When track season comes to an end, Hanna Keltner takes off her running shoes and hangs up her state medals to become “Coach Hanna.”
For the last three years, Keltner has been a coach for youth Blastball through the Parks and Recreation Department.
Keltner said Blastball is a fun way for her to get involved with a youth sports program.
“It’s really nice to get to know the youth in my community,” she said. “As I get older, I don’t get to know the youth as well as I usually do. It’s just really nice to do every Tuesday.”
The Blastball program started its summer session Tuesday with roughly 10 kids around 3-5 years old swinging the bat and running the bases. Keltner said Blastball is a great way to introduce kids to baseball or softball because of the fun environment.
“It gets kids into sports and stuff without all the stress of winning and whose team you’re on, and just getting to know other kids that aren’t technically in their preschool or kindergarten classes and be able to bond over a game,” Keltner said.
The Parks and Recreation Department also began the first session of its Learn-to-Swim program Monday. Lifeguard manager and swim instructor Dylan Coleman said this is the first year for the program.
Coleman said she is excited about the addition of the program and thinks it will be important for the community moving forward.
“Lawrence classes fill up, De Soto classes fill up, so it’s important for us to have community members stay within the community and learn here,” Coleman said. “Especially since kids are swimming at the pool normally daily. It’s important for them to get comfortable, not only with lifeguards who are some of the instructors, but also just the water and learning how to swim in that community.”
Coleman said there are about six kids in each class ranging from 6 months old to 6 years old. Coleman and five other instructors partnered with Missouri Aquatics Training and Education Solutions to become certified in basic swim instruction.
Now that she is a swim instructor, Coleman said she hopes she can pass on her love for swimming to the kids she teaches.
“I was that 8-year-old once who didn’t know what to do, and then an instructor gave me and basically set into me my love for swimming and now I’m here where I am,” Coleman, the sixth-year lifeguard, said. “If I’m still here in 20 years, it would be so cool to see one of those kids who learned how to swim here become one of my staff members.”
Coleman said she is studying to become a teacher at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. Being a teacher is something Coleman said she has always wanted to do because she loves helping people learn.
Coleman said this is something she loves to see in the swim lessons program as well.
“I really just like seeing the ‘Aha’ moment with the kids in learning how to swim,” she said. “Even if it’s something simple. It’s all the foundation for something more intense.”
Middle school head football coach Lee Minton said the overlap between being a teacher and being a coach has been beneficial to him in his 15 years as a teacher and coach.
“There’s a lot of folks that coach, but don’t teach, and it’s just I think it helps with classroom management, it helps with knowing kids in the building, and just being here,” Minton said. “But having that connection now in the summer, you just hit the ground running in August and then you kind of keep that connection throughout the school year.”
This summer, the high school hosts “Football Fridays” with members of the middle school team along with fourth, fifth and sixth graders all learning from coaches and members of the high school team.
Minton said Football Fridays are a good experience for everyone involved.
“The high school players are out here helping, which is good for them to have that experience as the older kids,” he said. “The younger kids get to see how to do things. We just kind of rotate through and work on position work. It’s pretty relaxed. It’s not padded, it’s all just hand shields and dummies and keeping it pretty simple.”
For all these coaches, it’s about doing what is best for the kids and teaching them life skills through sports.
Keltner said she thinks it’s important for more adults or teenagers to be involved in summer youth programs.
“I just love kids. I have a little sister and other kids don’t have siblings, and so it’s nice to teach kids and deal with adults,” Keltner said. “I think everyone should do Blastball and help out with something or ref soccer, or ref T-ball, or something to help with it.”
Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].
