History Teacher By Day, Coach By Night

Have you ever heard the story of Superman? Or the legend of Batman? Have you ever met someone who is one person during the day and a totally different person at night? Well if not, let me introduce you to Mr. Joe Walterbach, history teacher by day and girls basketball coach by night.

“I wake up at 5:15 a.m., then I usually do some type of quick workout. I get to school at 6:40, teach kids, then I run 4-5 miles after school. Finally, I go to basketball practice for about two hours,” Walterbach said when explaining his busy schedule. “It’s overwhelming.” 

Walterbach spends a total of 11 hours at school every day, and about three hours coaching the basketball team. 

“It’s very challenging and if we don’t do something right, he challenges us to do better,” sophomore Dori Earle said, who is on the JV girls basketball team. “He pushes us to the max, even if it’s just a simple warm-up.” 

Walterbach has been teaching history and coaching basketball for 15 years.  

When asked about if it’s easy to coach the kids in his history class, Walterbach says, “It makes it so much easier because you get to know people on a different level.” 

The girls basketball team practices every day after school until 5 o’clock and works hard to give it their all.