What Does a Coach Do?

This is a guest post by veteran OBOB coach, Pamela Wessling

Being an OBOB coach is a rewarding and fun experience that takes a little upfront organization, but has a lasting impact on the kids you coach and on our Hallinan community. Here is a step by step guide to kicking off your first OBOB coaching experience.

After establishing your OBOB team of 4-5 students, and your coaching team (whether you will coach solo or with a partner), your first steps will be to create book groupings and a meeting schedule. Each book should be read by at least two students in your group. This is important for two reasons: 1. If one student is sick during a battle there will still be a second student present and competing who will have read that book 2. Having two students read each book maximizes your team’s comprehension of that book. 

The most equitable way to make book groupings is to divide the books by page numbers so that every student is reading the same amount of pages as his teammates. I look up the number of pages each book contains on the book’s amazon page and record these on a piece of paper. I then make loose groupings of the books that are around 100 pages, then books that are around 200 pages, then books that are around 300 pages and so forth. Then I can make the book groupings for each teammate with equal books from each of the page number groups. After I make the groupings I like to add up the exact page numbers for each child to make sure they are equal and shift books around as needed. I usually have every teammate read the graphic novel just to keep things fair. 

Once you have your equally weighted book groupings you can reach out to families to let them know which books their kids will be reading. This first email is also a good time to establish your practice schedule. I like to practice after school during the weekdays because the kids can walk to my house directly after school and it saves parents one driving trip. Some teams might prefer the weekend days for meetings depending on after school activities. It’s a good idea to start meeting every 2-3 weeks in the early fall with the understanding that for each meeting the kids will need to read another book from their book list. Then as the OBOB battle season approaches in late January and early February it is helpful to meet once a week to get the kids well prepared for battles. 

I also like to give parents tips in this first email about how to tackle the large reading load and keep their student on track with their reading for each meeting. My biggest tip is always to count the number of days you have until your next book is “due” at the next team OBOB meeting and divide the book’s page numbers by that amount of days. This is the student’s daily reading amount for that book. Reading their daily page numbers every day, incrementally, spreads out the burden and makes reading manageable. Another tip is to listen to some books as audio books while you and your child are driving around or simply as an alternative to reading. Another tip is to read some of the OBOB books together as a family before bed, if evening reading is something your family enjoys. 

Then it’s time for your first team meeting!

A good length for meetings is around one hour for new third graders to two hours for older kids, or for teams later in the season when they have read most of their books. The majority of your time in meetings will be spent quizzing the kids with question and answer book trivia that mimics questions they might be asked during a real battle. You can use OBOB.dog for trivia questions, which is a great parent-generated website that allows you to pick and choose the books you would like to answer trivia questions for (especially great when your team has read some, but not all of their OBOB books). Also local libraries like Lake Oswego, Cedar Mill, Newberg, and Beaverton usually release great question sets throughout the fall. Drilling book trivia questions is the most critical component of getting the kids ready for battles!

Another important exercise during meetings will be to drill the kids on the exact pronunciations of the authors and titles for each book. A big component of an OBOB battle is answering every question with the correct title and author pronunciation. You can find correct author pronunciations on the official OBOB website. 

When you first get your team together, if they are a 3rd grade team or a team that is new to OBOB, you will want to discuss what OBOB is and maybe watch a few minutes of an OBOB battle from clips online. As a coach, you will want to familiarize yourself with the OBOB battle rules from the pdfs available on our Hallinan OBOB link tree and begin teaching these to the kids as the season progresses. This includes deciding which teammates want to be spokesperson in the battles. The spokesperson is the only person on the team allowed to speak during a battle; he or she delivers all the answers to the adult moderator asking the questions in a battle.

Additionally, it’s always fun to build team camaraderie by having the kids choose a team name and perhaps having a tech savvy parent design a simple team logo to be printed on team t-shirts or sweatshirts at a local custom apparel printing shop. 

Because drilling trivia questions can be challenging and tiring, it’s important to work in lots of scheduled play breaks during meetings. I usually start my meetings with ten minutes of play time for the team, to build team camaraderie, but also to get their energy out so they can focus when we need to get down to business. 

Another critical part of meetings? Snacks! I always try to spread out a lot of healthy, fortifying snacks (always non greasy so my couches don’t get stained!). Parents can venmo the coach up front at the beginning of the season to help defray the cost of snacks. 

With that basic meeting structure you and your team are off and running! The OBOB season culminates with a two week period of in school battles called “pool play” then a seeded Saturday tournament. You will want to be present at each of your team’s pool play battles and then also at the final Saturday tournament. The Hallinan OBOB chairs will email coaches all of the critical info for the two week pool play and Saturday tournament, which you can then send on to your team. If your team wins the Hallinan tournament then they will go on to a regional OBOB tournament and then the final state OBOB tournament in April. 

Coaching an OBOB team doesn’t have to be a daunting or overwhelming task. With a little work up front, you and your team will get into a great rhythm with reading and trivia quizzing. The kids learn to love the competitive excitement of answering battle questions and the satisfaction of completing such a large volume of reading. As a coach, it’s incredibly satisfying to see how proud, excited, and competitive your team becomes as the season progresses.