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PART-TIME COACHES
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SPORTS
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These coaches, little known to the rest of campus, play a crucial role in athletic success — and the growth of students.
COMFORT ZONE Coaching in their environments, Teicher, Mahmoud and Hershner’s impact on Lion athletes has been invaluable to the school’s athletic department and programs.
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the volleyball team has won four SPC championships with those coming in the last four years, proving that Teicher has been one of the most successful coaches in the program’s history. Sullivan is pleased with the way Teicher leads the team. “We just like his whole personality,” Sullivan said. “He’s very calm. He’s not a real animated kind of guy. He just goes about his business, and we like that about him.” Head fencing coach Hossam Mahmoud is another part-time coach. Mahmoud, originally from Alexandria, Egypt, has lived in Dallas for 24 years. He has always been a fencing coach, but he hasn’t always worked at his current club, the Fencing Institute of Texas. Mahmoud has dipped his toes in the water of other employment opportunities as well, but he is too passionate for his sport. “I also have a degree in accounting,” Mahmoud said. “I got it from Alexandria University, but I’ve never been an accountant for long. I like fencing too much.” Mahmoud is also an Egyptian national champion. He was a member of the Egyptian national epee team for nine years. A full-time fencing coach, Mahmoud only works part-time at school, but coaches the sport of fencing at an extremely high level. “It’s very rare that a school in this part of the country would have anybody in its full time community that has the ability to coach a high level of fencing,” Sullivan said. “So, by bring-
ne is a former collegiate national champion. One is an immigrant from Egypt. One has been mistaken for a senior multiple times. You’ve probably seen them on campus. Although they aren’t here outside of a two-hour window, they’re integral to the athletic success of the school and many Lion athletes who are looking for championships. They’re part-time coaches. Head volleyball coach Darren Teicher is one of them. After graduating as a collegiate national champion in volleyball at Columbia College, Teicher used his computer science degree to get a job he wasn’t passionate about. “I was working for my dad, writing software,” he said. “So, yeah, that’s what I was doing, and I hated it.” Desiring a more hands-on experience, Teicher found his calling in the form of flipping houses. He bought houses in states of disrepair, renovated them quickly and put them back on the market. Teicher was content with his new occupation, but he still craved the hardwood floors and eight-foot nets of volleyball. He found what he was looking for at ESD, where he worked as an assistant girls coach for three years. Eight years ago, he accepted the head coaching position here. “He worked closely with us MARK SULLIVAN Believes parttime coaches are hugely impactful in athletes’ lives
through [ESD’s] program, and he wanted to coach boys,” Athletic Director Mark Sullivan said. “So, he asked us one time when we had an opening if he could come over, and we liked him and hired him.” The addition of Teicher to the volleyball team has been extraordinarily successful. In the last eight years,
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IF YOU GO TO ANY PROGRAM THAT WE HAVE, THE KIDS THAT PLAY FOR OUR COACHES SEE THE BENEFITS THAT THEY ARE GAINING FROM HAVING A COACH BE A PART OF THEIR LIVES.
MARK SULLIVAN
ing in a part-time person that has that expertise, we can offer a sport that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise.” Ryan Hershner, assistant track and cross-country coach, is another one. An Ohio native, Hershner went to college at Kansas State and ended up in Texas. Though he’s only lived in Texas for a less than a year, Hershner has a day job as a floor trainer at the Cooper Clinic. Easily the youngest coach at the school, Hershner is 24, but he doesn’t look it. “One time while I was walking around the campus, it was during school,” Hershner said. “A teacher walked up to me, and asked me why I wasn’t in uniform and why I wasn’t in class. When I told her I was a new coach here, she just didn’t believe me. I had to go to the office with her to prove I wasn’t a senior.” ershner has been running his whole life. Star of his high school and college teams, Hershner’s specialty was in the 1500m and the 800m, which he ran in 3:52.74 and 1:51.07 in college. For comparison, senior JT Graass runs those two in 4:03 and 1:57.54. Although part-time coaches such as Teicher, Mahmoud and Hershner don’t spend all their time here. Sullivan believes they are crucial to the school’s mission of raising boys into men. “Ultimately, they’re charged with the same mission that everybody at the school is charged with,” Sullivan said. “We want to help develop young men. Their mission is just as important.” Sullivan believes that the parttime coaches here are invaluable. They bring a different approach to the ultimate mission. “They are all unique,” Sullivan said. “I mean, when they leave school they all have their own lives. They bring a richness to the program that is really fun to see.”
TALKING FAVORITES Get to know coaches Darren Teicher, Hossam Mahmoud and Ryan Hershner. MOVIE DT: I Love You, Man. HM: Saturday Night Fever RH: The Sleepers BOOK DT: Watership Down HM: I don’t really have a favorite book RH: Lone Survivor FOOD DT: Pizza HM: Pizza RH: Steak
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COLLEGE TEAM DT: Syracuse HM; I don’t have one RH: Ohio State SPORT TO PLAY DT: Volleyball HM: Soccer RH: Hockey BAND/GENRE OF MUSIC: DT: Naked and Famous HM: Egyptian RH: Alternative
INSTRUCTION Coaches Teicher (right) and Mahmoud give direction during their practices.
STORY MIKE MAHOWALD, SAM SHANE PHOTOS FRANK THOMAS
Sports Medicine Club plans eventful year, hopes to invite Stars trainer to speak by Mike Mahowald
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or the last five years, senior Hunter Alexander never had a single doubt in his mind. He’s spent his summers working, striving to learn more about medicine and collaborating hand-in-hand with some of the best doctors in Dallas. “Since eighth grade, I’ve really wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon,” Alexander said. “I’ve done a couple internships, and I’ve actually got a couple more planned between now and the end of senior year.”
Head Athletic Trainer Matt Hjertstedt took notice of Alexander’s passion for medicine, and when Dr. Roby Mize hosted a presentation for the student trainers, Alexander was all ears. “It was before football two-a-days,” Alexander said, “and Dr. Mize did a little presentation for student trainers before the season actually started. He had so much fun doing that that essentially he asked Trainer Matt [Hjertstedt] if he could start something where it’d be a monthly thing.” From there, Hjertstedt went straight
to Alexander, who officially founded the first ever Sports Medicine Club. Looking forward, Alexander hopes that the club will not only serve those interested in medicine, but also athletes looking to improve their strategies in the weight room and their eating habits. “I think it’d be really nice to get Coach [Kevin] Dilworth to do a lot of informational stuff on weight room translating into the sport,” Alexander said. “How does each lift that we do help us in our sport? I’m also hoping that a lot of our athletes can get in there and learn a lot
about nutrition.” In addition to Dilworth, Alexander and Hjertstedt are hoping to bring in an abundance of doctors including: Dr. Jim Sterling, concussion management; Dr. Roby Mize, anatomy and sports injuries and Dave Supernaut, ex head trainer for the Dallas Stars at least once a month for the members. “Really we’re just trying to get a lot of stuff in injury prevention, we’re going to do that a lot,” Alexander said. “So the guys know how to wrap a wrist properly or know how to tape an ankle.”