PHS Teacher Talk
Inside Scoop on the Life of Mr. Legate
By Raegan Theisen
Mr. Tyler Legate teaches math, science, and strength and fitness at Pierce High. Legate is the head coach for boys wrestling and an assistant coach for football.
Also, Legate is happily married and has four daughters. Legate claims, “I was inspired to be a teacher from the positive experiences that I had at Neligh-Oakdale schools. My high school wrestling coach, Gary Davis, was someone who pushed his wrestlers to be their best day in and day out. I always looked up to him, and I wanted to be like him. My mom was also a teacher and seeing the impact she made on kids' lives is what also directed me to be an education major.”
There are a lot of things that are not known about teachers, like their hidden talents. Although, Legate is an open book, so he does not hide anything. His talents are for all to see.
Legate is happy to be a staff member at Pierce High. He likes the people that he works with and works for. He also appreciates how hard working most students are.
Many students wonder what teachers do outside of school. Well, on a typical Saturday night, Legate likes to watch sports and spend time with his family. Speaking of family, Legate says that his dream vacation would be anything as long as he is with them.
With summer around the corner, Legate shared that his summer vacation will be spent in the weight room and at summer camps. The last thing to know about Legate is that if he won the lottery, he would invest the money in real estate.
Senior Benjamin Brahmer comments, “Coach Legate is a great person, mentor, coach, and teacher. He involves himself in most of his student’s lives and understands them. Mr. Legate is a great motivator in all situations and gets the best out of all of his students.”
Teacher Talk with Mr. Painter
By Sierra Sonnenfelt
Mr. Les Painter has been teaching at Pierce High for four years. He teaches high school physical education and assists with coaching football and wrestling. He is also the head track coach this year. A man full of surprises, Painter has a lot of experiences and fun facts you may not know about. Here are just a few!
Painter has done several crazy things here at Pierce High, as well as previous schools he taught at.. When asked what the most embarrassing memory he has he said, “Probably when I was forced to wear a wrestling singlet in a pep rally. I bet that was quite the show for everyone.”
Along with entertaining, Painter is very inspirational, but he learned it from somewhere. His inspiration for becoming a teacher comes from a man named Mike Max. He also just genuinely loves kids and wants to help whoever he can.
Hidden talents Painter possesses include roping, juggling, and singing. In college, Painter says he was a part of the college choir, singing his heart out.
When asked what his typical Saturday night consists of, he says he relaxes while sitting on the couch. Usually, he can be found watching CSI, or his new favorite show Fire Country.
Many teachers at the high school have several creative punishments for students who do not follow the rules. Painter calls his a week of PTA, which consists of a week of running. He calls it, “Fun running experiences, usually on the stairs.”
Painter says his dream vacation would be anywhere warm and sunny. He says he would like to go to Texas or Florida for a week to relax.
Painter loves a lot about Pierce High, but his favorite is the kids he gets to work with every day. He especially enjoys joking around with them. He also loves the great education his own children get going to school here.
If he were to win the lottery, Painter says he would possibly begin working with livestock, or he would get into bucking bulls and roping.
A trend that absolutely baffles Painter is holes in the pants, particularly ripped jeans. His favorite slang term right now is “bussin” and his least favorite is the two-year-old talk, like “witeally” or the griddy.
Along with being an icon himself, his most iconic saying is “I’ll tell you what.”
Bode Hoffman was asked what his favorite thing about Painter was and he says, “He is always so great with the kids. He is enjoyable and loves to throw jokes at you. He really is just a stand-up guy, ready to be there for anyone.”
Teacher Talk with Mr. Shadley
By Sierra Sonnenfelt
Mr. Jack Shadley has been enjoying his time so far in his first year at Pierce High. He is a huge part of Pierce High athletics especially as Shadley is the assistant coach in football, boys basketball, and track and field. During the summer, he also can be seen helping out in the weight room. Shadley teaches elementary physical education, as well as, both junior high classes too.
Throughout his time at Pierce High, he has learned things from not only his students, but also his colleagues.
