By Nik Schnebly

The halls of Wheat Ridge High School have been jam packed with great athletes, many of whom go off to college on scholarships.

With these skills it would make sense that those athletes would want to become coaches for the next generation of Farmers, but why would they want to become teachers? And how does this affect their daily lives?

Special education teacher, R.J. Trione was an all state guard for the 2006 state champion football team. He then went on to play football at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Trione is now  both a football and wrestling coach. Trione said that he wanted to be a coach first and later became a teacher. When asked what his coaches were like, he had to pause and ponder how he could say it “politically correct” and then compared them to a boss saying that “their leadership made me treat coaching more as a job and less like a hobby.”

Tione said that he enjoys teaching and coaching equally as they both have positives and negatives but being a new father one of the major negatives is that he has less family time that needs to be cherished more on the weekends.

Math teacher Dave Osse is a long-time wrestler who wrestled at University of Northern Colorado. Osse  said that he also wanted to be a coach first and that his coaches old school college coaches were a big influence to him on how not to be a coach, saying that “they were more focused on the physical side of wrestling.” Being a coach Osse, said that he has tried to focus on the mental side of wrestling as well as the technical side. Coach Osse said that he does use the same tactics in coaching as he does in teaching saying that they are very similar and “when coaching is going good its because he is teaching his athletes” and visa versa. Osse is also very excited to be on the Farm because he can build a better bond with his athletes. Having the ability to see his athletes more than two hours a day means he can help with anything to keep the wrestlers healthy happy and eligible.

Both Trione and Osse enjoy coaching and teaching and have an obvious commitment to the athletic and educational sides of Wheat Ridge High School.