November 24, 2024 • 42 mins
The 29/1 welcomes Kristy Jernigan on this week's episode, the first female principal in West Ottawa's history to ever have played Water Polo! Kristy’s unique connection to the school started with her father’s role as Athletic Director, and she fondly recounts childhood memories that shaped her path. From a humorous belly slide at a Michigan State basketball camp in front of Magic Johnson to her father's influence on her understanding of grace and leadership, Kristy offers listeners a personal glimpse into how she learned to lead from those who guided her.
The conversation navigates the vibrant West Ottawa community, focusing on the complexities of fostering meaningful connections within a large school environment. With a dedicated heart, Kristy aims to ensure every student finds someone to connect with, even among the 2,214 students and combined 225 teaching and support staff. As she balances her dual roles as principal and parent, she shares the joys and challenges of nurturing her daughters' sports interests and her love for cooking. Her message is clear—active involvement and communication with the school community are key to creating a supportive environment for students and families alike.
Listeners will also hear Kristy’s reflections on the lasting impact of athletic participation, celebrating the life skills gained through sports and the transformation of West Ottawa's facilities that promise memorable experiences for all students. Kristy’s enthusiasm for the community spirit is infectious as she relives the excitement of high school sports and the camaraderie that binds the West Ottawa family. As the episode wraps up, a sense of belonging and shared celebration resonates, cementing the idea that through connection and support, we all rise together.
This episode was recorded on November 21, 2024.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got to.
One time at one of the MichiganState basketball camps they
needed a volunteer to do a bellyslide and I was like eight
years old.
None of the big dudes wouldvolunteer to do it.
So I have technically done ahit the floor in front of Magic
Johnson.
So you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, there we go, there's a nugget.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives of studentathletes, coaches and other
(00:42):
faces in the Panther sportscommunity, bringing you the
stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
There are sports fans and former athletes hidden
among us.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Today we sit down with West Ottawa principal,
Christy Jernigan.
Christy is a lifelong Pantherand bleeds the black and white,
serving the community thathelped raise her.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She couldn't be more excited to talk about today's
student athletes, the challengesthey face and the wonderful
contribution they make in theWest Ottawa community, Christy
Jernigan coming up next on the29.1 podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the 29.1 podcast
.
It's nice to have you on boardfor another round of the show.
We are actually on the roadtoday, outside of our normal
studio.
You'd think we might bedowntown in New Holland or
somewhere else in town, but weare not.
But we are in theadministrative offices today.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're in the principal's office Principal's
office.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We're just sitting here watching the snow fall and
trying to stay out of trouble.
At least I am.
Today's guest has been a partof the West Ottawa culture for
the entirety of her life.
She was only marginally good atsports during her time here at
West Ottawa those are her words,not mine but she really enjoyed
being a part of teams andconnecting with teammates.
(02:19):
You'll find her at manysporting events cheering on the
Panthers, and she truly is a bitof a sports maniac, big sports
fan and it's my privilege to askwho is it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Hello everyone, it's Mrs Jernigan.
Hi, I'm Christy Jernigan.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Awesome, First female principal in West Ottawa school
history.
A mom, a wife, daughter, sportsfan.
She's been a teacher at thehigh school, elementary school
administrator, high schooladministrator Unbelievable and
the daughter of one of ourone-time athletic directors a
guy that I get to fill his shoes.
(02:55):
Now I don't know if I can everfill Gary's shoes, but I'll try.
Maybe let's start off rightthere.
What was it like having a dadrun the athletic program at West
Ottawa Like how old were you in?
This kind of part of your lifewas happening.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, so, um, we did so.
I've been here for most of mylife not completely all, I
suppose.
We moved here when I was insixth grade, um, so my dad could
be the 80 and my sister and Iwere both athletes, so it was
really nice having him be ourathletic director, because he
kind of got to watch us do oursports and so it was really
(03:35):
really a neat thing and it justit started my love for sports,
started my love for West Ottawaand yeah, it's really really
good.
So he was um 80 for about fouryears, I think, and then moved
to being an assistant principalhere and I just know that, like
he's the reason why I've wantedto do the things that I have
(03:56):
done.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You were able to probably tag around with him a
lot Something.
Your dad was an administrator,you were a student, you're an
administrator, your daughtersYep.
What was it like just for youbeing little and tagging around
with your dad.
Does any fun memories come tomind?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
A fun memory I mean we were with him all the time
when he was at West Ottawa Funmemory of just being like a kid
following a sports dad.
He was a varsity basketballcoach in the Lansing area when I
was in elementary school and soit's kind of cool All those
guys get to kind of beperipherally involved in like
(04:32):
Michigan State basketball and soand he knew Judd fairly well so
I got to one time at one of theMichigan State basketball camps
they needed a volunteer to do abelly slide and I was like
eight years old.
None of the big dudes wouldvolunteer to do it.
(04:55):
So I have technically hit thefloor in front of Magic Johnson,
so you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, there we go.
There's a nugget, theunexpected story.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
No one asks me to do that anymore because I would
break something, so it's not.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, I mean, yeah, what school did your dad coach
at?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
East.
Lansing.
Okay, yep, yeah, and then fromthere he went a couple other
places really quickly, but thencame here.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Did having a father in administration as you were a
student affect the way that youapproach being an administrator
with girls in the building?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes, I think when he was an administrator, and then
same thing for my sister.
He became her principal andhe's done all the jobs.
It was really important to meas a student to.
I knew everyone was watchingand I think my girls feel that
maybe way too right and so Inever.
I wanted to be a really, reallygood role model for other
(05:49):
students because I didn't wantto let my dad down, and I know
that my girls probably feel thesame way.
Even though I know they're notperfect, they're going to make
mistakes.
They would never let me down,no matter what.
But it was something that waskind of on my mind when I was a
student of an administrator andI think maybe that's probably on
their mind too.
It also just gives meperspective of grace for all
(06:11):
parents as the principal.
Like nobody's perfect.
No one's kid is perfect and mykids aren't perfect and your
kids aren't either.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So we can have those tough conversations and I can
have it as a mom, not just Ifeel so much better now about my
high school days when you saidthat I was like I just relaxed,
my shoulders sunk.
That was nice, thank you.
I appreciate that.
You have been a listener of thepodcast right from the
beginning.
So first of all, to people whoare listening, we always wanna
(06:38):
just thank you you specifically,and thank you, christy, for
listening to all the podcasts sofar, at least parts of them.
Now, when we were on the phone,you said you might not listen
to this one.
How come?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I hate my voice, you do.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, we could fix that, we could change it around.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Let's do it Go ahead.
Hello, oh, I like this one.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So you can listen.
You don't have to worry aboutit, but that is like not as
intimidating as it could be, somaybe we'll try this instead.
Hello, this is a principal'svoice.
Yeah, you do not want to comehere now.
People homework done beyondtime, so anyways, we can have
that that kind of fun all day.
I think I turned it off.
I hope I did.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think at this point I'll stick with the original.
We'll stay with the original.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
All right, so you might listen now.
You know when we talk aboutthis podcast and what we're
trying to do with it.
I know you and Bill know eachother well.
Yes, okay, you guys worktogether and you have a pretty
good relationship that way.
But when I think of you and me,or you and I I'm not sure which
one it is we're like a perfectexample of what it's like not to
meet people here.
Yeah, right, and it's so hardbecause it's such a big school.
How many kids we got?
2,500 ish 2,200.
(07:46):
All right, so 2,200.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
2,214.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
There we go.
How many teachers in the highschool?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So we have 160 certified staff, 225 ish when
you talk about all staff.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So did you like, is it hard for you?
Like, do you ever wish that youcould connect more to the wider
community because it's just sohard to do?
Like it's hard to talk toeveryone, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
it is, and I absolutely it bothers me that
there are families that I don'tknow, that I haven't necessarily
ever met before, but it's just,it's so big and we are so big
that you do have to rely on yourteam.
You know, you talk about me andBill being close.
We're both members kind of ourbigger like administrative team,
um, and it's my hope, though,that if I can't know every
(08:26):
single family, at least maybeevery single family knows one of
us, so that we can worktogether kind of my goal is that
every student knows who theirperson is in this school.
Um and so if it can't always beme, it's it's got to be somebody
, right, but it does.
I encourage people come up andtalk to me.
I for sure I grew up, thisplace raised me.
I feel incredibly indebted toserving this community, and so I
(08:53):
love meeting people and newpeople and talking to families
and getting to know them on amore personal level, and just
being part of the community, too, is really, really important to
me.
Being part of the community,too, is really, really important
to me.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah, I would say I feel the same way, Even when you
boil it down to just athletes.
There are a lot of athletesthat I'll pass in the hallway
and I recognize them from thecourt, but I'm not going to
remember all of their names.
It's just too many.
But I would encourage parentsif you're out and about at
events and you see me around,feel free, Come up.
(09:25):
Yep, let's have a chat.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and I am a parent, so I just encourage all
the parents out there too like,go up and talk, I'm going to
call you Christy.
Go up and talk to Christy.
Go up and talk to Bill, likethey're more than wanting to get
(09:47):
it right.
It's so enriching.
You are not just anadministrator, you're a parent,
and you're a parent of studentsand you're a parent of athletes.
