Teacher. Coach. Mother. All of these words describe Lisa George. Between grading papers and putting in time on the volleyball court, George still finds time to spend to with her two daughters, Taryn, who is two years old, and Lucy, who is nine months old.

“I like to be silly whether that’s dancing around in the house or I like to be outside in the evening and going out and doing something that they are going to remember and enjoy,” George said.

George has been coaching volleyball for 11 years but has only been a mother for two of those years. Although George does make time for her children, there are still sacrifices that have to be made.

“Most of it is just time with them,” George said. “I would also say that one of the hardest things to give up is dinner time all together during both volleyball and baseball seasons. It’s something I think is very important.”

Being pregnant and coaching comes with it’s challenges but that didn’t stop George from being in the gym everyday and always cheering on her team from the bench. But there was also still some silly things that were made more difficult for George while she was pregnant.

“The volleyball girls made it easy by blocking all the balls from hitting my stomach, probably the bus rides was the hardest part, because I had some uncomfortable pregnancy in terms of being able to sit for a long time and we always seemed to go out to Garden City or Great Bend when I was pregnant,” George said.

Even though taking on all of these tasks may be hard, George doesn’t do it alone.

“We have the day care center in Hesston four days a week and then my mom watches them for a day so they get to spend some time with grandma and Mr. [Mark] George gets them after work while I finish practice,” George said. “We could never do it if we coached in the same season.”

George believes she has gotten a lot calmer since having children.

“I’m not as aggressive about as I use to be [with] the little things,” George said.

Brian Becker
athletic director & assistant principal

What kinds of sacrifices do you have to make?
Just time. When you step into a position where you have so many different roles you just have to give up a lot of your time. It does mean time away from my kids and my family.

Do you have less time to spend with your kids working here at Newton versus Wichita North?
No, I feel like I have more time with them because I’m not spending 45 minutes on the road everyday going to school and then also coming back from school, so that gives me more time at home. Yes, I have more responsibilities but we have a great [staff]. We all have kids and we all try and help each other out.

 

Michelle Bergquist
athletic administration assistant & assistant cross country coach

What do you wish you had more time to do with your kids?
I wish I had time to still go in the classrooms. They are almost old enough to where that won’t be able happen anymore. I still try and go on field trips. I do wish I was home after school in the fall, it’s a fun time and it takes away from weekend activities.

What kind of sacrifices have you had to make by taking on so many roles?
The harder sacrifice is the mom sacrifice. I am really lucky that Mr. Becker and Coach Mick allow me to be a mom. I’ve missed a few practices here and there to go see [my daughter] Elyse run at Bethany.