{"id":28266,"date":"2025-04-14T09:44:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=28266"},"modified":"2025-04-15T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T16:27:23","slug":"why-i-coach-at-mpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2025\/04\/14\/why-i-coach-at-mpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Coach At MPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28267 alignright img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/nclhx5yj.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/TakeleWP.jpg\" alt=\"MPA alum Takele Thompson-Nelson '18.\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/>from Takele Thompson-Nelson &#8217;18<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One reason I decided to return to MPA as a coach was that I was asked by fellow teammates who were also leaders and captains, Brendan Connolly &#8217;17 and Cooper Olson &#8217;16. I was eager to join the team, knowing that I would have those two by my side. I returned in hopes of passing on the knowledge and values that were given to me through my time at MPA. I also love basketball!<\/p>\n<p>It means a lot to be able to mentor the next generation. However, those feelings are also partnered with fear. To have people, especially kids, relying on you is a powerful thing. But I know I wouldn\u2019t be put in this position if I wasn\u2019t ready. When coaching, I want to make sure that I\u2019m not just hitting the Xs and Os because life is more complicated than that. In my time here at MPA, my coach is someone I could look up to and who helped guide me through other aspects of life beyond sports. I believe that it is my responsibility to also take that role for my athletes if needed.<\/p>\n<p>My past experience as an MPA athlete has filled me with immense pride for everything related to being a Panther. Every win, loss, or game has an emotional connection for me because that was something I used to be a part of. I believe that being an alum and now a coach has created a strong bond between my passion for the team and the school. I am not just a coach but a previous athlete. This connection has given me my \u201cwhy,\u201d which is the fuel that has guided me to come to MPA every day with the same passion and love I had when I was a student here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Takele Thompson-Nelson &#8217;18 One reason I decided to return to MPA as a coach was that I was asked by fellow teammates who were also leaders and captains, Brendan Connolly &#8217;17 and Cooper Olson &#8217;16. I was eager to join the team, knowing that I would have those two by my side. I returned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":28268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19,10028,15,28,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-school","category-alumni","category-alumni-experience","category-athletics","category-current-families","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28270,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28266\/revisions\/28270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}