![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2018\/05\/COACHMANGOALBLOCKERBOI.jpg\")
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Simson Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n One coach and one player, in one frustrating lacrosse game, came together on the sidelines. The player was down on himself after his team\u2019s struggles on the field, losing to that end. The coach pulled him to the side, calmed him down and talked to him. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had to reassure him that \u2018hey, everything’s going to be alright man. It’s just a setback.\u2019 I pretty much took him through the way I would through my students,\u201d said Ronald Rothstein.<\/span><\/p>\n Rothstein is a Western alumni, who\u2019s also an assistant coach for Western\u2019s lacrosse club team and an instructional assistant for the Salem-Keizer school district. The students Rothstein currently works with, according to him, \u201chave a long range of different diagnoses like autism spectrum, ADHD, or they’re emotionally disturbed or another way to put it, emotionally dysregulated, so they don’t have the right coping mechanism to channel their frustration, anxiety, and sadness.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n He specifically teaches in a classroom of 12 students, teaching academics, writing, reading and other basic education. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut we also have a big emphasis on teaching them to control their behavior, how to manage self-control, how to manage being obedient and following expectations,\u201d Rothstein commented.<\/span><\/p>\n The last part is something that’s important in Rothstein\u2019s classroom. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat’s a key phrase I use, \u2018teaching them to follow expectations\u2019 because a lot of kids like to bend the rules and not follow the same expectations as others.\u201d Rothstein explained that it’s one of the factors that holds his students back from transitioning into the traditional classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy classroom has less students, more staff so that way we’re giving these students more undivided attention to help them with their behavior issues,\u201d mentioned Rothstein. <\/span><\/p>\n Initially wanting to be a social studies teacher, with social sciences eventually being the degree he’d attain, a change occurred. Leading up to his graduation in 2014, he came to a realization that he no longer, for the time being, wished to follow up on his major to become a social studies teacher. The minor in special education was the degree he followed up on after gaining experience to his resume.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe job I had at the time, while in college, was a group home, called Work Unlimited. It\u2019s a non-profit that houses adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities,\u201d Rothstein said.<\/span><\/p>\n While there Rothstein taught them life skills: how to follow a schedule and basic needs like cooking, cleaning and chores.<\/span><\/p>\n Work Unlimited helped Rothstein help others. It was at this particular job where Rothstein learned how to help his future students cope with behavioral issues, build a self regulatory skill to keep them from hurting others or themselves, and a de-escalation process that calmed them down if they got angry or frustrated.<\/span><\/p>\n A master\u2019s degree in special education is now planned for Rothstein.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now \u2026 I’m attending a school in Boston in the fall. I’m going to get what’s called an Applied Behavioral Analysis,\u201d Rothstein mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n Obtaining the latter makes him a nationally certified behavioral analyst, something that will stretch his opportunities to find work in his specialized area. <\/span><\/p>\n Rothstein\u2019s been able juggle both worlds of classroom and field, and mentioned like in the first example of how he’s been able to transfer his teaching skills back and forth between classroom and field. <\/span><\/p>\n An avid sports enthusiast his entire life, he started playing full contact football in kindergarten while growing up in New York. He was a three-star athlete in high school, playing in all years. <\/span><\/p>\n But the biggest sports blast off in his life, or \u201cshock\u201d rather, came with the game of lacrosse at Western.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was the best chapter in my life in sports,\u201d said Rothstein. Rothstein played goalie throughout his years on the field.<\/span><\/p>\n The chapter had four parts \u2014 all successful seasons, with storybook endings. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe had this motto, \u2018we shocked the world,\u2019\u201d Rothstein commented.<\/span><\/p>\n Western won their conference championship in Rothstein\u2019s first three years. Up to that point, the team had won six straight conference titles, but lost in the first round of the Nationals each time. His most significant year, he states, came during his senior year in 2014 when his team went 15-1 before losing in an upset to Western Washington for the conference championship. The Wolves\u2019s at large seed, however, enabled them to earn a legitimate seed in the playoffs. They’d finally got past the first round before \u201cgoing out with a bang\u201d as Rothstein expressed, to eventual champions Grand Valley State.<\/span><\/p>\n Now an assistant coach for Western\u2019s lacrosse team, a position he’s held for two years, he hopes to \u201cbring that swagger back\u201d with the new batch of lacrosse athletes.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of incoming freshman, a lot of them look to have that tenacity to come out and put in the work,\u201d said Rothstein. <\/span><\/p>\n After a discussion with the lacrosse athlete, Rothstein wanted to note that \u201clife gets tough, but it only gets better.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n His go-to quote he uses with both his students and athletes is by Ralph Waldo-Emerson; \u201cNothing great could ever be achieved without enthusiasm.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI try to come in every practice like \u2018hey, c\u2019mon let’s go, let’s keep the momentum going\u2019, or, I go in the classroom and I’m like \u2018hey c’mon let me help you, we got this, we\u2019re okay,\u2019\u201d Rothstein said.<\/span><\/p>\n Rothstein commented that he does this to motivate and so \u201cpeople can see that and pass it on, because that will make everyone achieve and be successful.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Photo by:\u00a0Ron Rothstein<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Simson Garcia | Sports Editor One coach and one player, in one frustrating lacrosse game, came together on the sidelines. The player was down on himself after his team\u2019s struggles on the field, losing to that end. The coach pulled him to the side, calmed him down and talked to him. \u201cI had to reassure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}