Ben Fern
He’s rewarded on, off the court
Ben Fern likes basketball, teaching and kids. Combining the three equals the obvious activity: coaching.
“It’s been a learning experience for me, not just them,” said Fern, 28. “At first, it was a struggle to organize the kids. The first year was really rough.”
In his fifth season, Fern, a physical therapist by day and coach by night, has learned how to lead a pack of boys, ages 13 to 14, into working as a team.
The Coralville resident is the boy’s basketball coach for The Spot, a new youth center sponsored by the Parkview Evangelical Free Church in Iowa City. The center, part of the vision within Parkview’s upper room ministry to counter teen pressures such as drugs and gangs, provides youth with a variety of positive activities to choose from.
“At that age, there’s a lot of pressure from parents, from school,” Fern said.
As a result, scores or game wins aren’t tallied, but the team participates in various regional leagues.
The 10-member team mixes players ranging from the next high school varsity talents to boys who likely will never want to pick up a basketball outside of The Spot, Fern said.
“We just want them to have fun,” he said. “It’s fun to see kids grow and mature with it. The important thing is teaching good sportsmanship and how to be a team player.”
In high school, Fern, who was raised in Dubuque, said he always gravitated toward teaching.
“I liked that teaching aspect. It was always in the back of my mind and when I came up here I took the opportunity,” he said.
Since finding out Parkview’s youth center needed a coach and learning the ins and outs of it through trial and error, Fern said the reward could almost be described as “addictive.”
“It’s been really rewarding,” he said.
Fern said he had one goal that he hoped to achieve.
“That it remains fun for the kids and they learn something,” he said.
— Hieu Pham
