Austin Kidd's classroom has a corner devoted to his Razorback fandom.
In observance of National Teacher Appreciation Week, swark.today is featuring profiles of area teachers on each day of the business week.
If Austin Kidd looks like he should still be a student at the school where he works, it’s because he is not quite seven years removed from having been one, but the 2015 Spring Hill High graduate has already run up some achievements after his second year as head coach of his alma mater’s Lady Bears.
In his first year, three players were selected from his team to the All Conference team. After his second, he has been chosen to coach the Arkansas side at the Red River Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Showdown which will take place in Texarkana in early June.
His overall win-loss record is 70-32. His teams have won one conference title, one conference runner-up and one district runner-up.
Kidd has also led the girls track teams to their highest postings since 2011 in his first year of coaching those programs.
Drake Anderson, color commentator for the Lady Bears’ games on swark.today, said Kidd has impressed him. “Since his first year on the job, I’ve been able to see the girls grow as players, but especially as teammates. They have grown in the ‘family’ mentality that I think he has tried to instill in them since he took over. There were times early on where you didn’t see the cohesion that the girls play with now.”
Kidd knew he wanted to coach from his earliest days of playing sports himself. “I knew, really, really early on, probably about seventh and eighth grade, when I really got into playing sports. I just realized, ‘Hey, this is really fun. I want to do this the rest of my life.’ I was probably 13 or 14. My heart has been set on this since early on,” he said.
Kidd is also a serious-minded social studies teacher who is guided by the George Santayana maxim, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
He said recently one of his classes has focused on an era of problems like those of our own: “We’ve been talking about the industrial, oil booms, steel booms, the robber barons who just hoarded all this wealth. And now you kind of turn it back into play with Elon Musk trying to do that now with twitter. You have a handful of rich, powerful guys trying to control a lot and this isn’t the first time it’s happened.”
He reports success changing the minds of students who come into his classes with disdain for his subject. “When I get them in August, Social Studies is probably their least favorite class,” he said. “By the time we're in December, they love it, especially, Arkansas History. Early on, there's a whole lot of just political shootings, and Bowie knives out on the state [House of] Representatives and Senate floor. That helps ignite a little bit of their passion for it.”
Kidd likes to involve his students in debates about stances taken during specific historical movements. In a recent exercise along this line, students even became emotional about the experience. “The [debate about] the Indian Removal Act was probably the most heated, had some kids get tears over that one.”
The teaching of teamwork in in-class activities as well as civility Kidd views as important to his students’ development: “I'm very big into breaking them up into small groups. And again, trying to teach that teamwork in the classroom setting is hard. But I try to teach it as much as I can as teamwork and working with some people you may not agree with politically. You might not see eye to eye but you still have to work with those people.”
Kidd knows teamwork well, having been a linebacker on Spring Hill’s football team and, in his sports coaching, teamwork is at the center of what he calls his non-negotiables: “It doesn't matter if you're six -one, or if you're five-five, sure, you're to play hard every possession, . . . [whether] offense or defense. No plays off. Being unselfish, that’s the biggest thing that boys or girls struggle with,” he said.
The result has been what swark.today’s Spring Hill play-by-play announcer Brodie Whatley characterized as “sustaining the expectations that we have here at Spring Hill for girls basketball.” Whatley further said, “He is a young coach and will continue to improve as well.”
When asked how he maintains the balance among his roles as teacher of social studies, coach of girls’ basketball and boys’ football and his family life, Kidd admits he is still trying to master that. “It's still an ongoing process. This is only my fourth year. So I'm still kind of learning how to balance it. The biggest thing that I've learned probably the last two years is time management and how you use your time to prepare for the week . . . if you have some time, get organized. That way your week will run smoother.
“During basketball season, they'll have three to four games a week. You have to run three practices, then you have your classes to teach, papers, game film to watch, then you still have to find time to be a good husband, a good grandson, try to make time for your family. And it's tough. It's a balancing act, but you just have to prioritize,” Kidd said.
There are things parents should understand and do to make sure their students emerge from school with a good education according to Kidd. “If we do our job, we're going to push them, we're going to hold them accountable. And we're also going to love them through it.” He asks parents to “support your teachers, support your coaches, support your administration, when we try to hold a kid accountable.”
Kidd credits a long list of mentors, including coaches Russell Carter and Laura Kidd and teachers Waylon Lewallen, Kay Rider and Lori Chambless who held him accountable as he made his way through his own education from Spring Hill, which, in turn, vaulted him through SAU, where he got his Bachelor of Science in Education and where he continues to work on his Masters in the same subject. “I wouldn't be here today, if it wasn't for them,” he said.