“You have to write about Coach Iris,” daughter Sara said enthusiastically. “She’s so cool!”
Iris Kelly-Dokubo is a gymnastics coach at Montrose Preschool and Infant Care where Sara works.
And yes, she is cool.
In a class of energetic preschoolers with short attention spans, Coach Iris held court with commanding kindness. A few minutes into watching her teach her gymnastics class, I had to remind myself that I was not age-appropriate for the class. I definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Not so for Iris who described herself as “72 proud years old.” A self-made coach, she started teaching gymnastics at the YMCA in a class she designed and expanded to preschool coaching. Along the way, she gave private coaching lessons to adults as well as children and became a CPR instructor.
And what was her training for coaching? She was a radiologist with a yen for learning and the moxie to make things happen. As a young woman working as an office assistant in the diagnostic imaging department at Cedars Sinai Hospital, she decided she wanted to learn more. She enrolled in radiology school and continued working to pay for her tuition, eventually becoming an MRI technician, a job she loved.
After Iris married and became a mother, she stayed home to raise her two children and continued learning new skills that she parlayed into a new career. A teacher by nature, she thrived on creating classes and coaching individuals. Watching her motivate her young students to enjoy and value exercising was a show unto itself. But listening to her skillfully drop this bit of truth to restless children, that was the best.
“When I have to stop what we are doing to tell you to behave, you lose time. Be good listeners so you have time to do a lot of fun things.”
Watching their sweet little faces I hoped they would remember the wisdom in her words long after class. I know I will.
What’s next for Coach Iris? She’s thinking she might like to teach a line dancing class for seniors. Retirement is not in her vocabulary and, of course, she will continue to coach her preschoolers. And that’s just for starters.
Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net. Follow her on X @patriciabunin and patriciabunin.com.
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