Coppage competes in high profile race after No Bummer Summer leads to new life experiences

He reached the hardest part of the race. The mud was thick, sticking to his knees to the point where they could barely be lifted. One by one, he had to pull his legs out of the goop with his hands each time he wanted to move. The mud ate his socks, but fortunately, he’d taken his shoes off before he jumped in.
Communication Applications teacher Scotty Coppage glanced at his wrist watch, sighed, then wondered “When will this be over?”
Coppage was participating in one of the country’s most excruciating races, the Tough Mudder.  A race that takes hours to complete, Coppage finished in six.
It’s a heart pumping, oath signing race that takes teamwork and strength, both physical and mental, that participants have to start training for months ahead.
Coppage said he wanted to give up so bad sometimes. Especially whenever he had to do the running parts of the race. But he said when he would do the obstacles that’s all he would be focusing on. Nothing else ran through his head. Just finishing that dreadful obstacle. And that’s what he did.
“What was cool about this was that I never thought that I would do anything like this. Ever,” Coppage said. “It’s something that I’m going to have to tell my grandchildren about.”
The race is a culmination of a life change Coppage started last summer. That change was symbolized in his No Bummer Summer. Every day he did something that was out of the ordinary for him.
Also, he bought a guitar and started taking salsa lessons and saw some friends that he hasn’t seen in 10 years.
Coppage said he learned lessons about himself that he hopes to pass on to his students.
“It’s not an adventure unless there is a possibility you can fail,” he said. “I really wanted to quit sometimes. But I didn’t.”

UIL Budget Funding

In a budget crunch year, the district’s UIL teams were unable to travel to as many practice competitions as in previous years.

“We’re taking our first trip soon,” Sandra Scheller, Literary Criticism and Ready Writing coach, said. “We’re taking about half the team and it will cost around $2,500.”

This year, and last year, the UIL budget was $10,000.

“I took over last year and it was $10,000,” Schelller said. “The year before, I believe they had more.”

The prices of things and inflation both have a part in the UIL budget.

“The way they determine how much we get also changed,” Scheller said. “We used to request an amount, now, they just assign it.”

Scotty Coppage, Debate and Oral Interpretation coach, believes this issue hurts the students the most.

“Money is tight everywhere, not just in the schools,” Coppage said. “When there is less money to do the things we need to do, it hurts the program and the students lose out the most.”

Mary Beth Lee, Journalism coach, believes not traveling can cause a lack of team spirit.

“We don’t form a team bond which sometimes can be the difference between winning or losing,” Lee said. “When you don’t travel, you don’t get to know each other.”

Not only does it prevent students from getting to know each other, it also prevents students from seeing people they will actually be competing against.

“We don’t see anyone we actually compete against in this area,” Lee said. “We have to travel to Dallas to see our actual competition.”

Lynda Cannedy, Accounting and Computer Applications coach, makes a sports analogy to further explain. “Imagine a sports team that had to go straight to district without any preparation or competition,” Cannedy said. “That’s basically what UIL academics are being asked to when there is no money for out-of-town competition. Our students can’t be as prepared as they need to be without a good competitive schedule.”