Your daughters, riley and Corey, are both athletes here.
I'm sure you've organized thefood at least once.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I have not, but I need.
To All right, it's on now.
Yeah, and it comes down to kindof like that talking to piece.
I think people don't want to.
I don't know.
I don't know if they want tobother me or what, but I
absolutely want to be a team momand do the food and the
breakfasts and everything.
I want to be a part of thatculture too.
Try to as best as I can be.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, because you like to cook too.
That's one of your favoritethings, one of your detoxes,
right?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I do.
I love to cook Saturdays.
When I've got the time, sundays, I will cook big meals and try
new things.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The tangible relaxation of cooking as opposed
to being an administrator at ahigh school very different from
each other.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, we were talking about that where my results
often slip the long game.
Right, I'll, I'll see results,positive results on students
four years from now, whenthey're graduating and walking
across the stage and there isnothing like that but cooking
also like you can get theresults right now.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And that's fun.
What sports do your girls dohere?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Maybe talk about them for a couple minutes yeah, so
they both play golf and tennis,um and I.
The cool thing about mydaughters is that they are
complete opposites of oneanother their personalities and
I think that makes them almostcloser, because there isn't a
lot of competition um and uh,but they do play the same sports
and I will say that a coupletimes out on the golf course
(11:23):
this year, I think maybe theyounger one beat the older one
and it's a little bit of a itstarts to happen.
Maybe just once or twice, and itdidn't happen very many times,
because they're both verycompetitive but also at the same
time, there isn't competitionamongst their personalities.
It's kind of neat to see.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What are some of your favorite memories of your girls
playing sports?
Anything stand out.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Oh, tons, tons.
One of my favorite was so golfis weird.
I love sports, I love watchingsports, I love being there.
Golf is sort of a sport whereit's hard for parents to watch
and I was like Get your steps in.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You do get your steps in.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Exactly, and so I came to one of their matches and
they were both mortifiedbecause I don't think any of
their parents were there at thatone.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Mom seriously.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It was, it was this happened to be, was it three
fires?
And so they were crossing eachother, and so I got lucky where
I was, in the spot where I couldsee both of them.
One perfect parenting placementVery important at sporting
events yep, yep, um and but sothey were just a little
embarrassed and I tried to playit off as well I'm here as a mom
and the principal and they werelike not buying it.
So it was just a fun memorybecause they're I kind of like
(12:34):
to embarrass them and the sportsthat they've played.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
They have been introduced to some of the best
people as far as coaches that Ihave on my staff right To be
able to play golf with coachcutter and coach Hevlin, and
then tennis with Pete and hisstaff some of the very best that
we have and there's going to bea little change on the girls
golf side, but I'm real excitedabout it and it's you know
(13:01):
another teacher here at WestOttawa is going to take it on,
so Murphy is going to take it on.
Yeah go ahead and talk aboutthat.
Reed Murphy is going to be ournew girls golf coach next fall
and Coach Cutter is going tostay on as his assistant to kind
of guide him and coach him up.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Good job.
I love Reed.
He's awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
And I was talking with Reed about his golf game.
I said so what kind of stickare you?
And he said his handicap is .15.
So I think he's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
That was my GPA at one point, but that's another
story.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I do have to give a shout out to Coach Cutter.
Yeah, he is an important personin my life.
He was a teacher at West Ottawawhen I was there.
He also knew my dad when theywere here together and just a
guy.
When I was a new teacher herehe was in the South building
second floor with me and just areal kind of like my school dad.
(13:52):
And so he's a he's an importantdude.
He's got a wonderful personalityand he's a good mentor and a
good person and he still comesand visits me when he's in the
building for girls golf.
I'll just see him, like outsidemy door.
He he still comes and visits mewhen he's in the building for
girls golf.
I'll just see him like outsidemy door.
He'll just come and say hi andI love that.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's so nice.
Well, you were a little kidyourself at one point.
You were one of the kids thatplayed sports and grew up here
in West Iowa playing sports.
What sports did you like inmiddle school?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I know.
So in middle school I was oneof those kids that did
everything.
I played basketball, volleyball, ran track, did all the things
that you could in middle school,like I said, I feel like I'm
every kid, like I was a mediocrekid athlete in the best of ways
.
Not everybody is going to go tocollege and play D1 or D
(14:43):
anything, right.
Most of our students areinvolved in athletics because
it's really good for them andthey want to be part of the
community and they want to havea lot of fun.
And that was me right.
So in middle school I triedeverything.
And then high school, I playedbasketball for a couple of years
.
I ran track.
There were kids that werebehind me, there were kids that
(15:04):
were in front of me.
I was smack dab in the middle.
I ran the two worst races thatyou can.
I ran the 400 and the 300hurdles.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh, that is tough.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Let's just run as far as we can, as fast as we can,
and jump over stuff too.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Oh, that is tough.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Let's just run as far as we can, as fast as we can,
and jump over stuff too.
And then my most fun, my mostfun as an athlete myself was I
did.
I fell on a hurdle, I hurt myknee, my doctor.
That was not the fun part.
My doctor asked me he wanted meto do a water sport to
strengthen my knee.
And so I tried water polo mysenior year.
I had so much fun.
It brought out some type ofaggression that I never knew I
(15:40):
had.
And if I had, had I known howmuch fun it was, I would have
played.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You were ferocious underwater, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I loved it.
I'm not a great swimmer, sothere was that.
I was definitely the slowest,but I played whole because I
could tread water like nobody'sbusiness.
Once I got there, I just got tostay and then, you know, try to
drown girls.
That was so much fun, that wasmy whole job.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I loved it.
Water polo is one of thosesports that, even after a number
of years watching it, when thewhistle blows, I have no idea
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, it's really hard and it's hard to know, like
, what got called and why.
It's a little bit easier whenyou're in the pool to to know
what's going on, but it also isa lot of flailing and survival.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Was.
Uh, was Jack Carlson the trackcoach when you were running
Coachy?
He sure was I still call himcoachy.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
He was yeah, yep, I um very first practice, uh,
freshman year, I I you know Iwasn't conditioned, it was
freshman year and I came up tohim I was like coach, I think
I'm gonna be sick.
And he kind of like lookedaround.
He's like right there, likepointing to a spy, like if
you're gonna get sick, go aheadand do it there.
He called my bluff.
I did not get sick jack manthere's.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Uh, that is so jack is really.
He is my father at West Ottawa.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Really.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
He's the same age as my dad.
He has a lot of the samemannerisms, talking points,
phrasing that he'll use.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
No way.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And so it's been a lot of fun to get to know Jack
over the years, and I love whenhe comes into my office.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He is such a great guy.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, for you as a young person.
What did being involved inathletics do for you as you look
back in a long-term view?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Long-term view.
That's interesting.
I like trying new things andchallenging myself, and that's
what it did for me, especiallythat one year in doing water
polo I didn't know any of therules, I didn't know what to
expect.
I just showed up and I wasterrified the first practice.
(17:47):
But it taught me long-term howto believe in myself, how to be
determined, how to becompetitive, how to try new
things and know that what's theworst thing that's going to
happen I'm going to fail and I'mgoing to be okay.
And it turns out that when youtry new things, you mostly don't
fail.
Mostly, if you stick to it, youcan be successful.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
We talk a lot in the athletic world.
We talk a lot about failure,and right now that is one of
those things that I think ourkids in general struggle with
the most is failing and beingable to get up off the mat and
just go right back at it and usefail as a learning tool rather
(18:35):
than or I'm out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Failure is a life skill.
We talk about being a collegecareer and life ready.
Failure is a life skill.
You are not going to go throughthe entire.
You know, when I'm 99 years oldand I'm looking back on the
rest of my life, that hashopefully been this awesome
journey.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
No Alzheimer's in your family.
If you're hitting 99 andlooking back, yeah, like a
positive approach.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Positive approach, yeah exactly my grandpa used to
say he was gonna live forever.
I was like so maybe not, but 99for sure.
Um, and what were we talkingabout?
Oh, we were talking aboutfailure.
And I I want to look back andfeel like, man, I have some
stories, some cool stories, andyou don't get those unless you
put yourself out there, unlessyou try new things and you're
not afraid to fail.
And when you do, you learnlessons every single time.
(19:23):
And so I kids, try new stuff,don't be afraid to fail, like
you're going to do it.
You are going to fail manytimes in your life and that's
okay.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, you see a lot of uh I'll put it this way you
see a lot of people who aresuccessful and are at the top of
their profession, which I'llput you at Okay.
So from an outsider, looking in, you're like, oh man, they
must've killed it their wholelife, right?
They're always confident,they're always achieving,
they're just getting everythingthey want.
It's never that road.
When you sit down and talk withsomebody, you know you got your
(19:54):
failures, you got yourchallenges.
You probably had times wherelike, well, should I do this or
shouldn't I write, a littleself-doubt creeps in, but you
keep moving forward and you doit and you take the step forward
, and that's really the story ofa lot of people who are
successful.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Well, I'm 100%, christy.
You mentioned earlier middleschool and trying all the stuff.
Like our middle school athleticprogram is exactly.
It's built for that reason.
Right, there's four seasonsinstead of three, so kids can
try all of these differentthings and kind of find what it
is that really is going to drivethem.
