Importance of Athletics in International/American Schools

[andyleblanc]

I was wondering how important (in general) sports is to the international and American schools, especially in Europe. I see that many of the European schools belong to the ISST but didn't know how competitive or how much emphasis being successful is to a school.
Both my wife and I have a pretty decent amount of experience coaching different sports and didn't know if we could use this to help us land jobs at a school. We both love sports and would be happy to help coach or assist in a sport or two at the school. Do you think this will help or I guess is it worth pursuing as a second angle to help pad our chances? What are some of the schools (not just Europe) that would take this into serious consideration (if any)?

Thanks for the help and time, enjoy the day/night.

[shadowjack]

Ability to offer a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities is welcomed at all international schools. This applies not only to coaching, but also to specialty clubs such as MUN, Forensics, Debate, Yearbook and more.

[andyleblanc]

By welcomed, do you mean that it could very well play into whether they might hire a teacher or not.....or is it just something that won't play a part in a school's decision?

[Gipper]

If all else is equal they will definitely hire you because you can coach a certain sport of need (or run a club). Especially if the director and the AD have a good relationship. The directors like to come home and tell the AD: 'well, I got that basketball coach you asked for.' I coached in the ISST. It includes IS Brussels, St.John's, AS Paris, AS London, ACS Cobham, ACS Hillingdon, Cairo AC, AIS Vienna, AS of the Hague, Frankfurt IS, Zurich IS. The schools take themselves quite seriously-in a sports sense. I would say, in most cases, to a greater extent than the actual caliber of the programs, if you know what I mean. Plenty of resources available to equip your teams with everything you want at any of these schools. And all of these schools will look to hire coaches to fill voids when they can. Definitely emphasize your own coaching strengths in your resume and in the interview. It makes a difference to any of these schools and many others too.

[shadowjack]

Let me put it this way - if I have two teachers who are fairly equal, but one has an extensive background in offering after-school activities (ASAs) and coaching/sponsoring and the other doesn't, then I would definitely choose the latter over the former, because they bring more to the school than the teacher who doesn't offer those options. All international schools like to offer vibrant ASAs and the like.

[PsyGuy]

It depends on the school and the region. Some schools and regions are very competitive between school programs and some regions sports are club activities.

I disagree with the earlier posters in general however. XCs (Extra Curricular) arent going to make a resume or get you a job unless your a PE teacher with coaching and winning record in a strong athletic school program. Assistant coaching or helping inan activity isnt going to count for much. Everyone at a school with a developed XC program does something, and schools without them arent going to care

What really happens is that the factors a school values are relatively few, and candidate pools for any one vacancy tend to get large quickly. When your selecting down that pool you reach a point where a significant number of candidates are very similar and indistinguishable from one another and admins start looking at minor and trivial differences to reduce the candidate pool down to the short, short list.

[andyleblanc]

Thanks guys, helps.....