At Cupertino High School, many coaches not only provide guidance to their athletes, but also carry valuable experience from their own time as athletes, helping shape their journey as mentors.
Many coaches at CHS have been highly involved in their sports from a young age. Having been competitors themselves who have experienced victory and defeat, these coaches have a solid understanding of how to lead.
From an alumnus of Cupertino High School’s badminton team to now a new varsity coach, Ryan Liao has always wanted to coach badminton. Liao began training in sixth grade and joined the CHS team during his freshman year. He believes that the team is a friendly and competitive community, and he hopes to push them to continue at the top of the league.
Liao recounts one of his favorite memories from being on the team, describing how he was playing with a partner in a league tournament and, despite losing the entire set, came out with a positive attitude on the other end.
“To me, I feel like that was a big […] moment in my high school career, even though I didn’t win. But I felt like I was playing really well with my partner that day, and just having the feeling that my hard work was paying off […] was really fulfilling,” Liao said.
Liao often brings other faculty members in during practices to help train the students, such as Chemistry and Biology teacher David Chen.
World History teacher Kyle Fitzpatrick has been coaching golf at CHS for 21 years. He first became interested in golf as it provided him an opportunity to bond with his father. At age 10, he became friends with three other children who he would play golf with.
“And now that I look back as a parent, [golf] was a really good babysitter, because you go drop three 10-year-olds at the golf course, and they’re in a safe space for five hours,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick’s journey in sports was not limited to golf. He also played football during his sophomore year — however, he had to quit after injuring his back. The injury prevented him from playing contact sports any further, but he continued his passion for golf.
Fitzpatrick cherishes the camaraderie and team aspect of golf, emphasizing team bonding.
“I think playing it can be really hard, because […] whenever you’re in the middle of a golf round, there’s no time outs, there’s no breaks, there’s no anything,” said Fitzpatrick. “And so you really have to learn how to process that kind of a competition. When coaching [other sports], […] it’s easy for me to see what they need to do. […] So I think it’s just having the perspective where you are able to zoom out and see the big picture, and […] understand that this is just one shot among many for the year. So you don’t have to be as stressed out when you’re playing.”
During his freshman year on the team, his circle of friends pushed each other to succeed by creating competition among themselves.
“Even though I was the young kid on the team, I built up these competitions that made us all better golfers and made us get more focused during practice. So I was proud of the kind of coaching [I was doing], even as a freshman on the high school team,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick emphasized that success doesn’t directly derive from winning. Reflecting on himself as an athlete, he recognized that he once placed too much importance on winning. Said Fitzpatrick, “Doing well can mean just showing overall, general improvement on skills as you go through.”
