From coaching three sports while teaching K–8 at a Catholic school to leading college courses and mentoring future educators, this professor’s path to a PhD in motor behavior is anything but ordinary. What began as a practical decision, encouraged by mentors who saw his potential, evolved into a lifelong commitment to helping students find confidence through movement. Drawing from years of experience in elementary classrooms, collegiate coaching, and his own background as an athlete, he has built a teaching philosophy centered on adaptability, empathy, and making physical activity accessible to everyone. Whether lowering the basket for beginners or pulling out the nets to make class more exciting, his goal remains the same: create an environment where students aren’t afraid to try, fail, and ultimately succeed, both on and off the court.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Your academic journey spans over a decade, between your bachelor’s and doctorate, how did your early teaching experience influence your decision to pursue a PhD in motor behavior?
A: Oh, sure. Well, I taught K to 8 for seven years, and private schools, Catholic school. So my first year, I made $1,200. And I’d coached three sports, and I was the athletic director. So, after seven years, the people around me told me, “you have to go back to school, cause you’re never going to be able to buy a house, have kids, whatever, on the salary you get here.” Yeah. So I went back to school, got my master’s degree, and thought, now I would just move into the public school system. But now because I had another degree, schools didn’t want to hire me because it would cost them more. So my advisor at the time said, “No, just keep going.” I’m going, “What more school? Are you nuts?” He said, “There’s no turning back, just keep going.” So that’s really what got me to go for my PhD.
Q: And how did your doctoral work in motor behavior reshape or refine your approach to teaching?
A: Sure. So I really like working with kids. And if you’ve ever interacted with kids, I’m sure you have. If you have brothers or sisters or anything like that. One of the things you realize really quickly is, they’re not really adults. So you have to modify things to allow them to be successful. Lower baskets, smaller balls, bigger bats, whatever it may be. So that part really started to intrigue me in terms of, shouldn’t that really apply to everybody, right? Even adults, right? So you get a lot of people that don’t know how to play basketball. But how can you adapt things so that everybody can have fun doing it?
Q: Based on your early career elementary experience, what do you believe, new PE teachers, most commonly underestimate about classroom, like management and things like that?
A: Sure, what you have to realize that most of the time, it isn’t anything personal. They’re not off task because they don’t like you, or that you’ve been mean to them. Nine times out of ten, it’s because the task is too difficult, or a lot of times, they’re just bored. Yeah. I’m so bored. Now what else can I do to make it more exciting? So I’m going to bounce the ball off the wall. I’m going to climb up on the bleachers. So you have to realize that in that event, you have to pivot, and you have to do something different. You have to make it more fun. That’s teaching any subject.
Q: How do you assess whether students in your courses truly understand, like the learning and the feedback?
A: Sure, so when you watch them, right? So you can practice all you want, but until you actually see them try it into the game, or try it when they’re here during the weekend at a playground court, or they talk about it, or they use or apply some aspect of it in their daily life. That’s when you realize. Yeah. Now, again, one of the problems is, and you know this, right. Things don’t happen overnight. They may take weeks, months, years. But sometime down the line, somebody may say to you, “Hey, Sydney, why don’t you be part of our charity basketball game?” Yeah. Now, see, just the fact that you’ve taken a basketball class and you’ve been exposed to it, you’re much more likely to go, “Okay, I can do that.” And then in the game, it may come back to you that, “Oh, yeah, I can shoot a floater. Yeah. I can shoot a hook shot. I can do a pick and roll.” But at least you have some sort of idea how to engage, and that’s the biggest thing you have to overcome, you know? People aren’t going to participate if they have no idea because they’re afraid. I don’t want to appear that I’m the worst, right? I don’t want to appear like I don’t know what I’m doing. So, anytime you can give them some sort of success it increases the likelihood they’re gonna participate, right? That’s the goal. Yep.
Q: I know you’ve taught softball with my brother in the past and you’re doing a basketball course now with me. How do you model lifelong physical activity for students beyond simply just teaching the content?
