I finished my 28th year of teaching in the Rockwood School District a year ago in May. I had an option to retire from public schools and try something different. I have always looked for challenges in my life and I heard about an opening at Priory; I jumped at it.
I have always been aware of the academic reputation that Priory offers. I saw this as an opportunity to challenge myself as an educator. I was a Biology Major in college and happened to play basketball throughout my college career. I have stayed with my love of the sciences and coaching basketball for that entire time. I had amazing teachers and coaches that inspired me to follow that path.
When I first started my teaching career, I taught 7th and 8th grade science for the first four years. I taught 9th and 10th grade Biology for the next dozen years. For my final 12 years in public education, I taught 11th and 12th grade Environmental Science and Biochemistry. After interviewing with Priory, I realized that the classes I taught over my 28-year career would now be condensed to each day at Priory. I was up for the challenge.
In addition to my teaching career, I have been the head basketball coach at Marquette High School for the past seven years but coached in some capacity the 21 years before that. I asked to be given a few more years, while interviewing, to close my love of coaching at Marquette High School. It was granted. Ironically, at the beginning of the same year I was to retire from public education, Marquette picked up the Priory team on our schedule. I had been part of the Marquette Coaching staff when we played Coach McCormack while he was at CBC. I watched him win a state championship with Larry Hughes early in my career and have always been a big fan.
Preparing for our trip to Priory at the start of the 2022-2023 basketball season, I started to game plan for a Priory team that I was not familiar with. I read names such as Christian Gonzalez, Ethan Lewis, Alejandro Behrman, Drew Flaherty, and Myles Garcia-Eidsness. They were just names. We had quite a battle last year. It ended up being an overtime game at Priory. Again, they were young men playing for Coach McCormack. I had no idea I would be teaching some of these young men in my science class the next school year.
Fast forward to this 2023-2024 basketball season. I already finished my first trimester at Priory with very little overlap with the basketball season. I had eaten lunch with Coach McCormack a few times per week. I now had Christian Gonzalez and Drew Flaherty in my Environmental Science class. Christian kept reminding me how Marquette was in trouble as basketball season began. It was early December when the rendezvous, part two, would take place. I did not like it. I had met, been talking to, and was now teaching a lot of the players that I would be coaching against in our second non-conference match-up. I was preparing against people that I cared about, and they were no longer “just names.”
It was a great basketball game. I thought both teams played well that night. The game went back and forth once again. For the second time in consecutive years, it went into overtime. Every sport claims they are a game of inches. I say the same for basketball. If a shot or two had missed the mark by a few inches either way the outcome would have changed. The game is much easier when shots go through the net. Literally a few shots, rebounds, or charges here or there made the difference. Two evenly matched teams, and it was a great experience.
The only problem was I was a wreck inside. I cared about players on both teams, and it really changed the landscape of basketball for me. I have known players on other teams before in my career, but I never taught students during the day and then coached against them at night. It was the toughest game I ever coached.
It is now February. The ribbing has died down. I have shared game film and notes with Coach McCormack and Dr. Griesbauer; they have done the same with me. We share the vision of teaching young men through the platform of high school basketball. I look at their scores and cheer for them and I believe the feeling is mutual. I have loved my introduction to Priory this school year and look forward to many great adventures in the future. I can’t wait to cheer on my students this spring in their respective activities… I just don’t want to coach against them.