Um, and failure is a big partof that.
(20:28):
At the middle school level,right, you've never played
basketball before, but I made abasketball team and, oh, and,
I'm not very good, but I'm justgoing to keep going.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Or maybe I'm not very good and I find where I could
be better and I'm not very good,but I'm just going to keep
going.
Or maybe I'm not very good andI find where I could be better
and I'm going to.
You know, try to make a goaland work towards getting better.
Right Like it's, you find, youfind your way and through that
failure, and every singlefailure has, and everything
single mistake that kids makehas a silver lining.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
For sure.
You graduated West Ottawa in1998.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Don't do the math, but yes, that's another century.
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Sorry, christy Jernigan, I'm the oldest in the
room, so you know you guys canjust make fun of me if you're
feeling bad about your age.
You graduate in 1998, you wentoff to Michigan State right.
So you were there.
Yeah, you were there for fouryears and then you did some.
You did some other things.
Were you involved in sportsthere?
Did you like being a fan?
What kind of stuff did you dosports-wise, athletically-wise,
when you were on campus?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, I'm a huge Spartan.
I love, love sports.
I loved going to the basketballgames, football games, just
being part of the student lifethere.
Yeah, and I think if we livedcloser to Lansing I would be a
season ticket holder.
I just love going to sports andbeing in that energetic
environment.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yeah, state state's a special place, so, as a
transplant to the state ofMichigan, when I first moved to
Michigan I lived in Lansing, so,like you just kind of ingrain
yourself to, oh, it's SpartanSaturday or the basketball team,
(22:06):
and then obviously Cammy's aMichigan state grad as well, so
I call myself, I consider myself, a Spartan by marriage.
Um, there's one team I will notcheer for, sparty against,
though, and that's the Terps.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's right, maryland.
Yeah, every time Maryland's,I'm like I know what.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Bill's doing right now.
That's right, Maryland, I doknow that.
Yep, yep, yeah.
Every time Maryland's on, I'mlike I know what Bill's doing
right now.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's right Dialed in.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
He's dialed in.
You've always been a fan ofhigh school sports.
I know one of your favoriteplaces to be she has a very big
smile on her face right now ison the sidelines on Friday
nights at West Ottawa Stadium.
What does a game night looklike for you?
Maybe look like for you, maybea game day, all that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah.
So first of all I do have tosay I think it is so much fun to
be on the sidelines of football.
I never had that opportunityuntil I was a head principal.
I love it, it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Doesn't Pat Collins call you the GM when you're out?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
there, it's his nickname.
I don't know how many peopleknow him, but he calls me the GM
.
Yes, just because I love thesound, I love the energy, I love
just being close and watchingthings happen up close.
It's really, really fun.
And I think probably I missedmy calling.
I don't know.
No, but yeah, game days for me,I mean Fridays at West Idaho
(23:16):
High School are always special.
Anyway, we do our Pride Fridaysand we, you know, give shout
outs to the kids who have reallyshown their teachers all their
attributes of pride, and that'ssuper fun.
Because I don't know if youknow, rodney, but we go around,
I announce their names on theannouncements on Friday morning,
we go around, we give themcoupons and gift cards and
(23:36):
things like that, and we make aruckus and it's really really
fun.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
That's really cool, yep.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And we'd go into classrooms and, just like you
know, scream their name andwe're like happy pride Friday.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And so that's always a fun way to start Fridays.
And then we gear up afterschool, we get ready to help the
you know black hole get wherethey need to be and and be
positive, uh, for force for ourfootball team.
And, yeah, I just love, I lovethe whole thing of it.
Um, I love the band, I love thecheerleaders.
You know love what Mindy hasbeen doing with our program.
(24:09):
It's awesome.
She's doing so many good thingsand uh, so yeah, I love the
whole environment of Fridaysunder the Lights.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You just got to something I wanted to go into
more detail on when you werethere on a Friday night.
It's not just the footballplayers, right?
Nope, and I was making thislist up and I was like, okay,
another one.
I'm like who else?
So you have football players,you have the band, you have drum
line, which is probably part ofthe band, but I'm not here
every day.
So, no, it is yes, all right.
You have the black hole, youhave dance teams, you have Will
(24:37):
BN students up in the boothrunning music and scoreboard
graphics and hitting the lightsthat stay on for three minutes.
You also have videos.
That's a shout out to our man,quinn Vandercamp.
You have videos made by Will BNplaying on the big screen, et
cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I guess for both of you, youcan both speak to this as ADN
principal.
What do you feel about ourschool, our community and our
(24:58):
students when you take a momentto really think about what makes
up a Friday night?
Maybe, bill, you can start, andthen we'll go, Christie.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Friday nights, for me , are always special.
I was a football guy, I am afootball guy, I'll always be a
football guy.
Um, there's no place I'd ratherbe on a Friday night than in a
high school stadium.
Whether it's at West Ottawa orwhen we're on the road, I don't
miss Friday night football games.
It's what I think are the ninebest guaranteed nights of my
(25:27):
year.
Um, and it's because of thoseother things, though, right,
it's the fact that it's the onesport that brings together the
marching band, the cheer program, the Wobie and kids upstairs,
the student body that turns out,the community that turns out.
Since we've opened West OttawaStadium, there are.
I really can't think of a nightwhere I've looked up in the
(25:51):
stands and thought, man, wedon't have very many people here
tonight.
It's always there, the peoplejust show up.
So that, for me, is what I loveabout Fridays.
It's the unifier of thecommunity, and it's a Friday,
right, everybody's excited forthe weekend and that's the way
they have chosen to come andspend it with us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
How about you, christy, just all the students
that are there participating andmaking an impact in our
community?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Bill said it, he hit the nail on the head.
It's about bringing ourcommunity together and I would
say not just football too, butlike all of our sports, I love
going to as many as I can andseeing our community members
coming out and supporting ourkids.
We talk about how we are theheart of the community and you
can see that when we offer thoseopportunities for our families
to come and engage in the school.
(26:37):
And there's just nothing,there's nothing better, just
seeing people come out andsupport our kids and really
feeling like we are at the heartof the community.
It actually can't talk abouttoo much because it starts to
choke up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
We're not going to stop you.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I'm a lifer I really am.
I bleed black and white and I'ma Panther for life.
Because of those kinds ofthings, because of our community
.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
So one of my fondest memories that I've got to share
with Christy is the night of thefirst ever football game at
West Ottawa Stadium and we werecoming from a very old spot that
you know that didn't have a lotof bells and whistles, and now
all of a sudden we're in a placewhere it has a bunch of bells
and whistles and I rememberwalking up to her at the end and
(27:22):
I looked at her and I said thisis the new normal, like we get
to do this again next week.
Sure, it's just, it's reallytransformed.
What we're able to do, um, andI think further shows like
especially with woe bn and kindof their involvement in this
year that we're just starting toscratch the surface of what
(27:45):
facilities like west ottawastadium can provide, which kind
of segues me right into the nextthing that I want to ask you
I'm a big segue guy.
I should get one to go up anddown main street.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
That's, that's that would really would be the 29 one
on the road.
It would mobile on segues, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I'm not.
I would be lying if I saidpeople haven't asked me if they
can get them.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
So, since you have taken over as the principal,
you've seen the opening of WestOttawa Stadium.
We just opened the PerformingArts Center.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Gorgeous, it is.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
And now we just broke ground on the Aquatic and
Community Center.
Could you talk to us a littlebit about what it's been like to
kind of see that, especially asa lifelong Panther?
Right, You're seeing thesefacilities that you grew up in
change completely.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I know it's, it's overwhelming, it's exciting.
I mean like, how lucky are ourkids to have these spaces and
how incredible again is ourcommunity that they're going to.
They want to provide thosespaces for our kids, our that
they want to provide thosespaces for our kids.
Our PAC is unreal.
Gorgeous and when they had thereally cool red carpet event for
(29:00):
the musical recently.
It was, I mean, people weredressed to the nines.
It was so fun and I just feelso lucky.
And, going back to feelingindebted to the community, I
want to do things so right forour kids and I want to have all
of these awesome facilitiesbecause our kids deserve it.
(29:22):
They'll go to other buildingsand they feel like these are
normal.
They think that our stadium andour PAC are like what?
Like this is just a thing right.
And you go to other schools,which and we have like all of
the schools around us havebeautiful facilities.
They really do.
But when you leave our campusand you go to other ones,
sometimes it's like oh, I didn'trealize that this wasn't normal
(29:45):
, and so for me, I just I feelso lucky to get to be the one to
open some of these things, butalso, you know, like I want to
make sure I don't mess it upRight, and so there's a little
bit of weight.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You guys got some weight on you there with all
these facilities, yep.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, I remember the pressure that I felt for that
first home football game wasimmense.
Right Cause, now we've got thisshiny new toy Don't mess it up
and we've got to make sure thatwe're showing it off right, and
and you cannot do it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, you can certainly underperform a place,
and you haven't, nope I don'tthink so.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I talked with our statin sports class first hour
I've got another appointmenthere sixth hour and I told them
that I would put our productionon a friday night up against
anybody.
I don't think there's a highschool out there that can match
us on a friday night I like theability for students to feel
this incredible in-gameexperience.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's why I've always pushed a little bit
giving kids that experience atevery sorry at least let's talk
we'll a little bit giving kidsthat experience at every sorry
at least we'll talk footballspecifically.
