Meet Six-time National Champion Science Olympiad Coach, Drew Kirian

Meet Six-time National Champion Science Olympiad Coach, Drew Kirian

Interviewed by Lucy Kulbago

Science Olympiad is one of the premier national science competitions, drawing 6,800 teams from 50 states. Science Olympiad competitions consist of 23 events which change each year and cover a wide variety of science disciplines including life, personal, and social sciences, physical science and chemistry, earth and space science, technology and engineering, and inquiry and nature of science.  Science Olympiad competitions include local invitationals, regional competitions which qualify top teams to compete at the state level, with state champions from all 50 states competing at the national competition.

Lucy Kulbago is a middle school Science Olympiad Coach and is also pursuing a doctoral degree in science education at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

Drew Kirian is a recently retired middle school science teacher from Solon Middle School in Solon, Ohio and has retired from coaching the Solon Middle School Science Olympiad Team after taking his team to the national tournament eleven times, and finishing in first place from 2008 – 2013. 

How does it feel to have led your team to six consecutive national championships?

I am still in shock.  Every year my assistant coach and I say that we have had a good run and wonder if we should go out on top.  I am going out on top this year.  The students showed how important it is to be a team.  Their consistency is what won it for Solon.  167 points at Nationals is amazing.  It feels good. 

What first got you interested in Science Olympiad?

Well, the people at Ohio State sent me literature and I put it aside for three years, and then I said I’m going to try it.  The interesting thing is I went to my principal and I said I was going to try this and he told me no, don’t do it, it’s too much for you.  Fortunately for me I don’t listen too well and I ignored him.  It’s been very fun; it’s one of the best things I’ve ever been involved with.  Not only this and the kids and the parents, but meeting coaches from other teams, meeting kids from other teams, it’s just been fun.  What I think is also important are the friendships I get from the parents and community volunteers.  I made some deep friendships with them through coaching, and working with the kids, and it’s a great thing.

What are the benefits to the students in a competitive situation?

They can measure themselves with other students and I think there are real benefits in that.  Competitions within different layers of Science Olympiad can draw out their interests.  We had a student in the late 90’s, he covered for another student in astronomy, and fell in love with it.  Now he runs Astronomy and Reach for the Stars at the national level.  You see through competition what you are able to do, and it shapes what you want to do with your life.  Very few people become journalism or communication majors through Science Olympiad.   A lot of doctors and engineers come out of here.  I have one or two students that I have coached in volleyball and track that have become professional athletes, but many more professional scientists come out of Science Olympiad.

Talk about how you structure your team.

Our team is structured in a way that I’m the main coach, and then I have an assistant coach and parent coaches.  I try to get the parents to coach events so my assistant coach and I only have one or two events.  When we start out the year we have 100 kids try out for the team, and we cut it down to just over 30.  At our first meeting, the assistant coach has them sign up for 4 events they want to do, and he makes two schedules, where one week half of the events meet for a half hour, and the other half of the events meet the second week.  They get a lot of good material from their event coach.  We’re not really spoon feeding them, but giving then more opportunities to gain more knowledge.  The kids do all the work, the coach just gives them a little bit of a challenge.  

How has this structure changed over time?

When I first started, we met in January, went to Regionals in February and in two months we were done.  Now we start in August, tryout through the month of September, meet and practice until January, and go to about 10 – 12 tournaments the rest of the year.  Other successful teams have more than one coach or they have parent coaches.  It took me a long while to realize I couldn’t coach 23 events.  It’s a lot of work.

Talk more about the difficulty of going from 100 to 30 kids to start the season, and then down to 15 after Regionals.

Well, to go from 100 kids down to 30 plus kids, it’s hard. A few of them don’t mind not making the team because their parents are pushing them to be on the team, but the majority of the kids want to do it because the program has such a strong reputation.   So you see a lot of tears in their eyes.  The hardest cut is the one going from Regionals to States, cutting from 30 plus kids to 15.  They’ve had so much fun at the invitationals that when they get cut and can’t make it as an alternate, it tears them apart a little bit, and I feel bad for that.  

Do you think not making the team diminishes their interest in science?

