By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The “Coaches in the Classroom” feature is a weekly series designed to spotlight and celebrate coaches throughout Portage County, who spend their days in the classrooms and hallways leading today’s student-athletes to be tomorrow’s leaders.

Today’s spotlight is on 11th year Mogadore High School girls basketball coach Jennifer Ritch, who is in her 23rd year teaching English and Language Arts in the district.

• School district: Mogadore Local Schools.
• How long have you taught there?: 23 years.
• Classes taught?: I have an ELA 7-12 degree, and I have taught anything from 8th grade advanced ELA to Applied Communications to 12th grade advanced ELA. Currently, I teach all 10th grade ELA, 9th advanced ELA, 11th advanced ELA and 12th advanced ELA.
• What made you want to become an educator?: I always enjoyed school, but it was mostly my grandmother and mother who made me want to be a teacher. My grandma taught 1st grade her entire career, and she would help watch me and my siblings while my mother also taught. My grandma is the person who taught me how to read and made me fall in love with reading. My mom has taught K-8 (Home Economics), and she ended her career as a school counselor. I always was in a classroom or watching my mom and grandmother help young people, and I wanted to do the same.
• What is your favorite part of your job?: There are a lot of things I like, but my favorite part is probably watching a student gain confidence in their abilities. I also really enjoy when they make me laugh, especially using the subtle and finely crafted sarcasm that I taught them.
• What have you learned about being an educator that you didn’t know before you started?: I have learned that while teaching the subject matter is important, it’s the relationships that you build in the classroom that actually help students learn most and help prepare them for life after school.
• Which teachers influenced you to go into education?: I had many great teachers throughout my schooling, but my high school English teacher Mrs. Barger really made me want to become an ELA teacher. I also was very influenced by my high school basketball coach Don Smith. He not only taught us basketball, but he was also a History teacher, and he spent so much time teaching us so much more than basketball.
• How do you apply some of your coaching to your classroom?: Coaching and teaching will always be intertwined for me. I believe that students should always be prepared, work hard, give all endeavors their best effort and that they can be successful just by doing the little things. Also, when students want to shoot things into my classroom trash cans, they will do pushups if they miss.
• How do you apply some of your classroom to your coaching?: I think one of the most important things that translates from the classroom to coaching is understanding that players, like students in the classroom, have different learning styles and it’s important to remember that when trying to introduce concepts and developing their basketball IQ that you use all methods at your disposal. I also think time management, organization and clear communication of expectations are essential elements that are required for success in both arenas.
• What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you in a classroom?: There are literally too many funny things that have happened in the past 23 years. However, the most recent thing that had me absolutely dying of laughter happened in one of my sophomore ELA classes. We were reading Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” and the students always pick parts and we read and discuss it out loud. One of the parts they can choose is the narrator. They are in charge of all intro materials and all stage directions. To make it easier, I always tell the narrators that they are basically in charge of all italicized print in each scene. As we were reading, one of the italicized words was the name of one of the Merchant ships, which was not the narrator’s responsibility and belonged to a specific character. This particular narrator took his responsibilities very seriously and when we reached that part, he emphatically screamed “Andrew” in the middle of the other student’s part. It took us all a minute to realize what just happened and then we could not stop laughing at his tour de force performance for the rest of the period. I also thoroughly enjoyed the time Mason Murphy took me very literally when I said anyone who made a replica of Scout Finch’s ham costume from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and wore it to school, would get an ex“ham” exemption for their final exam. I will never forget seeing a 6-foot-3 papier mache ham walking the halls. Shoutout to his sister Hope Murphy for her impeccable crafting abilities, too.
• Mentors in your building who have helped you along the way?: I have had so much help along the way, including former Mogadore ELA teacher Cheryl Stires and former ELA and Library Media Specialist Maryann Smith. Outside of ELA, I was also blessed by the support of the entire Pollock family — Scott, Shelley and Tom — who always had my back and taught me so much about teaching and coaching, as well as my former Athletic Director Rich Brumbaugh and current principal and boys basketball head coach Russ Swartz, who have supported me too many times to count. I am also blessed to be surrounded by my current wonderful high school co-workers in our tiny ELA department of three: Chris Mossa and Kendra Miller-Rett.