Darrell Johnson looks for to finishing his teaching career at Gull Lake
With 29 years of experience teaching students, the majority being high schoolers along with 20 years of coaching, Daryll Johnson has recently come to Gull Lake High School. Beginning this final trimester of the 2021-22 school year, he’ll be teaching one freshman, 9B and four sophomore English sections of 10B classes. Not only will Johnson be teaching English, but he’ll also be coaching varsity football this fall in the 2022-2023 season.
Johnson said he reached out for the opportunity to teach and coach in the district because he was searching for a change. After years at Comstock and Battle Creek schools, he was welcomed into Gull Lake by previous colleagues like ELA teacher Josh Cunningham and chemistry teacher Paul Schillio.
“Coming into a school is never really isolating,” Johnson said.
Many of the teachers have been helping him get settled. Before the new trimester had even started, Johnson even ran an errand for Sheila Wood’s debate class and subbed in classes, including Cheryl Jolin’s AP Literature class.
As for coaching, Johnson said he has coached a variety of sports. In the past, the majority of his coaching experience focused on football, but he has also coached six years of wrestling too.
“Football is my favorite sport to coach, while lacrosse, which I haven’t coached yet, is my second favorite sport. I definitely would like to though,” Johnson said.
Coincidentally, Johnson has worked with principal Don Eastman–also one of Gull Lake’s varsity football coaches. He said that this makes the job less stressful knowing there are familiar faces to work with.
“I want to work towards building the athletics department,” Johnson said.
This year the varsity team won 5 games and lost 5 in this 2021-2022 season and he looks to build on this success.
Moving forward, Johnson said he hopes to be helpful to the school and the community.
“I can use my experience to help the staff and build the players’ skills,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping to help motivate them more and build their confidence to keep them improving.”
Hi, I’m Lily Page, a junior here at Gull Lake High School. I’m going to be one of the staff members for The Reflection this year, which is going to be an exciting experience. I initially joined the newspaper to further excel in my writing and having dedicated time to actually write will do my experience justice. Throughout the undesirable moments in life, I find it best to de-stress by playing Minecraft, listening to rain noises and cuddling with my cat. My cat and friends mean so much to me as they provide plenty of laughter and support. What do I usually do in Minecraft, though? I’d say I enjoy gathering materials because building advanced houses are too much for my brain to conjure up. Hopefully, this gave you a little insight into another one of the staff members.