A lot of the kids, if they don’t make it, will try out again.  I know there are kids out there that would have been perfect for this program.  The way I run my tryouts, I think it’s fair, but I still miss the one factor of who is genuine in how they want to approach Science Olympiad.  It’s that one invisible factor you wish you could evaluate.

Is the rumor true that you have a special class that is only for Science Olympiad? 

No, we’ve never had a special class.   The closest we’ve ever come is when the 8^th graders are in my study hall and I allow them in my room instead of going to study hall so they could study quietly.  We’ve always kept our Science Olympiad club as an extracurricular organization that meets from 7pm – 9pm every Thursday night.

How do you deal with conflicts with other activities?

I tell them that it’s a commitment but I don’t prevent them from belonging.   I’m all for kids being involved in a lot of different activities.  We work around that.

What do you do as a coach to foster good sportsmanship?

About 12 years ago, one of my friends, a Science Olympiad coach, kept saying that when your kids walk up to the stage at States, if they don’t get first place, they frown.  So as a result, almost every week we talk about how you receive yourself, how people perceive you.  When you walk up on stage, we don’t want any chins dragging; we want to have smiles on our faces no matter how we do.  I always point out examples at tournaments where one of the younger kids will jump up and get excited over a 7^th place ribbon and I think that is something that is really precious to see that happen.  We also try to install sportsmanship.  Never laugh at someone if they don’t perform well, whether from your school or another school.  If another school were to leave a set of goggles at home, we would be the first ones to offer it to them.  It’s all about meeting people, and becoming friends, and not about cut-throat competition.

What other attributes do you see arise from the students that participate in Science Olympiad?

Leadership and a culture of team work.  Even though we run two teams and groups of people are competing against each other, we try not to hide stuff.  We share it with each other.  We try to instill a culture that we are a family.   Teamwork is the most important thing.  There is also the responsibility that beyond the practices, they spend some time studying on their own.  Each event meets every other week for a half an hour.  The kids have to figure out what they need to learn, and spend the time to learn it.  

What keeps coaching Science Olympiad fresh and exciting year after year?

I guess you never know what to expect with the new group of kids.  It keeps it live.  I start out slow at the beginning of the year, then I go to the coaches clinic and that fires me up.  Then we have weeks of practices after that, and at the first competition you see the excitement in their eyes, and I see how they support their team.   That’s what it’s all about.

What advice do you have for a new Science Olympiad Coach?

Number one, a lot of coaches hold back, they don’t want to try it.  I think the first think it to jump in feet first and just give it a go.  Second thing, you have to win over the students, and one of the ways is to get them into more than one tournament.  A lot of schools go to regionals, hope to go to states, and then to nationals.  But I can see that the growth during the invitationals is very important.  Along with that, you have to be able to come up with some money.  They have to come up with some kind of a budget and a way to achieve that budget.

Have you been able to recruit other teachers to help with Science Olympiad?

Gosh, I’ve been knocking on doors for 26 years.  I’ve had maybe 2 teachers help.  One fizzled out because he was late, and I didn’t want to be late for the tournament, so I left him behind, and he never forgave me for that.  I’ve had almost no help from teachers until this past year, and that is my first success at getting a teacher to help.  Teacher’s nowadays want to get here just before school begins and leave right after school ends.   Some will put in extra time coaching athletics, but very few do it for academic extra-curriculars.  It is sad to see, but that is the new trend.  That’s why we see so many parent coaches in Science Olympiad now.  

What are some characteristics of a well-coached team?

Some coaches work with their kids every night.   That’s not my type of coaching.  I think it burns the kids out.  A good coach gives the kids the opportunity to learn.  I coached Rocks and Minerals and we went to Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (PA) to see more samples of rocks and minerals, and last weekend we went to Cleveland Museum of Natural History to see their displays, and we ran into the curator and got ask questions.  Well-coached teams look for that little edge where you get a little bit more information.  Give the kids opportunities to learn more and build better devices.

What will you be doing now that you have retired from both teaching and Science Olympiad?

I am moving to California with my wife to be near my grandchildren.  I may start coaching a new team once I get out there.  I enjoy watching the kids be successful and achieve their dreams, and it will be hard to walk away from Science Olympiad.

For more information on starting a Science Olympiad team for any age level, go to www.soinc.org