think it is not something that i would say oh all of you parents of peter's township that have a child go out and go to their sport you know i think it's just something that kind of happened and it's been it's been great but i won't miss you know i'll be when she graduates i'm not going to lament her leaving because it's time for her to go on to her next you know her next gig or next thing and that might involve tennis that's great you know i know i talked with her last interview about playing tennis in a special niche in playing doubles so that's kind of nice aspires conditioning that you are not in shape when you play doubles but you're not in that kind of stamina that you're out there for three hours grinding out a singles match was a lot harder physically so she's been lucky that way that she found you know a lot of doubles i think she really enjoyed that and i think she also learned that you know they're not probably going to make a living at tennis nina or most of our kids and high school are not probably going to make a living at the sport that they do so you should you know really find that it's a great way to keep in shape it's a great way to meet other people and it's a great way to play a sport that you love in tennis you can play for a lifetime really a cool thing like it is a sport you'll take with you and she sees me playing competitively now and she really is ready to do that as well as like i want to play on some of your teams because they bring food so she is kind of i think c c is the long term real joy of playing tennis and how big of a part it's been in my life it's been my therapy so i think she sees that and just i don't think she feels any pressure to do anything in college except for you know get in there and do what she finds what she wants to do and if kindness is part of that team is also traveling to orlando soon to attend the national dance team championship i've been thinking for joining me thank you for asking today so you and your daughter have been with the dance team for about twelve years now what would you say inspired you to take partnership with it we had been working together i was head chair coach and she was my choreographer and i had danced my entire life and she had danced and she had been a member of her dance team in her high school  there had been a dance team here but it wasn't a competitive team they more or less put on the show they would appear at some basketball games and the minute that coach quit my daughter came up and said mom let's start a competitive dance team so i went to the principals and talked to them about it they were all in so we held tryouts and have been running ever since so then you and your daughter were basically like the format of starting the peterson that's me yeah yeah we got to start from the beginning to use our rules to choose what we wanted and things along that line so then you've been like pushing it through the years what would you say is best about you and your daughter that makes it such like a well competitive team we both push each other when we know the other person needs pushed like any mother daughter there's always the little no i don't like that you know i like that but she is the boss it is she is there for an head coach and she does a very very good job with but it's nice to be able to work with your kids you know until you have them you probably won't understand that but it's nice to be able to have that close relationship and to have something so much in common that we get to see each other almost every day yeah so you also teach here correct your spanish teacher twenty years wow so what are the challenges been while being a part of the team and then also coaching it's time factor you know there are the good thing is i get to know the dancers and i see them here all day i know who is absent if somebody has an issue they know they can come talk to me and discuss it with them but the bad part is the team starts at three and for me to get there by three is almost impossible  we do manage she gets there and she handles the opening and i make it to the end of practice and we work very well together so with teaching though having to get papers graded and things like that it means i leave my house at six thirty and i get home at around six thirty sometimes as know so with any of the challenges have you ever had a second thought of being a part of the dance team and then the teaching as well there are always times that you think there is no way i can do this no way but the love of dance the love of our team it just keeps me going you know with just so much fun it's all it's all fun you know when you get there it's hard work but it's stuff you love to do so that's the whole secret to life is find school it's slightly different because usually when the girls are competing they don't see the people that are looking at them and pep rallies they are right in the faces of students and it makes it difficult for them because they're more nervous about making the faces that they need to make the grand gestures because they're afraid kids are going to have them you know but we we have special practices just for pep rally's because we're working on skills that show their skills in regular competitions we're not allowed to do the gymnastics that we do  that's aside for chair and friction aspects so we're not allowed to do all of those flips but the girls can do them so when we do pep rallies we want to try to be able to entertain everyone so they throw in every single thing that they can so when you're traveling are you guys competing for like an award or like the national like the name of it and all yes it's the national dance team championship is through a company called u t a and it is the largest national competition there are several nationals most of them are usually small the nationals that we go to there usually sixty teams in your division so when you're competing for the top they divide you into three groups and each group has twenty so the first round of preliminaries you go through and do your routine only competing against the other nineteen and they eliminate half of them out of each of those teams if you are the top team in your flight you go straight through the finals if you're not the top team you're then grouped together and they eliminate half of those and then the rest go into finals so when you make top ten it's pretty amazing you know and we've been lucky enough to be at least top five almost every year every year it's fun but i'm sure the girls are there so with the students participating do you ever see them struggling with having a balance between the constant traveling or the constant long practices this school yes there at times they'll say we have a test tomorrow and we say when did you find out about the test last sunday know and that's part of it life lessons you know teaching them to keep up with your stuff don't