Wideman brings winning attitude for both academics and coaching

When new teachers join West Florence, it usually takes them a while to have their room reflect themselves personally. This is not true for Coach Richard Wideman, who joined WF this year as a US History teacher alongside being our new track coach. His walls have pictures that reflect him. His desk also has this quality, with one Chromebook, given to him by West, and a MacBook that he brought from his previous school.

Wideman’s previous school, Darlington High, is similar to West but also has numerous differences that have affected his settling in. His experience teaching and coaching at Darlington will no doubt affect his experience at West, as he spent fifteen years there.

“There are so many differences that have impacted my experience at Darlington and West Florence,” he said.

One difference is the technology each school uses. Though most of our students are familiar with Chromebooks, Wideman hasn’t gotten entirely used to this change. Darlington High uses MacBooks, and though this difference seems small, it is a change that can be extremely hard with which to get familiar.

Sadly, his transition from Darlington to West has been heavily affected by COVID and the new schedule it has put in place. The shortened schedule, reintroducing students to the classroom, and the A/B Schedule are some COVID related problems he has faced so far this year, along with his fellow teachers.

“The hardest part is getting lunch eaten,” he said, referring to the trimming down of the lunch schedule.

Despite these hurdles, he perseveres with a positive attitude.

“It’s been a pretty smooth transition,” he said. He mentioned the reaction to his change of schools.

“Going to [track] meets, people say, ‘Oh, you’ve changed your colors’,” he said.

Wideman originally didn’t plan on being a teacher. He has a degree in music as a voice major. His hopes originally focused on becoming a Youth Minister, but then he started working and the job wasn’t what he thought it would be.

His path to teaching was laid out by his coaching career. He was asked by a fellow coach in Cincinnati to be a coach at their school. His experience coaching at this school showed him that teaching is where he needed to be.

His coaching method is very similar to his teaching method. His teaching goal is to prepare kids for the EOC, and his coaching goal is to coach to win.

These two goals overlap in how he executes them; he wants both his students and athletes to approach life with a winning mentality.

It doesn’t matter if it's the EOC or sports, approach your situation like a winner.

Wideman’s advice to both his athletes and his students is to take responsibility for your education and actions.

“Control what you can control. You can only control yourself,” he said.

There is no doubt this advice is reflected in both his teaching and coaching. He shows his students through his history lessons that actions have reactions, and he shows his athletes the same by enforcing the training that is needed to win.