Chad Cluver is a new teacher, but he isn’t just a teacher. He’s also the new boys basketball coach. Mr.Cluver has plenty of experience with both, as he has been a coach and a teacher for 20+ years. He started as a coach for JV at Maroa-Forsyth. He worked his way up to head coach at Maroa and stayed there for 16 years. During his time there, he produced a winning record of 270-183. He coached 2 state teams, one team that got 3rd in 2006 and in the next year, they won the 2007 Class A state title. After 16 years there, he went back to his hometown school, Watseka. During his 10 years at Watseka, he produced another winning record of 149-113. He also got his 2017 team to win their regional championship and advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
Cluver has learned a lot about coaching over the years. One of the biggest things he said that has helped him is actually teaching. He said, “Coaching and teaching are the same in the sense that they both involve making the kids better.” Cluver thinks being a teacher and a coach is a big advantage. He believes that getting to know kids on a teacher level helps him coach them. He also believes that teaching is coaching. He believes that his way of teaching is coaching kids math like he coaches kids basketball. He coaches up kids in math to do good and quiz and treats his students as if they are his players.
Cluver’s experiences with different groups of kids he thinks can help him with teaching and coaching here at Dee-Mack. In Maroa-Forsyth, Cluver said he taught and coached a lot of higher-end kids. When he coached and taught at Watseka though, he had to teach and coach in a town that had a lot of families in poverty. With all this experience in two different environments, Cluver can help with kids outside of school and it will help him understand all perspectives of what students are going through. His love for sports will also help him connect with student-athletes. He has many favorite NBA teams, but his favorite is the Pacers. He admires the Spurs though because of their legendary coach, Gregg Popovich. His favorite NFL team in the Seahawks. Having all this experience in teaching, coaching, and watching professional sports will help him build relationships with students on the classroom, on the court, and everywhere outside of that.
Cluver plans on using all his previous coaching and teaching experience to help Dee Mack succeed on the court and in the classroom. Coach states his goal this year is to hang a banner by winning a regional championship. But in the classroom he is working hard to make every student smarter.