But giving them that experienceas freshmen and as sophomores
and as seniors, juniors as well,but the three levels it's
because some kid that's theironly time, their only time on
football is that freshman year.
(31:08):
It's like let's make them feellike they're at, you know
they're on the big level, youknow.
So cause then everybody getsthat chance to go to varsity,
that sort of thing.
You had mentioned this too,christy, but you know we have
all these 29 varsity sports.
What other sports do you liketo get around to and and try and
watch?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
You know, when I became the new principal, jason
Reinecke gave me really goodadvice.
The new principal, jasonReinecke, gave me really good
advice and he said every sport,every level.
So I try to make it and I do.
I try to make it to every sport, every level, I do.
I am a member of the communityso I have a lot of friends,
family friends here who theirkids play sports and so I love
(31:46):
going to I mean everything and Itry to be involved in
everything and watch every kidplay every sport.
Um, and my friend's kids playsports and so I love going to
the track.
Uh, the track meets, especiallycause I I ran girls basketball
I they are my favorite team.
You're not supposed to havefavorites.
(32:07):
I apologize.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's okay.
You know what Everyone alwayssays you're not supposed to have
favorites.
Can we just cut it?
It's very likely you have afavorite kid.
It's very likely you have afavorite.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
whatever it's a very educator thing to do.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It is.
I think cross country is superfun.
We've got a really, really coolcourse that the kids run.
I think it's fun to go to that.
I make it to the competitivecheer competition every year.
That's so much fun to watch theenergy.
If you haven't been to a cheercompetition, it's wild.
It's so much fun and you can'tmatch that energy in many places
.
So you know swimming and try toget as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And you can turn those into date nights, right?
Isn't that the story?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, mr Jernigan, if he wants to hang out with me
and fortunately he is just asmuch of a sports fan as me.
But we often go together andbill will make fun of us and be
like date night, sure is?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
and I do the very same thing.
I think, rodney, the first timeyou met my wife cammy, it was a
date night at east kentwoodhigh school and you were like,
oh, you really do exist that waspretty much it he thought cammy
was my imaginary friend yeah, Idid for a long time.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, cammy, this cammy that I'm like cammy not
around at anywhere I can see,but you keep saying what you're
saying.
But anyways, got the chance tomeet cammy in person.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
She's fantastic, she's great yeah, she was at
hockey with me the other night,so you know, it's one of those
things that, as an administratorand you're overseeing these
programs, and you want to bethere and support kids.
Lucky to have spouses that arewilling to do that with us.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Yeah, I always say that education in general is a
lifestyle, not a job, and so Iam very blessed, you know, going
back to the girls and havingRyan, who is a sports fan.
I'm blessed to have a familythat is in it with me at the
same time doing the same things.
Otherwise, I'm not sure that Iwould be able to pull it off, if
I'm being honest.
So it is about just blendingthe awesome programs you want to
(34:05):
support and doing your life.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We do a lot of things around here that are very
tangible with students,especially student athletes.
How does the school supportlike student athletes who may be
facing challenges with theirstudies and being eligible for
games?
How do you guys work togetheron that?
Speaker 4 (34:33):
was born out of that right.
I mean that is a an hour twicea week that kids can check in,
check out with differentteachers that maybe they're
having struggles with.
There's also low access afterschool a couple days a week
that's available for kids,especially those who I don't
know.
Maybe you have a game at 5 30so you've got a little bit of
extra time hanging out afterschool.
Maybe you should swing in thereand dial in the studies a
little bit because, as we alwayssay, we're student athletes and
(34:57):
in that order.
That's true, we do say that,athlete.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, and that's I would say.
For me there's no difference,like I, for me it's just
supporting all kids and theiracademics, athletes or otherwise
, and we have more supports herethan you can, I we can.
Our podcast would be too long.
But yeah, just the after schoolsupports.
We recently started somethinglast year called Triple T,
(35:20):
targeted Tutoring Time, and it'sfor students who potentially
need to owe some time to theschool and themselves.
If you owe the school some timeafter school, why are you not
getting some academic help right?
So we have Woe Access onMondays and Wednesdays.
We've got targeted tutoringtime.
On Thursdays, we've gotseminars and built-in
(35:41):
intervention.
We have two full-timeinterventionists.
Like I said, this is going tobe long, but I'll keep it short.
We've got a math interventionist, an ELA interventionist and ELA
interventionist.
Their entire job is to catchkids, primarily in ninth grade,
and make sure that they can passAlgebra 1 and English 1.
I've got two instructionalcoaches that can help our
teachers, especially our newteachers, in their classrooms
(36:03):
and we just have all of theseincredible supports.
We have eight EL teachers.
Our kids, from an academic, youknow, perspective, have more
supports than any of the otherschools around us and I'm really
, really proud of that.
And we continue as a district topush ourselves to get even more
supports.
And, and not only that, youknow Winn-Woe and Panther Fund
(36:28):
are there, not academically,obviously, but to be able to
support students with needs,either extracurricularly or
through Panther Fund, oracademically through Panther
Fund or basic needs throughWynwall.
So we've got a lot going on andI want to just mention this
earlier.
I can't remember what we weretalking about, but it was
something you know like how,putting the big events on.
(36:50):
I feel like my job is makingsure that I've got the right
people in the right places tomake all of those things happen,
to make all of the moving partsthat we can provide for our
students and do provide ourstudents.
I've got the right people inthose places that they can take
their thing and run with it.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, and that's the whole nature of community
getting people to come out andbe part of everything.
Do you have any examplesbecause you've been teaching for
a long time assistant principal, principal, elementary school
principal do you have, like anytangible examples of maybe you
don't have to say their name,but a student that maybe has
gone through some of that andcome out clean on the other side
Shawshank reference there.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
So yeah, and there's.
I don't want to get too nerdy.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Oh be nerdy.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Okay, all right, so I was a math teacher, friends, so
it's in my nature.
There's brain researchsurrounding kids being involved
in extracurricular activities atschool, sports being a big one
of those, right, but we've got54 clubs kids can get involved
in.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, yeah.
And so there's brain researcharound kids successfully
thriving in school when they'reinvolved in extracurricular
activities.
Actually, sometimes when wehave students who make some poor
choices and we need to create aplan with them of like how are
we going to do better in thefuture, a lot of times I'll say
you know what and you need tojoin a club or a sport or
whatever because it really isbetter for them, and so I have
(38:17):
many kids that I can think ofwhere being a part of a team has
really been the saving gracefor them academically and
getting them across the stage tograduation, Because that's
really what it is is.
We want not only for our kids tograduate and be successful and
get a high school diploma, wewant them to be successful after
(38:38):
high school too.
We want them to be able to stayin our community and be positive
members of our community, right.
So I can think of oneparticular student I don't want
to use his name.
He's graduating this year.
When he came in as a freshman Iwould have met him in March,
because that's when I came andbecame the principal and he had
(38:58):
really big behaviors, sometrauma.
He was failing all his classes,not great attendance and
through the work of ourassistant principals, his
counselor, some of his coaches,that kind of had to pull him
along to keep him academicallyeligible or to keep him coming
(39:19):
to practice or to get him topractice or get him home from
practice or whatever.
He's going to make it and thatis such a cool success story and
, how I said earlier, how it'splaying the long game.
That's what sports can do forkids is play the long game and
get them to the finish linewhere they can be really awesome
humans at the end.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So I love that she talked about the correlation
between participation inextracurriculars and success,
because that was my master'sthesis.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
There you go.
How'd I do?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
It's, the research is all there.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
My question is how did you do on your thesis?
Did you miss that?
Speaker 4 (39:56):
I had an excellent score on the master's thesis.
I'm sure you did.
I'm sure you did, I can write apaper with the best of them.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I just want everyone to know.
We do what's called astoryboard for these podcasts,
and Christy Jernigan has jumpedthe storyboard at every time
because she knows what to talkabout next.
It is I've never seen it wherewe want to hit something next
and you are on it.
It's happened four, five, sixtimes already, so kudos to you,
for she's a pro podcastinterview.
Yeah well, there's going to beSomeone's going on vacation, or
(40:27):
oh put me in.
Bill Kennedy had that sorethroat, but Bill Kennedy loves
his sore throat.
Bill Kennedy have that sorethroat, but Bill Kennedy loves
his sore throat.
Let's be honest, get thatgravelly, it makes the voice
better, yeah, great, well,seasons are about to start, or
have started.
Bill, can you walk us throughwhat sports are going on right
now?
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Yeah, so we're three hockey games into the season
already.
Hockey is always the first onethat gets rolling in the
wintertime, so we're back athome.
Friday and Saturday of thisupcoming week.
Friday and Saturday of thisupcoming week, boys basketball
gets started.
Next week, girls basketball theweek following Competitive
cheer wrestling.
Very shortly you'll get rollingwith their competitions.
They have more of a ramp upinto their season.
(41:02):
And then we still have a fallsport that is competing right
now, which is hard to believebecause the state swim meet is
this upcoming weekend.
And then our aquatics director,assistant athletic director,
swim coach, steve Boyer.
He gets the one day off inbetween seasons.
