Every time I walk into my classroom and unpack my bags for the day, I tend to have those few moments of reflection and meditation.

Then I go to my lectern with my materials for the first class, look at the whiteboard, and see a pair of eyes looking back at me.

It’s a picture of Coach Adrian Snow leading the Titan football team through the stands past the student section on the way to the tunnel they will run through to start another sold out home game. It first appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal on the front of the “Sports” page.

I get to see this man every day at school. And the picture is a good representation of who Coach Snow really is. Engaging. Energetic. Focused. Motivated.

He’s also one of the most successful high school football coaches in the state. Actually he’s much more than that.

Snow is a:

• Motivational Speaker
• Public Relations Guru
• Conversationalist
• Master of Colloquialism and Jargon
• Adjuster
• Thinker
• Tinkerer
• Raconteur
• Community icon
• Prognosticator…

…and sometimes a meteorologist. West Forsyth’s Football Team doesn’t mind playing even if the weather seems out of sorts.

But most of all, Coach Snow is a friend to so many and a mentor to even more including me. He embodies what a great coach really is.

If you teach long enough in the public schools, you will be fortunate enough to come across some great individuals who coach sports teams all the while teaching these very players lessons of life and success even in the wake of defeat.

For them it is “about the kids.”

Great coaches like Adrian Snow see the team as more powerful than the sum of its parts put together because building a community where a common goal drives the participants is part of that process of being successful. Great coaches praise players in public, encourage loudly, and practice discipline and leave constructive criticism behind closed doors in locker rooms, practice, and dugouts.

Great coaches care about their players as students. It is quite often how I tell people who do not teach that so many players perform better academically while in season than out of season. The time management and the added incentive to keep playing helps many students make the needed commitment to academics and family.

Great coaches have probably kept so many students out of trouble because spending time being mentored and coached negates opportunities to create conflict.

Let us not forget that most of these great coaches are teachers in the same schools where they coach. They take care of our students in so many ways. 

Adrian Snow does more than that. He takes care of all of us at West Forsyth.

As this is being typed, Coach Snow is in the hospital battling some physical sickness doing his best to get well. If you can send as many good thoughts and prayers his way, please do.

He’s our coach and we want him to get as strong and healthy as possible so he can get back to the sidelines at The Village.