Coach, teacher, mentor, are just a few words to describe the most inspirational teacher I’ve had: Ty Breitlow. What makes him my mentor is not only how we connected on the football field, both being defensive lineman, but also how many life lessons he taught me in the classroom. Ty Breitlow, a social studies teacher, taught me freshman and sophomore year, both semesters.

Mr. Breitlow had the ability to connect with every student he taught, no matter how interested a student was, just by his life lessons and stories. He once told a story of him running over one of his father-in-law’s cows with a truck. After checking on the cow, he went to find his father-in-law. Knowing he made a big mistake, he owned up to it right away. The moral of the story was no mistake is too big as long as you own up to it from the start, and I truly believe that.

Usually when you walk into class on the first day of the semester, you can tell certain students aren’t here to learn, they’re here because they have to be. Most teachers try to engage them once or twice with no reaction and give up. Mr. Breitlow, however, kept encouraging them to participate and to be more comfortable in the classroom. Sometimes Mr. B’s attempt to connect with the uninterested students didn’t work, but more often than not, they would start opening up and participate. Not many teachers would continue interacting with those kids, but Mr. Breitlow did.

In the grand scheme of things when, you’re done with high school the most important thing is the grades that appear on your transcript. Not for Mr. B. His big thing was effort. Mr. Breitlow often told stories of his youth and how he was never the best kid. Once he launched bottle rockets in the hallway of his middle school. He said, “I used to care less about school.” That basically summed up my entire school life: school’s stupid, why do I have to be here? That was until Breitlow’s class. Mr. B was the first teacher to see me and to push me to my potential. He would always say, “Maurer, someday you will see your full potential and regret that you didn’t put in more effort. I just hope it’s not too late when you do.” Breitlow as usual was right. Looking back, I wish I would have put in more effort, but looking forward, I know what I’m capable of and I will continue to push myself.

My lack of effort wasn’t just apparent to him in the classroom, but it was also apparent on the football field. I would take plays off and take the lazy way out in practice, always making excuses not to get more reps. Mr. Breitlow could see that and he tried to get me fired up to take every rep I got at full strength. In the middle of games, he’d come up to me, “Next play you’re in. I want to see you at 100%.” When I didn’t, he would call me out on it, only to try and get me more fired up.

All these stories he told and things he’d say on the football field revolved around two things: effort and persistence. Those two qualities describe not only what Mr. Breitlow stands for but also what in turn makes him a great teacher, coach, and mentor.

In the past two years, Mr. Breitlow has since moved away from Arrowhead High School to pursue a higher level of teaching as principal of Chilton High School in Northern Wisconsin. But I will never forget the life lesson that he taught me. I will continue to push myself in everything I do, to someday be a coach, teacher, mentor to someone else.