He finishes the state meet forthe girls on Saturday and he has
his Sunday, and then he startsboys on Monday morning.
(41:24):
That is wild so he has theshortest turnaround of any coach
I know.
But he's a grinder becauseswimmers grind.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
They certainly do.
This has been really nice tosit down with you, christy
Jernigan.
It's nice to spend time andmeet you.
If you are listening to thispodcast, we want to thank you
for doing that and taking thetime.
Say hi to Bill, say hi toChristy.
They're here, they're part ofthe community with us, we are
West Ottawa, we are community.
We are West Ottawa, we arecommunity, we are each other.
Thanks for coming on, chris.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
You're welcome and, as always, go low.
I got to.
One time at one of the MichiganState basketball camps they
needed a volunteer to do a bellyslide and I was like eight
years old.
None of the big dudes wouldvolunteer to do it.
So I have technically done ahit the floor in front of Magic
Johnson.
So you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, there we go, there's a nugget.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives of studentathletes, coaches and other
(00:42):
faces in the Panther sportscommunity, bringing you the
stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
There are sports fans and former athletes hidden
among us.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Today we sit down with West Ottawa principal,
Christy Jernigan.
Christy is a lifelong Pantherand bleeds the black and white,
serving the community thathelped raise her.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She couldn't be more excited to talk about today's
student athletes, the challengesthey face and the wonderful
contribution they make in theWest Ottawa community, Christy
Jernigan coming up next on the29.1 podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the 29.1 podcast
.
It's nice to have you on boardfor another round of the show.
We are actually on the roadtoday, outside of our normal
studio.
You'd think we might bedowntown in New Holland or
somewhere else in town, but weare not.
But we are in theadministrative offices today.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're in the principal's office Principal's
office.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
We're just sitting here watching the snow fall and
trying to stay out of trouble.
At least I am.
Today's guest has been a partof the West Ottawa culture for
the entirety of her life.
She was only marginally good atsports during her time here at
West Ottawa those are her words,not mine but she really enjoyed
being a part of teams andconnecting with teammates.
(02:19):
You'll find her at manysporting events cheering on the
Panthers, and she truly is a bitof a sports maniac, big sports
fan and it's my privilege to askwho is it.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Hello everyone, it's Mrs Jernigan.
Hi, I'm Christy Jernigan.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Awesome, First female principal in West Ottawa school
history.
A mom, a wife, daughter, sportsfan.
She's been a teacher at thehigh school, elementary school
administrator, high schooladministrator Unbelievable and
the daughter of one of ourone-time athletic directors a
guy that I get to fill his shoes.
(02:55):
Now I don't know if I can everfill Gary's shoes, but I'll try.
Maybe let's start off rightthere.
What was it like having a dadrun the athletic program at West
Ottawa Like how old were you in?
This kind of part of your lifewas happening.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, so, um, we did so.
I've been here for most of mylife not completely all, I
suppose.
We moved here when I was insixth grade, um, so my dad could
be the 80 and my sister and Iwere both athletes, so it was
really nice having him be ourathletic director, because he
kind of got to watch us do oursports and so it was really
(03:35):
really a neat thing and it justit started my love for sports,
started my love for West Ottawaand yeah, it's really really
good.
So he was um 80 for about fouryears, I think, and then moved
to being an assistant principalhere and I just know that, like
he's the reason why I've wantedto do the things that I have
(03:56):
done.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
You were able to probably tag around with him a
lot Something.
Your dad was an administrator,you were a student, you're an
administrator, your daughtersYep.
What was it like just for youbeing little and tagging around
with your dad.
Does any fun memories come tomind?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
A fun memory I mean we were with him all the time
when he was at West Ottawa Funmemory of just being like a kid
following a sports dad.
He was a varsity basketballcoach in the Lansing area when I
was in elementary school and soit's kind of cool All those
guys get to kind of beperipherally involved in like
(04:32):
Michigan State basketball and soand he knew Judd fairly well so
I got to one time at one of theMichigan State basketball camps
they needed a volunteer to do abelly slide and I was like
eight years old.
None of the big dudes wouldvolunteer to do it.
(04:55):
So I have technically hit thefloor in front of Magic Johnson,
so you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, there we go.
There's a nugget, theunexpected story.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
No one asks me to do that anymore because I would
break something, so it's not.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Well, I mean, yeah, what school did your dad coach
at?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
East.
Lansing.
Okay, yep, yeah, and then fromthere he went a couple other
places really quickly, but thencame here.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Did having a father in administration as you were a
student affect the way that youapproach being an administrator
with girls in the building?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes, I think when he was an administrator, and then
same thing for my sister.
He became her principal andhe's done all the jobs.
It was really important to meas a student to.
I knew everyone was watchingand I think my girls feel that
maybe way too right and so Inever.
I wanted to be a really, reallygood role model for other
(05:49):
students because I didn't wantto let my dad down, and I know
that my girls probably feel thesame way.
Even though I know they're notperfect, they're going to make
mistakes.
They would never let me down,no matter what.
But it was something that waskind of on my mind when I was a
student of an administrator andI think maybe that's probably on
their mind too.
It also just gives meperspective of grace for all
(06:11):
parents as the principal.
Like nobody's perfect.
No one's kid is perfect and mykids aren't perfect and your
kids aren't either.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So we can have those tough conversations and I can
have it as a mom, not just Ifeel so much better now about my
high school days when you saidthat I was like I just relaxed,
my shoulders sunk.
That was nice, thank you.
I appreciate that.
You have been a listener of thepodcast right from the
beginning.
So first of all, to people whoare listening, we always wanna
(06:38):
just thank you you specifically,and thank you, christy, for
listening to all the podcasts sofar, at least parts of them.
Now, when we were on the phone,you said you might not listen
to this one.
How come?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I hate my voice, you do.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, we could fix that, we could change it around.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Let's do it Go ahead.
Hello, oh, I like this one.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So you can listen.
You don't have to worry aboutit, but that is like not as
intimidating as it could be, somaybe we'll try this instead.
Hello, this is a principal'svoice.
Yeah, you do not want to comehere now.
People homework done beyondtime, so anyways, we can have
that that kind of fun all day.
I think I turned it off.
I hope I did.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I think at this point I'll stick with the original.
We'll stay with the original.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
All right, so you might listen now.
You know when we talk aboutthis podcast and what we're
trying to do with it.
I know you and Bill know eachother well.
Yes, okay, you guys worktogether and you have a pretty
good relationship that way.
But when I think of you and me,or you and I I'm not sure which
one it is we're like a perfectexample of what it's like not to
meet people here.
Yeah, right, and it's so hardbecause it's such a big school.
How many kids we got?
2,500 ish 2,200.
(07:46):
All right, so 2,200.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
2,214.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
There we go.
How many teachers in the highschool?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So we have 160 certified staff, 225 ish when
you talk about all staff.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So did you like, is it hard for you?
Like, do you ever wish that youcould connect more to the wider
community because it's just sohard to do?
Like it's hard to talk toeveryone, right yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
it is, and I absolutely it bothers me that
there are families that I don'tknow, that I haven't necessarily
ever met before, but it's just,it's so big and we are so big
that you do have to rely on yourteam.
You know, you talk about me andBill being close.
We're both members kind of ourbigger like administrative team,
um, and it's my hope, though,that if I can't know every
(08:26):
single family, at least maybeevery single family knows one of
us, so that we can worktogether kind of my goal is that
every student knows who theirperson is in this school.
Um and so if it can't always beme, it's it's got to be somebody
, right, but it does.
I encourage people come up andtalk to me.
I for sure I grew up, thisplace raised me.
I feel incredibly indebted toserving this community, and so I
(08:53):
love meeting people and newpeople and talking to families
and getting to know them on amore personal level, and just
being part of the community, too, is really, really important to
me.
Being part of the community,too, is really, really important
to me.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah, I would say I feel the same way, Even when you
boil it down to just athletes.
There are a lot of athletesthat I'll pass in the hallway
and I recognize them from thecourt, but I'm not going to
remember all of their names.
It's just too many.
But I would encourage parentsif you're out and about at
events and you see me around,feel free, Come up.
(09:25):
Yep, let's have a chat.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and I am a parent, so I just encourage all
the parents out there too like,go up and talk, I'm going to
call you Christy.
Go up and talk to Christy.
Go up and talk to Bill, likethey're more than wanting to get
(09:47):
it right.
It's so enriching.
You are not just anadministrator, you're a parent,
and you're a parent of studentsand you're a parent of athletes.
Your daughters, riley and Corey, are both athletes here.
I'm sure you've organized thefood at least once.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I have not, but I need.
To All right, it's on now.
Yeah, and it comes down to kindof like that talking to piece.
I think people don't want to.
I don't know.
I don't know if they want tobother me or what, but I
absolutely want to be a team momand do the food and the
breakfasts and everything.
I want to be a part of thatculture too.
Try to as best as I can be.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, because you like to cook too.
That's one of your favoritethings, one of your detoxes,
right?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I do.
I love to cook Saturdays.
When I've got the time, sundays, I will cook big meals and try
new things.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The tangible relaxation of cooking as opposed
to being an administrator at ahigh school very different from
each other.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, we were talking about that where my results
often slip the long game.
