The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
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
trying to raise.
“I thought it was a good idea that the kids get more personable. Learn some more people skills, social skills, address teachers, talk to them. It was received very well by the teachers. Teachers love it. They were very humbled by it. It brought them a little closer to the kids. I think the other kids in the classroom seeing it also kind of said, ‘Wow the football team showing great respect to the teachers. That’s kind of the cool thing to do.’ ”
Here are some facts. Seven percent of high school athletes — one in 13 — play a varsity sport in college. Two percent — one in 57 — play at NCAA Division I schools.
Nowhere is the ideal of student-athleticism more important than in high school. It is a parallel growth. It is an intertwining growth. Creativity and teamwork are not mutually exclusive. Neither are knowledge and mental toughness.
Frederick said one of his college teammates now in Virginia shared something similar. He said the school honored teachers as a group on a particular day.
“It got us thinking on our end to spotlight one teacher per week,” he said.
So every Friday during the football season, starting with the captains and seniors,
a Maloney player presented a teacher with his jersey. They’d tell Frederick who it was. They’d gather some thoughts on what that teacher meant to him and what they wanted to say.
“We captured it in photos and recordings,” Frederick said. “I thought that was important to play that back and share it with the rest of the team and on our social media pages. We’d catch the teachers by surprise a little bit. Going into the classroom with the jersey and present it to them. Some of the teachers got choked up. It was just a good thing for everyone involved.”
The Westhill tradition of thanking the teacher or administrator who made the biggest impact on a player was started by former baseball coach DJ Mulvany and continued by Mike Riveles. Before the annual home opener, each player in his home white jersey presents an away purple jersey to the teacher. The school posts the photos on social media for everyone to see.
This is done by the few. Pass the word around the state. Make it done by the many.
“I think it would be tremendous,” said Frederick, a special education teacher. “Honestly, that’s what it’s about. Have an ideal where you inspire other kids, we hope that happens. East Hartford, we saw something online where they did something similar. I love it.
It’s not about only us doing it. We hope it’s contagious to show other programs what we do. You win a state championship. You hope it inspires others.
“We’re going to embed it in our program every year.”
Nixon presented No. 77 to Yvonne Rosey, who teaches accounting, computer apps and entrepreneurship. Royce also is Future Business Leaders Of America advisor. Michael Reddick presented his No. 52 to Dan Gaffney and Johnny Rosado gave his No. 20 to Mary Savago.
Jaylon Nixon graduated from Maloney in 2019. He played football and was a diver on the swim team. He went on to dive at Southern Connecticut. It tragically ended in car accident in June 2020. Jaylon was studying to become a nurse and Simone had a huge impact on him. And he on Simone.
It was when Daejon presented his brother Jaylon’s No. 7 to Simone and the CIAC posted a video on its website that folks were blown away.
It does seem particularly impactful when football players — often the big guys on campus — are involved. Football games are community gatherings. Bringing out an honored teacher at home games to flip the coin for the opening kickoff or at halftime is a possibility.
“A lot of times football players are held to a higher standing and they should be,” Frederick said. “It’s such a privilege to play Friday night under the lights. These guys are leaders in the schools. They’re showing respect. They’re doing the right things in the hallways. Saying good morning to a teacher walking into a classroom. Sitting in the front row of the class. That all ties in to how you become a really good student-athlete.”
You can mix in senior athletes, especially captains, from different sports. Spread it over the year. Pick your jersey tradition. Just make sure you have one.
If any of that sounds corny to you, man, maybe you need to reexamine your priorities. It’s fine to joke about old-time values. Just remember they have value.
So here’s to the chemistry teacher who taught us the periodic table.
The biology teacher who showed us how to dissect a frog.
The English teacher who taught us Hemingway didn’t need to write a 65word sentence to knock our socks off.
The ones in tech schools who teach us to rebuild an engine.
And all the rest.
The words have been said in various forms over the years and they are true: Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions.