The number 212 is ubiquitous at Calloway County High School. You find it on doors, posters and hall passes, and adorning the jacket of Scott Sivills, coach of the girls’ basketball team.
“You can have water and heat it all the way up to 211 degrees, and it’s just hot water,” Scott tells anyone who asks. “But if you heat it one more degree to 212, it creates steam, and now it’s powerful enough to run a locomotive.”
Scott preaches the gospel of transforming a situation by applying just a tiny bit more energy. You’ll hear his voice echoing across the basketball court, urging his team to master an intricate play: “This group is capable of big things if we do the little things.”
His enthusiasm becomes infectious while explaining to his science class how Benjamin Franklin’s nocturnal kite-flying led directly to the invention of the lightning rod. “Just by this little experiment, he changed history,” Scott said.
Scott reinforces the “one degree” metaphor by celebrating the successes of his students and players. When a missed shot elicits groans from the team, Scott stops the action and says, “That’s all right, she got the ball and took the shot, and she wouldn’t have done that last year.”
Faced with a student who is not performing at her best, Scott responds with a gentle authority. An incomplete take-home assignment results in a teaching opportunity on balancing choices and consequences. Sloppy play on the court is greeted not just with a coach’s frustration, but with a demonstration of how to perfect the technique.
Ask Scott what fuels his drive to make a difference in his students’ lives, and he’ll tell you, “I have a passion about what I do. I love teaching. I love the kids. I love our community.”
That love is expressed in the ways Scott finds to motivate his students to be a little bit better. Their reward for going the extra mile might be an easy extra credit question on a pop quiz, treats from the best bakery in town or ending basketball practice a few minutes early.
And that love is returned.
