Kyle Ray is the head football coach at Heritage Christian School on the northside of Indianapolis. Heading into his ninth year of coaching at the school, he was recently promoted from assistant principal of the elementary school to interim principal.
Ray recently answered the following questions about balancing his coaching and administrative roles.
How long have you been at Heritage Christian, both coaching and working?
I just finished my eighth year, so I’ll be headed into my ninth year this August. My oldest daughter Ella was a few days old when I accepted the job at Heritage, and now she’s 8 years-old, so it’s cool to see the journey of our family.
What time does your day start and end?
Normally, I try to get to the school a little after 7 a.m. Then from about 3:10 to 3:15 p.m., I transition to football and can finish anywhere between 5 and 6 p.m. Friday’s our unique. Those are long days because you might have a home or away game. You need to be ready
What is typically the first chore each day, and what’s the last?
The first one is usually hallway duty, gym duty or sidewalk duty. The main thing is greeting kids when they walk in, having a positive interaction with the elementary kids. I give a lot of high-fives, tell them to have a great day. The main thing is to have a positive interaction when they walk into the building. The last thing is locker room supervision, telling guys that I love them as they walk out.
What are the best parts of your life going from an administrative role to a coaching role?
It’s just so cool to have relationships from kindergarten all the way to seniors. It’s really unique for me to have just a wide range of impact and influence and to be able to see those really young kids going into school loving every minute.
What does a typical practice look like from a coaching perspective?
It just depends on the day. Monday is more of a gameplan day for varsity, looking at our opponent that week, dissecting what they do well and how we attack them. Tuesday and Wednesday are all about getting live reps of what we will be doing in the game. Thursday is a final tune up of what we are going to do, review new plays, concepts and even special teams. Friday is game day. Saturday is more film, unless the JV team is playing
What goes on behind the scenes from one role to the next, that people might not be aware of?
It’s hard to really explain to people how much goes into running a football program. There’s so many different elements that go into football. I think from a leadership from a school and football perspective, a lot of time is solving problems you didn’t create. That is a huge part of being in a leadership position.
Every day is different. You never know what you are going to get going into work.
How much work is put in as coach in the offseason?
You have to begin doing stuff year-round. If you want to be really good, you have to be diligent in working year-round. At the same time, though, you have to advocate for your multisport athlete. They cannot be punished when they miss basketball, baseball or track. There are always opportunities for them to get better. You have to be able to get stronger year-round. That’s the separator.
On the days off being assistant principal, what do summer breaks look like for you?
Summer breaks are different when you’re working in administration. When you are teaching, summer is off. It’s all preparing for the start of school and just making sure that all the behind-the-scenes stuff gets worked out.
How much fun do you have while working both jobs simultaneously?
If you shadowed me for a day, you’d realize that I really love what I do. Elementary school and football are two very different things, but one thing they share is that to do it well, you have to have great energy and enthusiasm for what you’re doing. One of my missions is to make kids love school. That’s what you want. For football, it’s such a brotherhood and a family. There is such a bond that is formed when you are working hard to achieve your goal.
