Reimagining the Teacher-Coach With OFSAA

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Background

Established in 1948, the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations is made up of student-athletes, teacher-coaches, principals, and sport administrators who are all committed to the philosophy of education through school sport.

The organization's noble mission is to foster student success and enrich education through school sport.

As a non-profit organization, OFSAA offers programs and services that enhance school sport in the province, such as scholarships and awards, student leadership programs, coach development programs and resources, tournament sanctioning, and funding to support athletic programs at the school level. They work with volunteer teacher-coaches to provide 38 provincial championships and six festivals across 20 sports for Ontario's student-athletes and take a proactive role in addressing issues that affect students, coaches, schools, and communities.

Approach

Strategy and Mission

Ellum collaborated closely with OFSAA to convey the impact and importance of teacher-coaches to inspire more teachers to volunteer through film and static imagery.

Without coaches, there is no sport. It’s paramount that teachers enable students to have the same sporting experience that they did.

By having current teacher coaches tell their stories of school sports during their youth — how it impacted or shaped their lives — we sought to inspire new teachers to step up. Together, we highlighted how important school sport was for teachers when they were in school and how their participation is needed to continue offering it.

“The opportunity to work with OFSAA and the three coaches we filmed with is one we won’t forget at Ellum,” said Liam Afonso, Co-Founder & CEO, Ellum Media. “Each video is a portrait and they are painted as heroes on the screen – because that is what they are to students. These are universal stories. Everyone can remember being in their formative years and the people they looked up to at school. Ellum is thankful to work with OFSAA to help represent these coaches as the heroes they are.”

In a departure from traditional teacher-focused campaigns, our stories did not focus on students. Rather, we highlighted heroic coaches to enable teachers to see themselves in their shoes. They volunteer their time to help youth grow. The teacher coach is the hero.

Execution

Ellum produced a short series of four spots, with three featuring a video portrait of a coach and their story, and a master cut combining each story.

Each spot, excluding the master cut, is 30 seconds long — ideal for sharing and promotion. The spots are shot at the specific coach’s school and the script for each story was written collaboratively by Ellum Media,
OFSAA, and the coach.

Ellum also produced a collection of posters featuring the coaches and highlighting a core theme of their story. These posters will be displayed in schools across the province.

Each video is optimized for various platforms to be most effective on web, mobile, and televisions.

Video Portraits

Coach Kyle-Patrick Dennis, Waterloo, Ontario

Coach Kwame Aidoo, London, Ontario

Coach Katie Gilmor, Barrie, Ontario