We’re ending Season 2 with insights from a statewide-recognized coach of the year. Amanda Wolff is an English teacher and the Head Coach of both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cross-Country and Track programs at Cyprus High School, a Title I school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under her leadership over the past five years, the team has grown from 55 participating athletes to 130. The Girls’ Cross-Country team took Regionals last year, and the team placed 6th overall in the State. The Girls’ Track and Field team took Regionals for the first time since 1978! Amanda was named the Utah Track and Cross Country Association (UTCCA) 5A Coach of the Year, and was also recognized as the statewide Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) Girls’ Cross-Country Coach of the Year in 2024.

In this episode, Amanda shares how it’s an ongoing process learning to balance full-time teaching and being a head coach. She describes how her athletes shifted their mindset, from feeling defined by the stereotypes they faced as a high school on the “west side,” to believing in themselves and becoming a team that can compete with any other team in the state. Though her roles take a lot of time, as a former high school and college athlete herself, with coaches that changed her life, Amanda appreciates the opportunity to be a trusted adult in her students’ lives, someone who guides and believes in them. “We’re a family,” she says about her program. Her philosophy of teaching and coaching is that relationship-building is key, so that kids feel safe and keep showing up, in order for learning to happen. She credits bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress for inspiring that philosophy.