The life of a teacher and coach is busier than it seems. Tonia Kincaid, cooking and fashion teacher at Anderson High School, experiences many early mornings and late nights during the winter, coaching boys basketball on top of her teaching duties.
“If we practiced 3-5 pm, and I didn’t have [a] plan [bell] last year, I wasn’t home till 6:30. So I was gone for a twelve-hour day,” Kincaid said.
Every morning, Kinciad arrives at school early to prepare for her upcoming classes.
“I’m here by 6:45 because I’ve got to get all the food set out and everything ready,” Kincaid said.
Then she moves on to the school day, where she has five cooking classes, one fashion class, and lastly a planning period during the tenth bell.
“Last year I had to stay an hour later because I had class tenth bell, and so I would just leave everything, go to practice, and then after practice I would come and clean my classroom,” Kincaid said.
Now she’s able to clean her room and start her laundry before practice starts, allowing her to go home right after practice instead of having to stay late.
Kincaid notes that game days are much crazier and more time-consuming than practice days. However, she enjoys game days the best even through the chaos.
“The game days are the fun days,” Kincaid said.
The perks of home games are that she can go home before, allowing her more of a break between the school day and coaching. Whereas at away games, depending on who the team is playing, she could be away from home all day because of the long bus rides.
“Home games I can run home for a minute…but then I come back up an hour before the JV game and I’m there for JV and Varsity,” Kincaid said.
Because she is constantly on her feet all day cooking, she tries to avoid sitting down.
“I can’t sit down because as soon as I sit down, I’m tired,” Kincaid said.
Overall, she loves coaching and teaching both because of the relationships she gets to build with the kids.
“Basketball’s fun, but [my favorite part is] those relationships and seeing those kids outside the classroom,” Kincaid said.
Come see the basketball team play at their first home game on December 5th against Little Miami High School.