Harbor Creek High School coaches Barb Matlak, Joe Sholtiz and Marty Dale.  Erie Times-News photo by Janet B. Kummerer

There was a nice piece in the “Varsity” section in the Erie Times-News today about the Deans of D-10 — some of D-10s longest serving spring-sport coaches.

I love the story structure (bullets are easily scanned) though it doesn’t translate well online, so you may want to fish the Varsity section out of a newspaper today and read the hard copy.

I went to Harbor Creek High School, and I know several of the coaches featured.

I never played H.S. sports (oh, if I could go back!), but I had both Barb Matlak (English) and Joe Sholtiz (History) as teachers and I remember that both of them were good ones who were not easily rattled by the nasty reputation of the tech kids (yep, I was a tech kid) and they always treated us with respect (not as a burden to be tolerated as some most of the teachers did).

I learned to appreciate history because of Mr. Sholtiz. I used to sit in class & wish he was my dad.

Mrs. Matlak is likely the reason I ended up a writer.  She and Mrs. Daub (another H.S. English teacher) were the first ones to suggest I had a writing talent I shouldn’t waste.  They believed in me (just another stupid “tech rat”) and told me I could do better if I just applied myself.  They made me believe in myself.

You know I can be a wee bit competitive, right? So after they challenged me, I got straight As and Bs in my last two years in high school, and I ended up going to college, mostly become some counselor told me I couldn’t (because “Tech kids don’t go to college”).

Thank God for good teachers/coaches who challenge kids.