Right, I'll, I'll see results,positive results on students
four years from now, whenthey're graduating and walking
across the stage and there isnothing like that but cooking
also like you can get theresults right now.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And that's fun.
What sports do your girls dohere?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Maybe talk about them for a couple minutes yeah, so
they both play golf and tennis,um and I.
The cool thing about mydaughters is that they are
complete opposites of oneanother their personalities and
I think that makes them almostcloser, because there isn't a
lot of competition um and uh,but they do play the same sports
and I will say that a coupletimes out on the golf course
(11:23):
this year, I think maybe theyounger one beat the older one
and it's a little bit of a itstarts to happen.
Maybe just once or twice, and itdidn't happen very many times,
because they're both verycompetitive but also at the same
time, there isn't competitionamongst their personalities.
It's kind of neat to see.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What are some of your favorite memories of your girls
playing sports?
Anything stand out.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Oh, tons, tons.
One of my favorite was so golfis weird.
I love sports, I love watchingsports, I love being there.
Golf is sort of a sport whereit's hard for parents to watch
and I was like Get your steps in.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You do get your steps in.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Exactly, and so I came to one of their matches and
they were both mortifiedbecause I don't think any of
their parents were there at thatone.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Mom seriously.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It was, it was this happened to be, was it three
fires?
And so they were crossing eachother, and so I got lucky where
I was, in the spot where I couldsee both of them.
One perfect parenting placementVery important at sporting
events yep, yep, um and but sothey were just a little
embarrassed and I tried to playit off as well I'm here as a mom
and the principal and they werelike not buying it.
So it was just a fun memorybecause they're I kind of like
(12:34):
to embarrass them and the sportsthat they've played.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
They have been introduced to some of the best
people as far as coaches that Ihave on my staff right To be
able to play golf with coachcutter and coach Hevlin, and
then tennis with Pete and hisstaff some of the very best that
we have and there's going to bea little change on the girls
golf side, but I'm real excitedabout it and it's you know
(13:01):
another teacher here at WestOttawa is going to take it on,
so Murphy is going to take it on.
Yeah go ahead and talk aboutthat.
Reed Murphy is going to be ournew girls golf coach next fall
and Coach Cutter is going tostay on as his assistant to kind
of guide him and coach him up.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Good job.
I love Reed.
He's awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
And I was talking with Reed about his golf game.
I said so what kind of stickare you?
And he said his handicap is .15.
So I think he's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
That was my GPA at one point, but that's another
story.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I do have to give a shout out to Coach Cutter.
Yeah, he is an important personin my life.
He was a teacher at West Ottawawhen I was there.
He also knew my dad when theywere here together and just a
guy.
When I was a new teacher herehe was in the South building
second floor with me and just areal kind of like my school dad.
(13:52):
And so he's a he's an importantdude.
He's got a wonderful personalityand he's a good mentor and a
good person and he still comesand visits me when he's in the
building for girls golf.
I'll just see him, like outsidemy door.
He he still comes and visits mewhen he's in the building for
girls golf.
I'll just see him like outsidemy door.
He'll just come and say hi andI love that.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's so nice.
Well, you were a little kidyourself at one point.
You were one of the kids thatplayed sports and grew up here
in West Iowa playing sports.
What sports did you like inmiddle school?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I know.
So in middle school I was oneof those kids that did
everything.
I played basketball, volleyball, ran track, did all the things
that you could in middle school,like I said, I feel like I'm
every kid, like I was a mediocrekid athlete in the best of ways
.
Not everybody is going to go tocollege and play D1 or D
(14:43):
anything, right.
Most of our students areinvolved in athletics because
it's really good for them andthey want to be part of the
community and they want to havea lot of fun.
And that was me right.
So in middle school I triedeverything.
And then high school, I playedbasketball for a couple of years
.
I ran track.
There were kids that werebehind me, there were kids that
(15:04):
were in front of me.
I was smack dab in the middle.
I ran the two worst races thatyou can.
I ran the 400 and the 300hurdles.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh, that is tough.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Let's just run as far as we can, as fast as we can,
and jump over stuff too.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Oh, that is tough.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Let's just run as far as we can, as fast as we can,
and jump over stuff too.
And then my most fun, my mostfun as an athlete myself was I
did.
I fell on a hurdle, I hurt myknee, my doctor.
That was not the fun part.
My doctor asked me he wanted meto do a water sport to
strengthen my knee.
And so I tried water polo mysenior year.
I had so much fun.
It brought out some type ofaggression that I never knew I
(15:40):
had.
And if I had, had I known howmuch fun it was, I would have
played.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
You were ferocious underwater, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I loved it.
I'm not a great swimmer, sothere was that.
I was definitely the slowest,but I played whole because I
could tread water like nobody'sbusiness.
Once I got there, I just got tostay and then, you know, try to
drown girls.
That was so much fun, that wasmy whole job.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I loved it.
Water polo is one of thosesports that, even after a number
of years watching it, when thewhistle blows, I have no idea
what's happening.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, it's really hard and it's hard to know, like
, what got called and why.
It's a little bit easier whenyou're in the pool to to know
what's going on, but it also isa lot of flailing and survival.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Was.
Uh, was Jack Carlson the trackcoach when you were running
Coachy?
He sure was I still call himcoachy.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
He was yeah, yep, I um very first practice, uh,
freshman year, I I you know Iwasn't conditioned, it was
freshman year and I came up tohim I was like coach, I think
I'm gonna be sick.
And he kind of like lookedaround.
He's like right there, likepointing to a spy, like if
you're gonna get sick, go aheadand do it there.
He called my bluff.
I did not get sick jack manthere's.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Uh, that is so jack is really.
He is my father at West Ottawa.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Really.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
He's the same age as my dad.
He has a lot of the samemannerisms, talking points,
phrasing that he'll use.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
No way.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And so it's been a lot of fun to get to know Jack
over the years, and I love whenhe comes into my office.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He is such a great guy.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, for you as a young person.
What did being involved inathletics do for you as you look
back in a long-term view?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Long-term view.
That's interesting.
I like trying new things andchallenging myself, and that's
what it did for me, especiallythat one year in doing water
polo I didn't know any of therules, I didn't know what to
expect.
I just showed up and I wasterrified the first practice.
(17:47):
But it taught me long-term howto believe in myself, how to be
determined, how to becompetitive, how to try new
things and know that what's theworst thing that's going to
happen I'm going to fail and I'mgoing to be okay.
And it turns out that when youtry new things, you mostly don't
fail.
Mostly, if you stick to it, youcan be successful.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
We talk a lot in the athletic world.
We talk a lot about failure,and right now that is one of
those things that I think ourkids in general struggle with
the most is failing and beingable to get up off the mat and
just go right back at it and usefail as a learning tool rather
(18:35):
than or I'm out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Failure is a life skill.
We talk about being a collegecareer and life ready.
Failure is a life skill.
You are not going to go throughthe entire.
You know, when I'm 99 years oldand I'm looking back on the
rest of my life, that hashopefully been this awesome
journey.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
No Alzheimer's in your family.
If you're hitting 99 andlooking back, yeah, like a
positive approach.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Positive approach, yeah exactly my grandpa used to
say he was gonna live forever.
I was like so maybe not, but 99for sure.
Um, and what were we talkingabout?
Oh, we were talking aboutfailure.
And I I want to look back andfeel like, man, I have some
stories, some cool stories, andyou don't get those unless you
put yourself out there, unlessyou try new things and you're
not afraid to fail.
And when you do, you learnlessons every single time.
(19:23):
And so I kids, try new stuff,don't be afraid to fail, like
you're going to do it.
You are going to fail manytimes in your life and that's
okay.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, you see a lot of uh I'll put it this way you
see a lot of people who aresuccessful and are at the top of
their profession, which I'llput you at Okay.
So from an outsider, looking in, you're like, oh man, they
must've killed it their wholelife, right?
They're always confident,they're always achieving,
they're just getting everythingthey want.
It's never that road.
When you sit down and talk withsomebody, you know you got your
(19:54):
failures, you got yourchallenges.
You probably had times wherelike, well, should I do this or
shouldn't I write, a littleself-doubt creeps in, but you
keep moving forward and you doit and you take the step forward
, and that's really the story ofa lot of people who are
successful.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Well, I'm 100%, christy.
You mentioned earlier middleschool and trying all the stuff.
Like our middle school athleticprogram is exactly.
It's built for that reason.
Right, there's four seasonsinstead of three, so kids can
try all of these differentthings and kind of find what it
is that really is going to drivethem.
Um, and failure is a big partof that.
(20:28):
At the middle school level,right, you've never played
basketball before, but I made abasketball team and, oh, and,
I'm not very good, but I'm justgoing to keep going.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Or maybe I'm not very good and I find where I could
be better and I'm not very good,but I'm just going to keep
going.
Or maybe I'm not very good andI find where I could be better
and I'm going to.
You know, try to make a goaland work towards getting better.
Right Like it's, you find, youfind your way and through that
failure, and every singlefailure has, and everything
single mistake that kids makehas a silver lining.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
For sure.
You graduated West Ottawa in1998.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Don't do the math, but yes, that's another century.
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Sorry, christy Jernigan, I'm the oldest in the
room, so you know you guys canjust make fun of me if you're
feeling bad about your age.
