Lady Bridgemen Head Basketball Coach On Teaching Kindergarten

Stacie Zafiris is a Kindergarten teacher at . She’s also the head coach of the Fort Lee Lady Bridgemen varsity basketball team and an assistant coach with the varsity softball team.

“For most people hearing that, it is definitely a little bit unusual,” Zafiris said. “But what most people don’t know about me is that I actually student taught at the high school in 2004. So I actually wanted to originally teach History to high school students.”

A senior in college at the time, Zafiris said there were no openings at the high school when she graduated in 2005 so she started substitute teaching in the Fort Lee School District and in Tenafly and coaching basketball in Tenafly.

After making the rounds as a substitute teacher for a while and coaching softball briefly at Dwight Englewood as well, Zafiris was offered a first grade teaching position at School No. 1.

“So I went from teaching juniors and seniors to first grade, and then after that I went into Kindergarten,” she said.

Zafiris has been teaching full-time in Fort Lee since 2006, and this is her fifth year teaching Kindergarten. She started coaching softball in the spring of 2007. She’s also now in her fourth year coaching girls basketball.

“I never envisioned myself taking over a girls basketball program,” Zafiris said. “It was one of the most unexpected surprises. I don’t regret it all. I adore all of my athletes. I think they’re wonderful, wonderful human beings, and I’m so proud of how they’ve all grown.”

Zafiris was born and raised in Palisades Park, where she was a three-sport athlete in high school herself (basketball, softball and tennis), in addition to being class president and a member of the school band, chorus and student council.

“I think that’s kind of where I am now too; I want to be involved, and that’s why I love that I’m at School 1. I’m teaching the younger kids, but then I get to go to the high school and interact with other kids too,” she said.

Zafiris attended Caldwell College as an undergraduate, playing softball and tennis and double-majoring in social studies and education. She also received her Master’s degree in 2009 with a concentration in Elementary Reading and Literacy.

Zafiris said she takes essentially the same approach to teaching Kindergarten and coaching high school kids. She says kids need discipline, routine and consistency and to know and respect the rules, whether in a Kindergarten classroom or on the hard court or softball field.

“You have to flip the switch, as we say in softball,” Zafiris said. “And it really is true. But a lot of the things are still the same. I treat my Kindergartners with respect, and expect them to treat me back with respect. And the same thing goes for high school.”

Zafiris sat down with Patch this week in her School No. 1 classroom for this edition of ‘Fort Lee Schools One-On-One.’ Here’s how the rest of the interview went:

Who or what inspired you to be an educator?

It’s not honestly something that I ever pictured myself doing, not that I ever didn’t want to do it. I always wanted to be around sports. It’s something I loved as a child. It taught me discipline. It taught me time management. It taught me so many different things. I ended up, when I was 19, coaching a travel, 14-and-under softball team. At that point, I was a major in Biology, and I really wanted to become a physical therapist, again to be around athletics. I just remember spending the summer with these girls that were 12, 13, 14 and teaching them the game that I loved and that I played since I was a young girl. I watched how much they learned, and I watched how much they responded to the way that I was teaching them. Their improvement from June to the end of July was so amazing. I loved being around the kids. I loved being around the parents, and that really kind of influenced me to change my major so that I could focus on being around kids.

How would you describe your educational philosophy?

I believe that the classroom should be a nurturing and caring environment, but it also should be one that is set with routines and rules, and the children need to be able to follow them. Obviously they need that consistency. I think it’s important to differentiate your instruction. Every child learns differently … I really try to use a lot of different things in the classroom so all the kids are able to understand the concept I’m trying to teach them. I don’t want to only teach them things that are in the “textbook,” even though we don’t have one. I want to teach them about respect and responsibility … I really try to keep a friendly classroom where every child’s ideas are important, and everybody feels important in the classroom and welcomed and appreciated.

What’s your coaching philosophy?

I try to give my athletes everything that’s inside of me. I’m so proud of where both programs have been and where they’ve gone to … everything that I was as an athlete, I expect from my athletes. I expect hustle, determination. I always tell them, and they kind of make fun of me, “It’s a Fort Lee pride thing; it’s a pride thing.”

What is something that most people don’t know about you or would be surprised to learn?

I have two things. My real name is actually Anastasia, but Stacie is my nickname. I am 100 percent Greek. I am fluent in Greek; I went to Greek school when I was younger. And probably that my husband proposed to me in this classroom two years ago in front of the students.

Name three people—living or dead—you would invite to dinner

This was actually the one that I had a difficult time with, and I’m sorry if I get emotional with it, but probably my grandparents, who have all passed. My one grandmother I’ve never had the opportunity to meet. She passed away when my mom was a teenager, and I’m named after her. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about her that I would have loved to have gotten the opportunity to meet her. My other grandmother passed last November, and I had a very difficult time with that. So I would just love to spend just one more evening with her to just tell her how much I love her.

If I had to pick a non-family member, probably FDR because I’m a history person, and I’m just amazed at what he was able to do with his own illness … Reading about him, I just love learning more, and more, and more … I think that what he was able to accomplish with his own disability is something that a lot of children today can really look at and admire.

What’s been the highlight of your career at Fort Lee so far?

I would say probably the middle toward the end of [each] school year. Kindergarten is really such a remarkable age because you get to see them come in as these little children, these little babies, and a lot of them are crying in the beginning, and they’re uncomfortable. And you see the parents too, and they’re so concerned, and they’re so worried. I just try to assure them that, “I promise you everything is going to be okay.” And then you see them—come springtime—and they’re their own individuals with their own ideas … And to see them reading and writing … as a teacher, it’s something that I’m so proud of. Especially if there’s a child that maybe had struggled in the beginning, and all of the sudden to be able to see them really grasp the concepts, it’s a proud moment as an educator.