As Travis Hallam picks up the kids, Natasha Hallam is busy cheering on her team at the volleyball championship. In the Hallam household, Natasha and Travis tag-team it to become the MVPs of parenting. With teaching, parenting two young children and coaching, new high school teachers Natasha and Travis synchronize their busy schedules. Natasha coaches girls volleyball and teaches English while Travis teaches intro to engineering and coaches girls basketball.
“Advice I would give would be to give yourself a lot of grace,” Natasha said. “You are not going to be able to do all the things and that’s okay. Focus on the things that are important and make time and plan for those things.”
Their children Aspen, 1 year old, and Kaiya, 4 years old, grew up around the sports. With Travis as the head coach in basketball and Natasha coaching volleyball, the parents anticipate Aspen and Kaiya will develop an interest in those sports. Sophomore Harper Waldrip plays on the high school volleyball team.
“We have pretty much had new coaches every year, but we are grateful for a coach who knows the game and loves volleyball as much as we do,” said Waldrip. “[Her kids] mostly come to games later with her husband.”
Kaiya is currently interested in soccer and plays on a team. When both parents cannot show up to the games, the other fills in by recording it. The couple works together when their sports season is demanding.
“We just kind of tag team it,” Travis said. “During volleyball season, I’m responsible for picking up kids, I’m responsible for dinner and doing all the things at the house. Then we tag out. When she’s done and basketball season picks up, we literally tag-team it. I have all of my coaching responsibilities and then she’s responsible for picking the kids up, dinner and the things at home. We do balance the home life better. I’m in charge of the laundry [and] yard work and then she’s in charge of things like the kitchen and dishes, so we split those chores pretty evenly around the house.”
The busy parents make it a priority to be intentional with their time spent with family. When they get home, they put away their phones. At least once a month in the busy sports seasons, they do a father-daughter or mother-daughter outing to get in quality time.
“When you are having to make those tough decisions, make that time to be there like at night,” Travis said. “The biggest decision I have made is when I get home, I put my phone away when I walk in the door. That way, my kids get my full attention. I don’t take work home. My wife is an English teacher, so she has to take work home, but I get everything done here. I just try to be a dad, not a teacher or coach at that point.”
The Hallams found an interest in their sports at a young age. Natasha started her career in volleyball in seventh grade and has played ever since. She played all the way through college at Oklahoma Baptist University and became a club coach. Her first full-time job was student teaching.
“After my first semester, I realized I wanted to teach and coach,” Natasha said. “My favorite part about coaching is getting to see kids believe in themselves and seeing that their hard work can actually pay off and getting to see their excitement when they finally get it.”
Travis decided in third grade exactly what he wanted to become: a teacher and coach. He played basketball throughout high school and college and later turned down an overseas offer to play for his plans to start a family.
“When you go to play overseas, you spend nine months out of the year over there, so I turned that down to be a coach and a teacher,” Travis said. “I wanted to get married and have kids early.”
The schedules of the two both include a day of teaching at the high school, including coaching practice for their teams, volleyball and basketball games and caring for their two children and their activities.
“It’s hard because you can’t be great at everything, but you want to be,” Travis said. “When you come from that coaching mentality, there is no choice but to be great at everything. Unfortunately, when that happens, there is some give and take. The biggest piece of advice when it comes to your kiddos is to carve out time.”