You graduate in 1998, you wentoff to Michigan State right.
So you were there.
Yeah, you were there for fouryears and then you did some.
You did some other things.
Were you involved in sportsthere?
Did you like being a fan?
What kind of stuff did you dosports-wise, athletically-wise,
when you were on campus?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, I'm a huge Spartan.
I love, love sports.
I loved going to the basketballgames, football games, just
being part of the student lifethere.
Yeah, and I think if we livedcloser to Lansing I would be a
season ticket holder.
I just love going to sports andbeing in that energetic
environment.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Yeah, state state's a special place, so, as a
transplant to the state ofMichigan, when I first moved to
Michigan I lived in Lansing, so,like you just kind of ingrain
yourself to, oh, it's SpartanSaturday or the basketball team,
(22:06):
and then obviously Cammy's aMichigan state grad as well, so
I call myself, I consider myself, a Spartan by marriage.
Um, there's one team I will notcheer for, sparty against,
though, and that's the Terps.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's right, maryland.
Yeah, every time Maryland's,I'm like I know what.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Bill's doing right now.
That's right, Maryland, I doknow that.
Yep, yep, yeah.
Every time Maryland's on, I'mlike I know what Bill's doing
right now.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
That's right Dialed in.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
He's dialed in.
You've always been a fan ofhigh school sports.
I know one of your favoriteplaces to be she has a very big
smile on her face right now ison the sidelines on Friday
nights at West Ottawa Stadium.
What does a game night looklike for you?
Maybe look like for you, maybea game day, all that.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah.
So first of all I do have tosay I think it is so much fun to
be on the sidelines of football.
I never had that opportunityuntil I was a head principal.
I love it, it's so much fun.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Doesn't Pat Collins call you the GM when you're out?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
there, it's his nickname.
I don't know how many peopleknow him, but he calls me the GM
.
Yes, just because I love thesound, I love the energy, I love
just being close and watchingthings happen up close.
It's really, really fun.
And I think probably I missedmy calling.
I don't know.
No, but yeah, game days for me,I mean Fridays at West Idaho
(23:16):
High School are always special.
Anyway, we do our Pride Fridaysand we, you know, give shout
outs to the kids who have reallyshown their teachers all their
attributes of pride, and that'ssuper fun.
Because I don't know if youknow, rodney, but we go around,
I announce their names on theannouncements on Friday morning,
we go around, we give themcoupons and gift cards and
(23:36):
things like that, and we make aruckus and it's really really
fun.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
That's really cool, yep.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
And we'd go into classrooms and, just like you
know, scream their name andwe're like happy pride Friday.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And so that's always a fun way to start Fridays.
And then we gear up afterschool, we get ready to help the
you know black hole get wherethey need to be and and be
positive, uh, for force for ourfootball team.
And, yeah, I just love, I lovethe whole thing of it.
Um, I love the band, I love thecheerleaders.
You know love what Mindy hasbeen doing with our program.
(24:09):
It's awesome.
She's doing so many good thingsand uh, so yeah, I love the
whole environment of Fridaysunder the Lights.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You just got to something I wanted to go into
more detail on when you werethere on a Friday night.
It's not just the footballplayers, right?
Nope, and I was making thislist up and I was like, okay,
another one.
I'm like who else?
So you have football players,you have the band, you have drum
line, which is probably part ofthe band, but I'm not here
every day.
So, no, it is yes, all right.
You have the black hole, youhave dance teams, you have Will
(24:37):
BN students up in the boothrunning music and scoreboard
graphics and hitting the lightsthat stay on for three minutes.
You also have videos.
That's a shout out to our man,quinn Vandercamp.
You have videos made by Will BNplaying on the big screen, et
cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I guess for both of you, youcan both speak to this as ADN
principal.
What do you feel about ourschool, our community and our
(24:58):
students when you take a momentto really think about what makes
up a Friday night?
Maybe, bill, you can start, andthen we'll go, Christie.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Friday nights, for me , are always special.
I was a football guy, I am afootball guy, I'll always be a
football guy.
Um, there's no place I'd ratherbe on a Friday night than in a
high school stadium.
Whether it's at West Ottawa orwhen we're on the road, I don't
miss Friday night football games.
It's what I think are the ninebest guaranteed nights of my
(25:27):
year.
Um, and it's because of thoseother things, though, right,
it's the fact that it's the onesport that brings together the
marching band, the cheer program, the Wobie and kids upstairs,
the student body that turns out,the community that turns out.
Since we've opened West OttawaStadium, there are.
I really can't think of a nightwhere I've looked up in the
(25:51):
stands and thought, man, wedon't have very many people here
tonight.
It's always there, the peoplejust show up.
So that, for me, is what I loveabout Fridays.
It's the unifier of thecommunity, and it's a Friday,
right, everybody's excited forthe weekend and that's the way
they have chosen to come andspend it with us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
How about you, christy, just all the students
that are there participating andmaking an impact in our
community?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Bill said it, he hit the nail on the head.
It's about bringing ourcommunity together and I would
say not just football too, butlike all of our sports, I love
going to as many as I can andseeing our community members
coming out and supporting ourkids.
We talk about how we are theheart of the community and you
can see that when we offer thoseopportunities for our families
to come and engage in the school.
(26:37):
And there's just nothing,there's nothing better, just
seeing people come out andsupport our kids and really
feeling like we are at the heartof the community.
It actually can't talk abouttoo much because it starts to
choke up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
We're not going to stop you.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I'm a lifer I really am.
I bleed black and white and I'ma Panther for life.
Because of those kinds ofthings, because of our community
.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
So one of my fondest memories that I've got to share
with Christy is the night of thefirst ever football game at
West Ottawa Stadium and we werecoming from a very old spot that
you know that didn't have a lotof bells and whistles, and now
all of a sudden we're in a placewhere it has a bunch of bells
and whistles and I rememberwalking up to her at the end and
(27:22):
I looked at her and I said thisis the new normal, like we get
to do this again next week.
Sure, it's just, it's reallytransformed.
What we're able to do, um, andI think further shows like
especially with woe bn and kindof their involvement in this
year that we're just starting toscratch the surface of what
(27:45):
facilities like west ottawastadium can provide, which kind
of segues me right into the nextthing that I want to ask you
I'm a big segue guy.
I should get one to go up anddown main street.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
That's, that's that would really would be the 29 one
on the road.
It would mobile on segues, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I'm not.
I would be lying if I saidpeople haven't asked me if they
can get them.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
So, since you have taken over as the principal,
you've seen the opening of WestOttawa Stadium.
We just opened the PerformingArts Center.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Gorgeous, it is.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
And now we just broke ground on the Aquatic and
Community Center.
Could you talk to us a littlebit about what it's been like to
kind of see that, especially asa lifelong Panther?
Right, You're seeing thesefacilities that you grew up in
change completely.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I know it's, it's overwhelming, it's exciting.
I mean like, how lucky are ourkids to have these spaces and
how incredible again is ourcommunity that they're going to.
They want to provide thosespaces for our kids, our that
they want to provide thosespaces for our kids.
Our PAC is unreal.
Gorgeous and when they had thereally cool red carpet event for
(29:00):
the musical recently.
It was, I mean, people weredressed to the nines.
It was so fun and I just feelso lucky.
And, going back to feelingindebted to the community, I
want to do things so right forour kids and I want to have all
of these awesome facilitiesbecause our kids deserve it.
(29:22):
They'll go to other buildingsand they feel like these are
normal.
They think that our stadium andour PAC are like what?
Like this is just a thing right.
And you go to other schools,which and we have like all of
the schools around us havebeautiful facilities.
They really do.
But when you leave our campusand you go to other ones,
sometimes it's like oh, I didn'trealize that this wasn't normal
(29:45):
, and so for me, I just I feelso lucky to get to be the one to
open some of these things, butalso, you know, like I want to
make sure I don't mess it upRight, and so there's a little
bit of weight.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
You guys got some weight on you there with all
these facilities, yep.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, I remember the pressure that I felt for that
first home football game wasimmense.
Right Cause, now we've got thisshiny new toy Don't mess it up
and we've got to make sure thatwe're showing it off right, and
and you cannot do it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, you can certainly underperform a place,
and you haven't, nope I don'tthink so.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I talked with our statin sports class first hour
I've got another appointmenthere sixth hour and I told them
that I would put our productionon a friday night up against
anybody.
I don't think there's a highschool out there that can match
us on a friday night I like theability for students to feel
this incredible in-gameexperience.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's why I've always pushed a little bit
giving kids that experience atevery sorry at least let's talk
we'll a little bit giving kidsthat experience at every sorry
at least we'll talk footballspecifically.
But giving them that experienceas freshmen and as sophomores
and as seniors, juniors as well,but the three levels it's
because some kid that's theironly time, their only time on
football is that freshman year.
(31:08):
It's like let's make them feellike they're at, you know
they're on the big level, youknow.
So cause then everybody getsthat chance to go to varsity,
that sort of thing.
You had mentioned this too,christy, but you know we have
all these 29 varsity sports.
What other sports do you liketo get around to and and try and
watch?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
You know, when I became the new principal, jason
Reinecke gave me really goodadvice.
The new principal, jasonReinecke, gave me really good
advice and he said every sport,every level.
