The Interview

The years I spent teaching at Whitney Young were truly enjoyable.  The students became like my own children, and I truly loved them all.  The staff were my friends.  Some of them were my school mothers, handing out advise, whether it was called for or not.  Others were like my sisters.  No matter what, they all cared for me in their own way.

At the end of the third year at Young, I was made aware of the possibility that North Side was going to hire a new head baseball coach.  I had been successful in running summer baseball programs including city championships and had been assistant coach at South Side for three years.  I believed that it was time for me to see if I could coach at the high school level.  Susie Brown had made me aware of the position.  She had just started teaching at Young after doing her student teaching with us.  Her husband was the acting athletic director at North.  She even made the call for me to connect with her husband.

So, even though I hadn't really thought the whole change through, I had set in motion the process of interviewing for a new position.  Before I made the call to Duane Brown, I had no idea if there was even a teaching position that went with the coaching position.  Part of the reason that I went into it so blindly was that my father was always telling me about coaching positions that he knew were available.  Dad loved baseball.  He taught me how to coach it.  I was his way of getting to be a head coach in high school.

The list of schools that he brought to me came from the games that he umpired.  He officiated all over northern and central Indiana.  I picture him going to the athletic director at each school to see if there was a coaching position available.  At one time or another, he brought back the names of schools like Jay County, Blackford, Delta, Central Noble, etc.  I would always humor him and say that I would check into it.  When I did, there either really wasn't a job or they weren't interested in me.

At North Side I got the interview.  I remember that it was in early May.  In order to make it to the interview, which was during the school day, I had to inform Mrs. Adams, my principal.  That was hard to do.  I respected her so much.  I felt like I was betraying her.  When I sat down to tell her, she softened the blow for me.  "Mr. Updike called me yesterday to find out if you are a good teacher."  She paused to allow me to digest what she had said.  Then she continued, "I know you want to be a head coach.  I hope that this works for you, but make sure that this is what you want."  She was my best school mother.

I told her that I wasn't sure what I wanted, but I wanted to try.  I told her about the interview, to which she wished me luck.  So, I headed to my first true interview.

Remember, I graduated from South Side.  I had never entered the North Side building except for when we played football there.  Those front steps, that are now the back steps, were intimidating.  Then there were the second group of steps inside that lead to the principal's office.  That is when I met Max Updike, the principal at North.

Then interview was short.  I don't remember one question.  What I do remember is that there was a teaching position with the job.  It was teaching English.  That was great because that was my other area, but I had left college without finishing the license.  I was a couple of courses short. When the interview was over, Mr. Updike showed me around the building.  The most vivid memory was the cafeteria.  We arrived during one of the lunch periods.  It was chaos.  I distinctly remember thinking that I didn't want to be a part of this!

Which is probably why I didn't hear from anyone about the job for months.  Actually, I wasn't offered the job.  No one was.  There had been racial problems in the school.  Mr. Updike was part of the house cleaning after the problems, so all decisions were left to the new principal, Dan Howe.  That change, changed the course of my career.