Superintendent Perry, Principal Schmitz, School Board members, wall of fame members, Today's inductees, my family, Bonnie who has tolerated me for 52 years on the 7th of June, Michele, Shaun, Dyan, and Devin, Dawn, Eric, Kylee and Keegan, Ryan, Andi Oliva and Maklenna and those that made it possible for me to be an inductee. When I got the call from Mr. Perry, I was basically speechless and humbled to be an inductee and it still seems a Bit like a dream and then when he said I needed to give a speech it was like ok. So when the superintendent tells you to do something, you do it.
Sharon, before I can go on would you find me an overhead projector? Oh, that's right, I wore the last one out the last month of school and when I put the screen up my seniors said Mr. Vogler you have a smart board and I said, is that what it is called.
Thank To my mom and dad. There were chores to do every morning, meaning getting up at 5:30 and every evening after school. In the summer dad would hit us fly balls, in fall it was football routes and winter was shooting hoops outside. Mom taught school so when we were not doing outside chores it was inside. Chores, school work, then TV, and yes it was black and white with one channel and we had to stand up to turn it on and off.
While in college I got to work at the middle school and coach basketball. It was under the guidance of that principal I learned that the most important people in the school system are the cooks, custodians and the school secretaries. Lesson never forgotten.
I earned my degree and we moved back to Chippewa Falls where I am working at Farm and Fleet. I have sent out a lot of letters, with a lot of rejection and finally I got a phone call from the Superintendent of Belleville Schools saying that he would be in the Chippewa area and that He would like to meet with me. Of course I said yes to Mr. Fitch and we had an interview in his Cadillac in the parking lot of Farm and fleet. It went something like this: Would you be willing to teach middle school Science? Yes. I know you want to coach football but would you be willing to coach wrestling? Yes. Good, I will send a contract. You will start football on the 10th of Aug. I officiated 80 plus basketball games in my junior and senior year in college and took football and basketball coaching classes. Nothing on wrestling. High school wrestling record was 1 pin, one tie and I got pinned. What did I get into?
So here we go, Buying an acre of land to park the mobile home, getting someone to transport the trailer down. Outside of Middlelton Bonnie looks at me and says you have two years and we are going home. (that was 49 years ago) With that said our mobile home got parked in Middleton and the sliding door was not completely shut and it rained that night so the carpet was soaked. We stayed with the Fitch family for two nights while we were waiting for the mobile.
School starts and all is going well. Good football season and Wrestling starts. The head coach says well the best way to learn is to get in there and wrestle with them. So here goes nothing as I am working with the 167 pounders and up. Generally able to out muscle some of them After three years I took over as the head coach.
I stepped away from education for a few years, continuing to coach baseball and watch my children participate in whatever. One night while on the road I called Bon and whined about being away and she said then go back to teaching. I subbed in the area and an opening occurred in Belleville.
Mr. Moe hired me back to teach physical education, physical science, coach football and baseball along with being post prom coordinator. He also said you will take over the chicken serving line at the community picnic. Two years later I was the chairperson, interesting how that worked.
Being in charge of post prom was a lot of fun. It was an opportunity to be around students in a casual environment where they were enjoying a lot of food and fun. By four in the morning we were all a bit punchy. But safe.
When Mr. Molter retired and I became the biology teacher, it was the beginning of the insect collections. I have heard rumors that some parents are still finding insects in their freezers, with notes saying not to toss. I started the 9th grade science collection of labels to show the students what chemicals are in various foods or other household products. Once again rumor has it that some paint cans are missing the labels - hence the color. Just imagine all the great family bonding time. One final rumor has it that some students still have their science and biology notes as they were told that they never knew when they might have to review them for some actual practical use outside of school.
Coaching was always the best part of the day as I was able to return to the days of a high school freshman playing football in the cool autumn air. As a coach I had the opportunity to help young men develop not only into better athletes but to be a greater person. This sport can be very life-like in that you can be knocked down and you have to get up ready for the next play. Flashbacks: I ended Belleville football, took it to a co-op with New Glarus, Monticello, then on to a co-op with Albany and finally back to Belleville only.
In baseball we had one championship team and of those nine players, 4 played in college, so it was not really the coaching. I had the chance to coach Ryan for four years in baseball. He went on to be the head baseball coach at Bangor and he said dad lets play each other. Well, guess what, son beat dad 4 years in a row. Thank goodness he moved on.
These are just a few of the great memories that I have of someone giving me an opportunity to teach in Belleville , to raise our family, and to be a part of a great community. Again thanks to all for this honor as I am just a small part of this, it is truly the young men and women of BHS that deserve this honor. And as I always told my students at the end of class “Have a great day, Make good choices, good luck athletes and you non-athletes enjoy the day, I will see your smiling faces tomorrow and if you are not smiling I will see you anyway”
Thank you
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