Former football player, cross-country runner, track-coach-turned-history teacher: Steven Plette is a man of many talents, including his new role as assistant coach for Northwood’s girls flag football team.
Having taught at Northwood for over 21 years, Plette mainly focuses on teaching AP U.S. Government, Politics/Honors Political Economy and Humanities World History 9. However, with encouragement from his students the first week of school, Plette became the newest assistant coach for girls flag football, working mainly on defense.
“A bunch of my AP Gov students were on the team and literally came to me after class and said, ‘We need another coach. We want you to coach,’” Plette said. “At first I said, ‘Well, it’s a big commitment and give me a weekend to think about it and talk to my wife.’ Because the reason why I left coaching in the first place was because I had my own kids and I wanted to be there for all their events. But now one’s a senior in high school and one’s a sophomore in college, so it’s a little bit easier for me to get away from that.”
After coming to a decision and taking the role, Plette has the team focus on flag-pulling and defensive coverage drills such as having a wide receiver run different routes while the defender tries to intercept the quarterback’s pass.
Though the drills can feel boring and time-consuming, according to Plette, he enforces repetition and consistency while empathizing with the team, drawing from his experiences as a high school athlete.
“I remember I had a couple of Northwood athletes that were like, ‘Well, you don’t understand, I have to do SAT prep and college apps,’ and I was like, ‘What did you think I did?’” Plette said. “In some ways, I’m going to be more flexible than someone who has never done that. But at the same time, there are other ways where I’m a little more firm, so stop trying to tell me that you can’t do this, because I did it. I know you can do it.”
According to girls flag football team captain Nicole Theodorou, Plette’s bond with the athletes both on and off the field brings a different atmosphere in practices and games.
“He’s very, very attentive to the feedback we give him or stuff that we think we should do to improve,” Theodorou said. “He takes our feedback and what he sees when we play to make drills that we want.”
This improvement-based mindset directly translates to Plette’s greatest advice for his athletes and how he plans to continue coaching.
“I always tell my defense, be a goldfish,” Plette said. “When there’s a bad play, just forget about it. Move on and reset. There’s always another play. That’s the beauty of football.”