So I try to make it and I do.
I try to make it to every sport, every level, I do.
I am a member of the communityso I have a lot of friends,
family friends here who theirkids play sports and so I love
(31:46):
going to I mean everything and Itry to be involved in
everything and watch every kidplay every sport.
Um, and my friend's kids playsports and so I love going to
the track.
Uh, the track meets, especiallycause I I ran girls basketball
I they are my favorite team.
You're not supposed to havefavorites.
(32:07):
I apologize.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
That's okay.
You know what Everyone alwayssays you're not supposed to have
favorites.
Can we just cut it?
It's very likely you have afavorite kid.
It's very likely you have afavorite.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
whatever it's a very educator thing to do.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It is.
I think cross country is superfun.
We've got a really, really coolcourse that the kids run.
I think it's fun to go to that.
I make it to the competitivecheer competition every year.
That's so much fun to watch theenergy.
If you haven't been to a cheercompetition, it's wild.
It's so much fun and you can'tmatch that energy in many places
.
So you know swimming and try toget as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And you can turn those into date nights, right?
Isn't that the story?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, mr Jernigan, if he wants to hang out with me
and fortunately he is just asmuch of a sports fan as me.
But we often go together andbill will make fun of us and be
like date night, sure is?
Speaker 4 (33:00):
and I do the very same thing.
I think, rodney, the first timeyou met my wife cammy, it was a
date night at east kentwoodhigh school and you were like,
oh, you really do exist that waspretty much it he thought cammy
was my imaginary friend yeah, Idid for a long time.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, cammy, this cammy that I'm like cammy not
around at anywhere I can see,but you keep saying what you're
saying.
But anyways, got the chance tomeet cammy in person.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
She's fantastic, she's great yeah, she was at
hockey with me the other night,so you know, it's one of those
things that, as an administratorand you're overseeing these
programs, and you want to bethere and support kids.
Lucky to have spouses that arewilling to do that with us.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Yeah, I always say that education in general is a
lifestyle, not a job, and so Iam very blessed, you know, going
back to the girls and havingRyan, who is a sports fan.
I'm blessed to have a familythat is in it with me at the
same time doing the same things.
Otherwise, I'm not sure that Iwould be able to pull it off, if
I'm being honest.
So it is about just blendingthe awesome programs you want to
(34:05):
support and doing your life.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We do a lot of things around here that are very
tangible with students,especially student athletes.
How does the school supportlike student athletes who may be
facing challenges with theirstudies and being eligible for
games?
How do you guys work togetheron that?
Speaker 4 (34:33):
was born out of that right.
I mean that is a an hour twicea week that kids can check in,
check out with differentteachers that maybe they're
having struggles with.
There's also low access afterschool a couple days a week
that's available for kids,especially those who I don't
know.
Maybe you have a game at 5 30so you've got a little bit of
extra time hanging out afterschool.
Maybe you should swing in thereand dial in the studies a
little bit because, as we alwayssay, we're student athletes and
(34:57):
in that order.
That's true, we do say that,athlete.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, and that's I would say.
For me there's no difference,like I, for me it's just
supporting all kids and theiracademics, athletes or otherwise
, and we have more supports herethan you can, I we can.
Our podcast would be too long.
But yeah, just the after schoolsupports.
We recently started somethinglast year called Triple T,
(35:20):
targeted Tutoring Time, and it'sfor students who potentially
need to owe some time to theschool and themselves.
If you owe the school some timeafter school, why are you not
getting some academic help right?
So we have Woe Access onMondays and Wednesdays.
We've got targeted tutoringtime.
On Thursdays, we've gotseminars and built-in
(35:41):
intervention.
We have two full-timeinterventionists.
Like I said, this is going tobe long, but I'll keep it short.
We've got a math interventionist, an ELA interventionist and ELA
interventionist.
Their entire job is to catchkids, primarily in ninth grade,
and make sure that they can passAlgebra 1 and English 1.
I've got two instructionalcoaches that can help our
teachers, especially our newteachers, in their classrooms
(36:03):
and we just have all of theseincredible supports.
We have eight EL teachers.
Our kids, from an academic, youknow, perspective, have more
supports than any of the otherschools around us and I'm really
, really proud of that.
And we continue as a district topush ourselves to get even more
supports.
And, and not only that, youknow Winn-Woe and Panther Fund
(36:28):
are there, not academically,obviously, but to be able to
support students with needs,either extracurricularly or
through Panther Fund, oracademically through Panther
Fund or basic needs throughWynwall.
So we've got a lot going on andI want to just mention this
earlier.
I can't remember what we weretalking about, but it was
something you know like how,putting the big events on.
(36:50):
I feel like my job is makingsure that I've got the right
people in the right places tomake all of those things happen,
to make all of the moving partsthat we can provide for our
students and do provide ourstudents.
I've got the right people inthose places that they can take
their thing and run with it.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, and that's the whole nature of community
getting people to come out andbe part of everything.
Do you have any examplesbecause you've been teaching for
a long time assistant principal, principal, elementary school
principal do you have, like anytangible examples of maybe you
don't have to say their name,but a student that maybe has
gone through some of that andcome out clean on the other side
Shawshank reference there.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
So yeah, and there's.
I don't want to get too nerdy.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Oh be nerdy.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Okay, all right, so I was a math teacher, friends, so
it's in my nature.
There's brain researchsurrounding kids being involved
in extracurricular activities atschool, sports being a big one
of those, right, but we've got54 clubs kids can get involved
in.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, yeah.
And so there's brain researcharound kids successfully
thriving in school when they'reinvolved in extracurricular
activities.
Actually, sometimes when wehave students who make some poor
choices and we need to create aplan with them of like how are
we going to do better in thefuture, a lot of times I'll say
you know what and you need tojoin a club or a sport or
whatever because it really isbetter for them, and so I have
(38:17):
many kids that I can think ofwhere being a part of a team has
really been the saving gracefor them academically and
getting them across the stage tograduation, Because that's
really what it is is.
We want not only for our kids tograduate and be successful and
get a high school diploma, wewant them to be successful after
(38:38):
high school too.
We want them to be able to stayin our community and be positive
members of our community, right.
So I can think of oneparticular student I don't want
to use his name.
He's graduating this year.
When he came in as a freshman Iwould have met him in March,
because that's when I came andbecame the principal and he had
(38:58):
really big behaviors, sometrauma.
He was failing all his classes,not great attendance and
through the work of ourassistant principals, his
counselor, some of his coaches,that kind of had to pull him
along to keep him academicallyeligible or to keep him coming
(39:19):
to practice or to get him topractice or get him home from
practice or whatever.
He's going to make it and thatis such a cool success story and
, how I said earlier, how it'splaying the long game.
That's what sports can do forkids is play the long game and
get them to the finish linewhere they can be really awesome
humans at the end.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So I love that she talked about the correlation
between participation inextracurriculars and success,
because that was my master'sthesis.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
There you go.
How'd I do?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
It's, the research is all there.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
My question is how did you do on your thesis?
Did you miss that?
Speaker 4 (39:56):
I had an excellent score on the master's thesis.
I'm sure you did.
I'm sure you did, I can write apaper with the best of them.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I just want everyone to know.
We do what's called astoryboard for these podcasts,
and Christy Jernigan has jumpedthe storyboard at every time
because she knows what to talkabout next.
It is I've never seen it wherewe want to hit something next
and you are on it.
It's happened four, five, sixtimes already, so kudos to you,
for she's a pro podcastinterview.
Yeah well, there's going to beSomeone's going on vacation, or
(40:27):
oh put me in.
Bill Kennedy had that sorethroat, but Bill Kennedy loves
his sore throat.
Bill Kennedy have that sorethroat, but Bill Kennedy loves
his sore throat.
Let's be honest, get thatgravelly, it makes the voice
better, yeah, great, well,seasons are about to start, or
have started.
Bill, can you walk us throughwhat sports are going on right
now?
Speaker 4 (40:41):
Yeah, so we're three hockey games into the season
already.
Hockey is always the first onethat gets rolling in the
wintertime, so we're back athome.
Friday and Saturday of thisupcoming week.
Friday and Saturday of thisupcoming week, boys basketball
gets started.
Next week, girls basketball theweek following Competitive
cheer wrestling.
Very shortly you'll get rollingwith their competitions.
They have more of a ramp upinto their season.
(41:02):
And then we still have a fallsport that is competing right
now, which is hard to believebecause the state swim meet is
this upcoming weekend.
And then our aquatics director,assistant athletic director,
swim coach, steve Boyer.
He gets the one day off inbetween seasons.
He finishes the state meet forthe girls on Saturday and he has
his Sunday, and then he startsboys on Monday morning.
(41:24):
That is wild so he has theshortest turnaround of any coach
I know.
But he's a grinder becauseswimmers grind.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
They certainly do.
This has been really nice tosit down with you, christy
Jernigan.
It's nice to spend time andmeet you.
If you are listening to thispodcast, we want to thank you
for doing that and taking thetime.
Say hi to Bill, say hi toChristy.
They're here, they're part ofthe community with us, we are
West Ottawa, we are community.
We are West Ottawa, we arecommunity, we are each other.
Thanks for coming on, chris.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
You're welcome and, as always, go low.
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