Shadley’s most embarrassing moment was when he glued his forehead shut. It was on Halloween, during his first year as a teacher. He says he was elbowed during basketball..
His inspiration to become a teacher came from his father. “My dad was also a coach as well as a teacher. He was constantly helping, and I wanted to do that too.”
In his evenings when not coaching, Shadley spends his time relaxing. He says his typical Saturday night includes watching sports on TV, or reruns of past Pierce High games after dinner or practices.
Shadley’s dream vacation includes somewhere warm, with a beautiful beach. Quite the opposite of Nebraska’s weather right now. In particular, he would like to take a trip to sunny Costa Rica.
When he is not teaching or coaching during the summer, Shadley can often be spotted out on the golf course. He spends a lot of time either swinging the club or being in the weightroom.
His favorite thing about Pierce High is how welcoming everyone has been. “From the staff and students, everyone has been so kind to me during my first year, and it's great,” says Shadley.
When asked if he won the lottery, he says he would use most of the money to help pay off his parents’ house, since they have always been helpful to him. Being his inspiration, he would like to repay them.
A specific trend that baffles Shadley is the Prime drink trend.
Abram Scholting, a senior who many say is Shadley’s secret twin, says that his favorite thing about Shadley is that, “He is always upbeat and encouraging; an overall great guy and always ready to make things enjoyable.”
Teacher Talk With Tanner Johnston
By Emma Risnger
After having a chat with Mr. Tanner Johnston, Pierce High’s American history 1 and world history teacher, we unveiled some fun facts about him!
Johnston is only teaching at Pierce for the 2022-2023 academic year. However, he says that one of the things which he loves most about Pierce high school is the students. He reports that what he enjoys most is seeing the friendships between students develop.
But, Johnston does have some in class memories that perhaps are not remembered so fondly. Johnston says that his most embarrassing teacher memory was, “Last semester, when the bell had just rang, I was walking into class and tripped over my shoe lace in front of the class. The thing was that I was also carrying a cup of coffee.”
In addition, some current slang and trends going around PHS which baffle Johnston include the terms “cap” (his personal favorite slang term) and least favorite: “fire,” specifically “fire” being used as an adjective. Johnston also says that he is not a fan of Yeezy shoes and does not understand why they are so popular and expensive, because “They may be the most unattractive shoes/sandals that have ever been created.”
After he’s off the clock, though, a typical Saturday night for Johnston includes watching some basketball and playing a board game with his daughters Baylor and Lennon. To add, he noted that a talent and hobby of his is painting. His summer break typically includes golfing, coaching youth softball, and boating at Lewis and Clark Lake.
Johnston says that if he were to win the lottery, he explains that he would donate a portion of the money to the City of Wausa, buy a new pontoon boat, buy a vacation home on a lake in Tennessee, and do some traveling. Johnston says that his dream vacation would be a round trip through the Mediterranean: first Athens, Greece; then onto Istanbul and Damascus; followed by a stop in Cairo, Egypt; then back up to Cordoba, Spain, and finally, Italy.
All hypotheticals aside, Johnston says that at the end of the day, his inspiration for becoming a teacher was his family. Many of his close relatives are also in the profession. His mother, grandfather, as well as eight of his twelve cousins are all teachers!
Teacher Talks with Mr. Shada
By Addison Croghan
Teaching American History II and helping with multiple extracurricular activities, Mr. Gary Shada is one of our beloved teachers here at Pierce High, but there are things people did not know about him.
Starting off, his inspiration to be a teacher would be Tom Anderson, his high school cross country coach, and Tom McCann, his high school wrestling coach. He states that the passion that they put into their job was very inspirational. He finished by saying his senior English teacher, Mrs. Francis, was probably his best teacher because she was able to relate to her students the best, and every class was different than the day before.
Pierce High is a great fit for Shada! He states that he loves that people do not stay in one place doing their job for as long as he has been at Pierce High. What has kept him here for so long is the friendships that he has made with so many co-workers, even some that have become almost like family.
On the other hand, Shada’s most embarrassing teaching moment would have to be when he was a student teaching in Lexington and asked a student a question thinking he was going to answer the question and instead the student told him that a girl in the class liked Shada. He felt his face turn bright red as the whole class broke out in laughter because of how embarrassed he was.
