Clubs are one of the main ways for students to socialize and get to know their classmates. One act, being a theater department club, was a way for students to compete against other schools by performing an act of a play. Since the position opened up, a search for a sponsor has been ongoing.
Art teacher Maddie Rosonke, who previously coached one act, had to let go of the role to prioritize her newborn son. Rosonke enjoys directing but also knows that it is time consuming.
“It is a huge commitment,” Rosonke said. “Kids are so busy doing other activities, so it was always hard to find another time to make practices happen.”
Though students understand Rosonke’s situation, it is tough for those who will miss out on an activity they looked forward to. Senior Kate Wagner has participated in one act since her freshman year and was disappointed by the news that a new sponsor was not found.
“I’m very upset,” Wagner said. “It’s my senior year, I feel like there could have been a lot of great things to happen this year if we would have been given the opportunity, but we didn’t get it.”
One act is not the only club with an open spot for a coach; the speech team also needed someone to cover it after an incident occurred with the previous coach. The members on the team eventually took matters into their own hands and found a teacher willing to lead them this year.
“I just joined speech this year, but I know that they lost their old coach,” junior Dia Khalafalla said. “Ms. Connelly’s daughter needed her to coach so they could have a team. Now she is doing a lot of research on speech so she can educate herself.”
To find a teacher or even just an adult to cover an activity can be extremely challenging as there are a lot of factors that go into it. All in all it really comes down to one’s previous experiences with the activity and their availability. Some are more comfortable covering a theater-based club or a more sport-focused one.
“There are naturally groups that are smaller than others and so we must have just have not had anybody who was comfortable taking on that role, that felt like they had the expertise or the knowledge to do that,” activities director Luke Ford said.
Getting a coach to cover a club to make it happen is very important, especially for the students who want to continue these activities in the next few years.
“It was really sad because i’ve been doing it [One act] for two years at that point and I was excited to do it another time but that didn’t happen,” junior Amina Teri said, “I felt really bad for all the seniors who’ve been doing it the whole time and don’t get to do it anymore.”
