Online Platform Helps Coaches Connect, Share Ideas During Pandemic

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

At a time when social distancing and at-home isolation are everyday practices, high school track and field coaches in Connecticut have found a way to get closer.

Sparked by a Tweet from Bloomfield High assistant coach Maurice Calenda, coaches across the state have come together via the video platform Zoom for virtual coaching forums. The idea is to continue educating and making the sport better, even during a period of such unknown and uncertainty. 

“This is such a unique sport, track and field, in terms of, ‘Yeah, we’re all competitive, but we all like to work together, and often cheer for the same athletes,’” Fairfield Ludlowe coach Justin Tomczyk said. “For me, when he kind of pitched the idea, I was excited; there’s that same spirit in the coaching world too, where we recognize the coaching talent around us, so it’s a real opportunity to bounce ideas off one another.” 

Calenda, who specializes in the jumps, and coached All-American and LSU-bound triple jumper Sean Dixon-Bodie, said throughout the years he’s noticed the lack of opportunity for a wide variety of coaching clinics in the sport.

So, on March 30, he tweeted out expressing interest in a Zoom conference with state coaches to chat about track and field, and if there’s anything they could and should be doing to improve the sport. With some promotion from MySportsResults.com, a site run by Conard coach Ron Knapp, word began to virtually spread. On April 2, the first meeting was held with roughly 40 high school coaches – young and old, and some collegiate ones – in attendance. 

“That first session we were all curious how this was going to go, but ultimately what ended up happening, you had Coach Mo putting out a specific topic, and he would talk about it for a minute or two, and then open it up to everyone else,” Tomczyk said. “So what you end up getting is some of these legit veteran coaches that have been around the sport for 20- or 30-plus years, but also younger coaches chiming in asking questions. It was a lot of really productive banter. It wasn’t competitive. To be honest, you had a mixture of veteran and young coaches asking questions, which made it so cool.”

One of the overarching themes of the first meeting was discussion centered around the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, how teams are coping and how to help any student-athletes still in the college process. 

In Connecticut, officials recently announced state schools would be closed through May 20. In regards to a spring sports season, that has not officially been ruled out. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletics Conference plans to have more detailed conversations this month regarding the feasibility of assembling any parts of a spring season for student-athletes.    

“We need to come together and help them (student-athletes) no matter who the coach is,” Calenda said. “At the end of the day, it’s not about us, it’s about them and getting them to the next level if they want to compete there, and how to make them better people.” 

While he was nervous and anxious to be the leader amongst leaders of the conference, Calenda said the first meeting was a good ice-breaker to get coaches to know that they can start asking questions and not be shy, especially the younger and more inexperienced ones.  

“I didn’t want to put this together for (only) the top coaches in our state, I wanted to put it together for some of my peers who are in my coach group and coaches who don’t have the staff that they need to help out in certain events,” Calenda said. “I wanted to make sure everybody got a little bit more knowledge.” 

Tomczyk, who coaches junior All-American long jumper and hurdler Tess Stapleton, said while it’s not ideal circumstances due to COVID-19, more readily available down time for many coaches has pushed these much-needed conversations.  

“This is a really cool idea because there are several of us that are passionate about spreading that knowledge and kind upping the game here in Connecticut,” he said. “There are a lot of requirements to become a coach in this state, which is awesome, but it’s also tough because some of these positions are hard to fill and often intimidating for a younger coach or someone working multiple jobs to go and get a bunch of certifications and then USATF clinics and all this. So I’m hoping these kinds of conversations might inspire people to get more technical info, it might allow people to get information without sacrificing as much time. I mean, who knows where this will go? This might inspire the state to start looking at some online certifications and so forth.”

Since that first gathering, Calenda hosted another free online forum Thursday geared more toward the jumping events. He said his vision during this pandemic is to try and host one per week or every other week with varying topics, with an open dialogue amongst coaches. 

“We still need to continue to learn as coaches,” Calenda said. “None of us created the wheel and we don't always have the right answers for everything. Learning new techniques and new drills are always a good thing.”