It’s time to honor teachers

Student-athletes should be leading the way year round

When Daejon Nixon walked into the room at Maloney High last fall to surprise nurse Cindy Simone with his late brother Jaylon’s jersey, well, it couldn’t have been a greater moment.

This week is National Teacher Appreciation

Week.

This also seems like the perfect time to push for appreciation of our teachers by high school athletes for more than one week of the school year.

The jersey presentation, jersey swap — whatever you want to call it — by students to a teacher who has made the biggest impact on them is one of the coolest things going.

The Maloney Meriden football team, which went on to capture the Class L state championship, started it last fall. The Westhill Stamford baseball team, 2021 Class LL state finalist, has done a version in recent years.

From Abbott Tech to Xavier, A to X, every high school around the state should do it. From Danbury to Academy of the Holy Family, biggest to the smallest, it should be a tradition for every school.

Wouldn’t be a bad idea for GameTimeCT to get involved in some way, too.

“During the COVID times we were missing the face-to-face with the teachers,” Maloney coach Keven Frederick said. “We just thought that we wanted to make more of a connection with the teachers again and show them who we are and what kind of kids we’re

Jeff Jacobs / Hearst Connecticut Media / Maloney’s Daejon Nixon, right, poses with Yvonne Royce as part of the football team’s jersey swap to honor the school’s teachers.