The worst experience Shada had with catching a student cheating would be standing right behind a student and watching them take a quiz and switch screens from their notes to the quiz while they looked directly at Shada and continued on taking the quiz. Continuing, Shada is not really known for his creative punishments, but he will have students write what it was that they did and then send that to their parents and let them know that what they read was in their student's words.
Moving on from school-related things, a typical Saturday night for Shada would depend on the time of the year. During the school year, it is mainly staying home and just relaxing. In the summertime, it could be fishing or getting work done around the house, especially if it was hot during the day. Speaking of the summer, Shada spends his summer trying to stay as busy as possible, such as coming into the school four times a week at 7 a.m. for a team run, working around his acreage, working with Tim Waldner, or trying to squeeze in some fishing.
When asked about a dream vacation, Shada would definitely visit the Alps in Europe in the spring after the snow has melted and everything is in bloom.
Even better, if Shada were to win the lottery, he would most likely retire, depending on the dollar amount. He would then donate some to worthy non-profit organizations and possibly make a dream purchase or two.
A trend that baffles Shada would be people sticking their tongues out for pictures.
What’s Up With Mr. Piper
By Addison Croghan
Teaching science 8 and physical science, Mr. Les Piper is a favorite teacher of many students.
To start, his inspiration to become a teacher started back in his high school days. Both his parents were teachers, and he had very inspiring faculty growing up.
Piper and Pierce go together great. He loves Pierce High because almost every kid is respectful and has a good sense of community and school pride.
On the other hand, a most embarrassing teacher moment for Piper would be whenever he says something inappropriate on accident and the class takes it as something else.
Continuing, his worst experience with a student cheating was when a student wrote the same essay as a classmate even with the same misspellings.
Piper’s most creative and favorite punishment was making his students wax all his tables.
Over to the non-academic activities, a typical Saturday night for Piper would depend on the season. In the fall, he is in Lincoln watching football. In the winter, he is reffing some type of basketball game. In the spring, he is usually at a sporting event. He usually spends his summer working at Lou’s on the side.
A vacation that Piper could dream of would be watching a Husker bowl game somewhere warm. Persisting, if he were to win the lottery, Piper would buy a new car, pay off debt, and keep working.
Some hidden talents nobody knows are that Piper can make a really good meatloaf, and he was the leading actor in his high school Ant and the Grasshopper play.
A trend that baffles Piper would be any social media, especially TikTok.
Teacher Talk-Mrs. Koehlmoos
By Skylar Scholting
Mrs. Debbie Koehlmoos has been teaching at Pierce for 36 years out of her 39 years of teaching. She has taught seventh grade life science, biology, physiology I, physiology II, and medical terminology and health science. She has also been an avid coach throughout her years of teaching. She has been the head girls basketball coach, an assistant volleyball coach, a junior high track, and she has been the student council sponsor.
One of the things she loves about Pierce High is the students, their work ethic, and the pride they take in their activities.
When asked what her inspiration to be a teacher was, she says, “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, my mom was one. I always wanted to be a coach. I had a lot of respect for my high school volleyball and basketball coach and knew that was what I wanted to do.”
Her most embarrassing teacher moment was when she tore her ACL in front of the whole student body by being a lion tamer for a pep rally.
Mrs. Crys Bauermeister is one room over from Mrs. Koehlmoos and has many fond memories of her. She noted that “When I’m in my classroom and I hear Mrs. Koehlmoos raise her voice and the door slams, I instantly know that one of the students is not doing what they are supposed to.”
During her many years of teaching, Koehlmoos has also come up with some very creative punishments for students misbehaving. Her favorite one is when she would make students clean the rabbit cage after it got really gross.
One of her favorite ways to spend her Saturday nights or her summer break is by spending time with her family.
Her hidden talent is that she can play the piano and organ in church.
For her dream vacation, she would either want to go on an all-inclusive trip with a bunch of friends or go to the East Coast in the fall when all the leaves are changing colors.
