Coaching is hard. Teaching may be even harder. But, both at the same time is a skill that teacher and coach Camilla Eberlin has mastered.
Coming from a lineage of coaches, it seemed only natural for Mrs. Eberlin to pursue the career her parents loved.
“My mom was very instrumental in starting most of the girls’ sports in my hometown of Greenfield,” Mrs. Eberlin said. “She coached me growing up in all my sports, and my dad coached me growing up in all my sports.”
Mrs. Eberlin found her start in coaching at 10 years old when she began to help her mom, Roberta Trump, teach swimming lessons during the summer.
“We were ot there four weeks out of the summer, eight hours a day,” Mrs. Eberlin said. “I just started helping her in all those different ways.”
After coaching volleyball for two years at her college, Mrs. Eberlin has been the assistant varsity coach at EHS for 16 years and has been coaching Liberty Middle School’s team for two years.
“She will be your biggest critic but will also be the one who celebrates your success the most,” senior varsity outside hitter Sydney Davis said “I think everyone needs a coach like that.”
Alongside coaching the volleyball team, Mrs. Eberlin is a full time math teacher. While the two might seem to contradict each other, she finds her coaching background to be more than beneficial when teaching honors students.
“With coaching, you get thrown a lot of curveballs and you have to think on your feet,” Mrs. Eberlin said. “And once in a while, I will get a couple of kids in class who will test me… and in those situations, I can think on my feet and answer those questions when they come.”
Many students in Mrs. Eberlin’s class can only describe her class in one word: engaging.
“I love Mrs. Eberlin,” senior Elizabeth Ukena said. “She is insanely patient and always enthusiastic, and it doesn’t feel like she’s teaching just to get it done. She wants us to learn the material well.”
The thing that ties teaching math and coaching volleyball together for Mrs. Eberlin is her passion for teaching.
“I love to be with kids, I love to see kids learn,” Mrs. Eberlin said. “I love to see kids on the volleyball court learn, in the classroom learn, and that’s why I chose to be a teacher and a coach.”