A: Well, I think one of the things you have to do is, you have to realize, even when you’re the teacher, I feel like you don’t really want to be perfect. If I make every shot, isn’t everybody in the class gonna go, “Yeah, but he’s played basketball his whole life. . . Yeah. He’s good. He’s a coach, he’s a player.” I play because it’s fun. I don’t care if I miss it. I’m just going to keep throwing it up, shooting. That’s my biggest takeaway for people. Don’t be afraid to fail. Who cares? It shouldn’t be about being competitive all the time . . . The winning, that’s why people stop playing. When it becomes too competitive. Unless you’re a competitive person, and that’s your thing, which that’s okay, too, but . . .
Q: And what do you hope graduates of your program say about your influence on their careers outside of graduation?
A: That you’re willing to take risks, chances, try it again. It’s all trial and error. Even here. I pull the nets out. That’s the first time I’ve ever done that. Now, watching today, okay, I might do that again.. My biggest worry was people would trip over them. Nobody did that. Woooo! It makes it a little more fun, a little more exciting than just doing regular, kind of boring drills. I don’t care if you make the shot. It’s the idea that maybe somebody thought, wow, I was pretty good at that better than shooting the other way. That’s kind of the goal.
Q: So you taught track and field, and cross-country, were you teaching both boys and girls?
A: Yes. Yep. Yep.
Q: And what time period were you coaching?
A: Sure. So when I started here, like a year after I started, which was ’94, or ’95, I started with the men’s Cross country team. Then I added the women’s the following year. So I did that for 12 years. Yeah. And then track and field I did it at the same time. Yep. I wasn’t the head coach, cross country I was, Track and field, I was insistent. So I took the distance people from cross country and worked with them in track. So it was kind of an easy transition. Yeah.
Q: And did you participate in track and field and cross country yourself?
A: Yep. Yep. Being a thin, small person, who could play basketball or baseball or running games pretty easily. Yep.
Q: And how was it helpful being a prior athlete yourself teaching and coaching students now?
A: I think the thing is you, you identify, not just the activity, but you identify the things that are also occurring as part of that. So, sometimes you forget that, like, I talk to Brie all the time. Yep. She was practicing from 8:00 to 10 o’clock at night on a frozen field. So, sometimes when you get in, you see students that sometimes look a little tired, you understand that a little bit better. Yeah. Or you understand that, wow, it’s a test today. But we had a game, we had a meet yesterday, and it was three hours there, three hours back. So you appreciate the fact, that they’re participating. And I think, you’re more understanding of what’s happening in their world. And everybody has bad days, off days, good days, tired days, don’t care days.
Q: Do you have a memorable moment of either coaching or being a track and field athlete?
A: Yeah, so this was my favorite. So I told you, I taught K to 8. So then when I moved here, it was two years after I moved here in 1996. The National Championship crosscountry meet, Division 3 was held at Franklin Park in Boston. A kid I had in sixth grade won. Oh, wow. I went to the meet because I knew he was running. He won. He was the national champion. And he sent me this letter. I still have it upstairs. “Coach, I still remember when you used to jog around the black with me in sixth grade.” That’s the goal. And not that he won, but just the fact that that’s where he got his start. And he was still interested and kept on and Success.
Q: Is there a reason that you stopped coaching track and field?
A: Yeah, just because now my kids are getting a little bit older. And, you know, that becomes your whole life. You’re gone every weekend. Now you want more time with them. That’s really why.
Q: For your career here at Westfield, what are your hopes for the future, for your career and for the students that you’re teaching?
A: Still, my favorite part is when I go to the Mayford Conference every year in the fall, which is in Worcester and I see students that I had 30 years ago there that are now teaching. Now they have their own kids. So that, you hope to kind of continue that regardless of what you’re doing. See those individuals, see how they’re doing. And hear from them, what maybe things they’re doing, that they did in your class, type of thing.
