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September 26, 1979
Bill Earhart
Teacher of the Week
Bill Earhart
latent talents they never
Bill Earhart is a teacher of
social studies at Beahm
Junior High School in
Mount Joy; he is also the
coach of the girls basketball
team at Donegal High
School.
As both teacher and coach
his fundamental goal is the
same: to bring out the very
best in his students and
athletes.
As an example of what
Mr. Earhart has accomplish-
ed in bringing out hidden
talents, the girls basketball
team is impressive evi-
dence.
Four years ago when Mr.
Earhart took over as coach
the team won one game.
The second year they won
eight games. The third year,
19 games, and last year 19
games were won again, and
Mr. Earhart believes that
the team was the best in the
section, but because of the
tension of the championship
game they lost a heart-
breaker to Hempfield. They
had previously beaten this
same team decisively.
Mr. Earhart fervently
hopes that more fans will
come out for the home
games this year. He hopes
the stands will be packed, so
that his girls will get
accustomed to the tension
created by wildly cheering
fans, who will be a big help.
The whole chamiponship
calibre team from last year
will be back this year, and
much improved. These girls
will deserve packed houses
for every game. They will be
something to watch. Mr.
Earhart is not saying how
far they will go in the
playoffs, but it is not hard to
read his mind: they will go
far.
He has been working with
them since they were in the
“eighth” grade, bringing out’
knew they had, like the
talent for winning jump
shots, which some people
have said girls cannot do.
‘““Hogwash!’’ says Mr.
Earhart who proved the
skeptics wrong.
What he has done with his
basketball players he does
in his classrooms too,
bringing out abilities that
students never dreamed
they had. In his course on
‘‘Pennsylvania’’ he has his
students actually dig out
local history for themselves.
They interview older people
about local history, record-
‘ing the interviews on tape
recorders, and then writing
reports on their research. In
the course of carrying out
these reports, they learn
social, technical, and litera-
ry skills, skills that will
stand them in good stead in
the future.
Instead of just learning
history, ‘‘because knowing
the past will help you
understand the present and
the future,’’ these students
have created their own
history books about their
own immediate community
and have developed practi-
cal skills that may well be
valuable in their future
vocations.
Last summer Mr. Earhart
took a course ‘‘Alpha
awareness.”’ It gave him a
perspective on the human
brain as a computer that has
to be properly programmed
to function at peak efficien-
cy. Practically anyome can
function more efficiently by
re-programming his own
brain to do so.
Basic to more efficient
functioning is self-confi-
dence. Developing skills is
at the root of self-confi-
dence, knowing that you can
do something, feeling, ‘‘I
can do it.” That is the
feeling Mr. Earhart strives
to instil in his classroom
students and his basketball
players on the court: “‘I can
do it.”
Mr. Earhart says that
everyone has a big self and a
small self. “The small self
makes you shy, retiring.”
The whole idea is ‘‘let your
big self take over.”” As an
example of letting the big
self take over Mr. Earhart
cites the immortal tenor
Caruso. ‘‘He was always
nervous before going on
stage, but he would let his
big self take over as he went
on stage. His chest would
lift, and he would rush out
and take charge.’
Mr. Earhart believes that
girl athletes need confi-
" dence even more than boys.
Boys have been better
programmed by our culture
to have confidence in
competitive sports. There-
fore, it is even more
important for girls than boys
that they acquire the
appropriate psychological
attitudes to win. It is not
enough to look externally
confident. Mr. Earhart
knows that, because even
though he looks calm sitting
on the bench during a
basketball game, he is often
not internally calm. “‘If you
don’t feel it inside you're
just kidding yourself, and
can’t perform in a tight
situation.”’
He is very proud of what
his basketball players have
been doing since last
season. Over the summer
they played in the county
basketball league, sharpen-
ing their skills, picking up
confidence.
Most of them are playing
hockey or tennis now, but
toward the end of October
they will begin to get in
shape for the potentially
great season ahead of them,
by running. They begin
serious practice November
1. These girls have set goals
for themselves to achieve.
That is the secret of
confidence: establish high
but reasonable goals, and
achieve them. Very likely,
for these girls, as the season
progresses, their goals are
going to rise. Anything is
possible for them.
For some reason, girl
athletes, unlike a lot of boy
athletes excel acadmecially
as well as athletically. Mr.
Earhart’s girl basketball
players are just as good
constructing sentences and
solving equations as they
are at dropping baskets. He
feels that their academic
success adds to their
confidence on the basketball
court. They have an
all-around competence.
Mr. Earhart believes that
there is a great future for
women in sports, just now
developing. Girls are win-
ning high-paying athletic
scholarships to universities
and colleges, covering the
major costs of their educa-
tions. The opportunities for
girls in sports, he feels, are
unlimited. (Look at Tracy
Austin.)
Mr. Earhart does not
merely preach his doctrine
of success through Cconfi-
dence based on developing
skills. He has honed a few
skills of his own. He earned
his principal’s certificate by
studying at Temple Univers-
ity. He studied at the
American Academy of
Dramatic arts in New York,
and played the male lead in
Picnic a few years ago, not
to mention bit movie parts.
In his spare time he is an
announcer at radio station
WPDC in Elizabethtown. He
announces DHS sports
events over the PA system.
He visits radio stations in
New York City, studying the
techniques of national
announcers.
Not just a teacher of
geography, he has travelled
widely in Europe. He has
backpacked in the western
Canadian wilds.
“lI like to be doing
something; I can’t stand
inactivity.”’
He likes New York City,
finds it “electrifying.”
‘Something is happening
there in every block. I run
into all different kinds of
people in New York, all of
them interesting.’’
Also, he is a member of
the East Donegal Boat Club
and likes to go out on the
Susquehanna by himself,
basking in solitude. He gets
up at dawn, goes outside,
and sees how many birds he
can identify in the early
morning.
SUSQUEHANNA TIMES—Page 11
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