Other Duties As Assigned

There's more to teaching at a small private school than most people realize. Lunch duty, detention, coffee breaks, baby sitting, countless hours talking trash about people in the teachers' lounge, coffee breaks, taking naps ( ... oh wait ... that was just Karl ...). There were "other duties as assigned". Mine were Yearbook Advisor, Soccer Coach, Editor of the newsletter and ... in later years ... Admissions Director.

The first Admissions Director was Bob Bradshaw. He came to Canterbury the year after I arrived. Bright guy ... the product of Northeast prep schools, graduated from Yale ... set to follow in his father's footsteps as a Philadelphia attorney ... but he headed south to St. Pete instead. Turned out he was much happier teaching school and coaching basketball for about $4000 a year. Go and figure. Bob was a voracious writer too ... his class notes were the size of a James Michener novel. I remember when he first came, I did a piece on him to introduce him to the school community. Bob's resume was so long that I had to just do the highlights: Eagle Scout merit award and ping pong champion of the 6th Grade. I am not kidding (probably cinched the job for him). Bob's a great guy and a great teacher. He still is teaching today ... but now pulls in about $15,000 a year (kidding, Bob ... if you are still talking to me after reading this).

Bob was a great basketball coach by the way. We had many winning seasons. On the other hand, I have to admit I was the worst soccer coach in the history of Canterbury sports. Fortunately I coached the JV team and not Varsity. I never played soccer in my life so coaching it presented some challenges. I carried a little soccer manual with me at all times. Just picture me in the middle of the practice field reading my book and lining up the team for one of the drills.

Needless to say we had a perfect season 0 and 10.