Sunday Special: West Fargo Alumna Returns for Coaching

Submitted by Jazmyne Reinke

Tessa Chambers, Opinion Editor
October 5, 2014

For some, their high school symbolizes four years of life which they are eager to move on from. Nonetheless, 2012 graduate Jazmyne Reinke has regained a place in West Fargo High School just two years after leaving – although this position is no longer as a student.

Reinke’s pursuit of an English Education major with a communications emphasis led her to the unique opportunity for her return. While still attending North Dakota State University, she is now a paid assistant coach for one of her past high school extracurricular activities: student congress.

When taking a university-level class taught by WFHS English teacher Jeremy Murphy, Reinke was presented with the assistant coaching position as a means for filling an observation requirement for the course. She and her classmates had been given a multitude of options, but Reinke had an easy decision in front of her.

“[Murphy] said ‘student congress’ and I was like, I’m going to jump on that,” Reinke said. “I love arguing. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and then he said they were looking for an assistant coach and it might be a paid position; I was like, well, that doesn’t hurt either.”

The request for an assistant coach was put in by this year’s head student congress coach, Mitchell Smette. After being through with just one meet of three in the season, Smette – new to leading the activity – expressed noticeable advantages of Reinke’s involvement.

“Having her really helps with things like flexibility. If I can’t be at practice, or anything like that, she’s able to cover for me in that respect,” Smette said. “She’s also able to connect with some of the participants in ways that I don’t, so it gives each member of student congress a second opportunity to have a personal connection to a coach, and bring their questions and concerns to us.”

Aspects of Reinke’s ability to connect with members of student congress are accredited to her view of and respect for the participants.

“I don’t treat the students in student congress as just students, they’re all people, and they all have these interwebbing lives with all these things going on,” Reinke said. “Long story short, they’re not just students, and I don’t want to put myself above them. As a former student, I want to convey that: we are all members of this team.”

Smette is not the only one to notice unique benefits Reinke holds as assistant coach, however. Reinke herself has also seen the advantage of her place within student congress. With the assistant coach just twenty-years-old and in her junior year of obtaining a formal degree, youth and relatability as a student have been valuable to the position.

“I’m not expecting anyone to be the golden standard. I know there will be hiccups and upsets, and I’m fine with that,” Reinke said. “The fact that I can relate, sympathize, and empathize with what’s going on with these students, I think that’s what gives me a better edge than if I were a few more years out of high school.”

Despite the pluses of being closer in age with those she’s working around, Reinke did express an odd dynamic that is gradually being worked through.

“Some of the students were freshmen when I was a senior, so I see them in student congress, and there’s that background – but at the same time there’s this: I am a coach, and a future teacher,” Reinke said. “It’s weird trying to figure out how to try and approach it, but I don’t think it’s a negative kind of weird. It’s something I’m okay with trying to figure out.”

Oddities of age difference aside, Coach Smette has seen direct advantages of Reinke having gone to West Fargo High School. The school which Smette graduated from did not offer student congress as an extracurricular, and he had no direct experience with the activity prior to the school year beginning.

“She has a better understanding of the expectations and way that things are run at a bigger school,” Smette said. “I came from a very small school where things were more relaxed as far as the roles that the teacher or coach played, and so her understanding of this school and the program itself has been beneficial.”

Just over a month later, Reinke’s experience as the 2014 student congress assistant coach has affected her plans for roles she will engage in outside of her future teaching career.

“I plan on teaching English, but I do for sure want to coach as well,” Reinke said. “I feel like I could impact more students that way – instead of just in the classroom.”