leave everything to the last minute another huge life lesson is being on time because my daughter's saying is if you're on time you're late so we will do we went as a team with loses a team we practice as a team we take our awards and take our licks as a team as well so they have learned a lot of lessons through that but they've really really gotten good at it we only travel really to one other competition beast that we go to cincinnati for camp we did one away competition in tennessee this year and then we go to nationals most of the other competitions are local and pittsburgh so you go to this campus  is this during your off season yes it's in july i always like that third week of july and there are teams that we've gotten to know through this sometimes they're in our division sometimes they're not but we get to know these teams in these coaches so well when we go to nationals we go cheer for each other the competition is on the floor ok it is not off the floor on the floor get the best friend that you can be on the floor show the best you can show so that you know the best team wins and we absolutely support every other team down there we know how hard everybody works to get there and it's hard so during the summer you said that you guys did the camp and i'm sure you have worked for the following school year is there anything that you would change kind of make it easier that you wish you could change could we make the day a little longer we have we usually practiced three days a week when we started it was to get once a week and we found out that wasn't enough we used to struggle with where we practiced because we would use the rec center during the winter every german peters township is used so we would practice in the hallway and we now have a gym that we can go to that we have open access to we kind of wish that people would be able to do more activities and do dance they're able to not really do other sports except sometimes swimming and spring track and we know there are people out other interests but this is with the three days a week it's very consuming i just wish we could give everybody more time to be able to do more things that they like to do like being a part of a dance team is like a very big commitment and to be a part of it you have to be like really wanting and what not you do it has to be it has to be a passion you know if you're kind of interested in it then it's not going you're not going to be willing to stick out the whole year and it is a long commitment from may until march well ok so with your daughter mainly being a part of it as well do you see that taking up a lot of her time like in her early going on years and school and what not what good about her she has a one year old daughter so but she doesn't go to work till three o'clock so she has her whole day and dance can't start until after school during the summer will practice during the daytime but she has her whole day to do whatever she needs to do then she has her evenings she also teaches at an everything and making dance team for a little township it's probably kind of what i've worked for my whole life when i finished school and started teaching i would always direct the show at that school or do the choreography i've done choreography for every school i've ever taught it and this just kind of like yeah this is what you get to be when you grow you know it's like the ultimate that that you can do is find something this fantastic and have dancers that are this wonderful and lovable do you think that other girls in the dance team want to do what you do when they grow up yes yes absolutely both teach spanish and we've had several girls go on to major minor and spanish so trance and college and it's just a wonderful feeling to still be part of their lives as well as anything that you think about your style isn't like the way that you leave your team that make it so successful this to kids this doesn't sound so great but there are rules and you follow the rules and when you fall of the rules everything works it's when you tried to walk around the ruler avoid the rule or whatever that people start to get in trouble our teams are so dedicated will say ok you've got a water break th water the back on the floor in the place is ready to go whereas when we first started to be take a lot of break and ten minutes later there was a back at this point our girls are so accustomed to the hard work that they get up and get in their spots period you know they're great have you ever public punishment you know people might know that she is benched and not able to perform but it's not we go out and announce something and nobody's ever done anything that horrible you know just a few little things that they hard lessons they've had to learn so from my friends that i know that compete on other teams and then peters township it seems to me like sometimes they have a drama between the teams have you ever experienced that there's always drama and when there's not a girl drama there's moment drama but it works out you know we try and say when you walk in the door all your problems stay outside we come in here we dance together you don't have to be best friends you do have to get along your life might depend on that person who's looking you know you have to get along so we work through we do bonding activities and challenges and things like that where they'll have to go out and they haven't one thing have to go out and take a photo of yourself standing in a restaurant on a table singing a song and get the material a just to help them get closer together you never see like your dance coming out when you teach like with the rules that you imply yes but yes i also am a lot livelier in teaching the and i think i would have been if i didn't have my background you know there are some teachers are very calm and very yeah i'm not you're not i hope so all right so one last question do you see yourself doing might be a little bit more difficult but yeah i would love to see him i mean i don't live here she's already dancing with us at times but yeah i do i do i can't imagine life without dance team i can imagine and that's great i have a passion like that but so like just sticking with you and what not that's i'm telling you it's a goal you need to work towards it really has been a try i would like to thank you for joining me today certainly very thank you so much it looks like that's all the time we have for today we're talking about parenting and teaching well being a coach all these two although these are two different responsibilities they bush own porch and being able to do both in a day is a skill that is difficult to learn carly and i would like to think our guest was sillier and coached phyllis for joining us here today i would also like to think the media department for making the show last week i would like to think my host carly brewster for working me with me on