From his youth, Mr. Terry Kernan knew that he wanted to be a teacher although he may not have known how far this would develop. His history at Gonzaga runs deep with 15 of his cousins attending this school and himself. While a student, he was a prevalent student-athlete, and now he passes on his skills through coaching.
“I played football and basketball at Gonzaga. I was the quarterback for the football team and played two years of varsity basketball,” Mr. Kernan said.
Once he graduated from Gonzaga in 2008, he then went on to St. Vincent where he played football and majored in mathematics. He taught for three years in St. Elizabeth’s School in Rockville, Maryland and has now come full circle to teach at Gonzaga.
As both a full-time teacher and part-time assistant athletics director, his days are busy. He teaches fou
r sections of Algebra I and a class for seniors called Applied Statistics.
Mr. Kernan is interested in moving to being Assistant Athletics Director full-time and teaching part-time next year. There, he would be in charge of even more sports-related activities on top of his duties of scheduling bus rides and more. He is currently in charge of scheduling buses for every sports team, but he also works out bus availability for Kairos and more.
Mr. Kernan said that his days can be quite busy although it is never more than he can handle.
“An average day consists of getting here early, prepping for classes — making sure I have all my tests made, worksheets done, and all the lesson plans for the day. Then I teach two to three classes depending on the day, and if we have a sporting event in the afternoon, I spend my free period helping set up for that. During free periods, I also look into scheduling for buses for each afternoon,” Mr. Kernan said.
Mr. Kernan is both a passionate teacher and coach, and he sees it as his duty to prepare Gonzaga students to be men for others.
“Being able to work with kids and make them come in as boys and leave as men— I love every aspect of it,” he said.
Mr. Joe Reyda, director of athletics, is happy to have Mr. Kernan in his department now.
“It’s great to have two alumni (Mr. Kernan and Mr. Marshall Marks) working in the office who are familiar with Gonzaga Sports. Both were involved in athletics in their time at Gonzaga as a student, and Coach Kernan has been coaching and teaching at Gonzaga for almost 10 years now. It is a great addition to the department,” Mr. Reyda said.
Leslie Keiser • Mar 18, 2022 at 11:51 am
Well done, Chris.