Coach Randy educates, entertains, and empowers Spartans.
Coach Randy gives motivational speech to Freshman Class. Photo by Mia Nogueira
When Randy Nathan (aka Coach Randy) graduated from TJ in 1985, he never thought he would be guiding teenagers through the difficulties of youth, as a career. “Twenty years ago, life-coaching didn’t even exist,” said Coach Randy. “You could be a teacher, a therapist, or even a motivational speaker. But a life coach? Didn’t exist.”
Nonetheless, on August 19-20, Randy returned to share “the blueprint of life” with his old high school, kicking off the 2010-11 school year at Thomas Jefferson High School. This blueprint includes tips on achievement, self-accomplishment, and the power of choice. “Our students have the opportunity to truly connect with a successful graduate and benefit from his life experiences,” said Principal Sandra Just, who arranged for Coach Randy to speak to TJ students. “Coach Randy is a welcome addition to our school and we look forward to having him help lay the foundation for a successful school year.”
From being a camp director to leading a youth group, Randy has always enthusiastically pursued a career in helping adolescents overcome obstacles and achieve their ambitions. “I love teens. I had a very interesting time as a teenager, and it’s all carried over the course of my life to form who I am today,” said Randy enthusiastically. “My true goal is to find ways to help teens find their voice, against all odds. I want teens to be able to question authority, and to realize that they have the skills to be who they want to be.”
In addition to vigorous work with teens, Randy is also intrigued by the correlation between a student’s success and their relationships with their parents. “An important question to ask is this: Who’s more concerned about grades, the parents or the child?” said Randy. “If the answer is ‘parents,’ something’s wrong.”
Because of his insight on the influence of family on a student’s performance, Randy tries to incorporate parental wisdom in his motivation lectures. Randy often discusses the importance of a healthy connection between a student and his/her parents in success. “A parent’s top priority, generally, is for their child to be happy and successful. Unfortunately, sometimes the parents overemphasize the importance of success,” said Randy. “When parents are concerned about their kids doing better, there is almost always a disconnection between the kids and their parents. The kids think what they have is not good enough and they need to have everything right away.”
Randy centers much of his material around core principles that he feels are essential to self-achievement. One principle Randy feels is particularly important is the reality that students are who they choose to be. “Everything is choice,” Randy asserted. “Teens don’t usually see that they have a choice in everything. It’s important to always do the best that we can in the moment. Ultimately, it’s what you get caught up in doing that defines you. No one can force a decision on you, it always comes down to choice.”
While sharing his key principles, Randy also included the occasional video to help keep students awake and entertained. Senior Jenna Mishoe found one of the videos that analyzed the differences between youth in the U.S .and youth abroad particularly effective. “The whole video was really inspiring to try to be at your best,” said Mishoe. “It was weird seeing the comparisons between us and countries around the world. One statistic that hit me personally was that if all Myspace users populated a country, the country would be the third largest in the world.”
Mishoe wasn’t the only student impressed with Randy’s performance. Senior Audrey Morris-Reihl found that the fact that Randy is TJ alumni himself very inspiring. “It was nice to have someone from TJ,” said Morris-Reihl. “You know he went through it all himself, so it kind of gave me hope for the upcoming year.”
However, one of Randy’s messages that that seemed to have the most impact on the students was his interpretation of mistakes. “There are really no mistakes,” said Randy. “There are only opportunities. Behind failure, there is always a chance to learn. Every failure validates something, or shows something, that we didn’t know before. It helps us become who we are, and shapes us, sometimes not in the way we had planned.”
Ultimately, what Randy wants is for students to gain both knowledge and confidence for years to come. “I really just want to ease all the students’ jitters,” said Randy. “ I want them to look back at their first day of school and remember something I had told them. But really, I just want them to be what they want to be, regardless of the endeavor.”
