Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
It wasn’t just any week in 1976. It was state high school football championship week.
The first-year teacher, who was also the boys’ assistant basketball coach, gave a test to his students. Some were seniors on the football team. Afterwards, one of them, a starting defensive back who was also a back-up quarterback – approached the wet-behind-the-ears educator.
“Coach, can I talk to you?”
Of course he could.
“Coach, I cheated on the test. There’s been so much going on with football and everything this week, I just didn’t have time (to study). I cheated on the test. I just wanted to let you know.”
Gulp.
“Talk about being stunned . . . . This was my first year teaching. I didn’t have a lot of experience with this. Since he came right up after the test and didn’t try to hide anything, my first reaction was, ‘We will deal with this.’ I really didn’t know what to do.”
The teacher, not much older than his students, could send the young man to the principal’s office, which might lead to not playing in the big game. Or the teacher could handle the issue himself.
He chose the latter and let the student re-take the test.
You may not agree with the teacher’s decision (he later consulted with an assistant principal, who did agree), but he saw this as a teaching opportunity.
“Sometimes you make bad choices. You own up to your bad choices and take responsibility without wanting something special. You take full responsibility for it and let it go.”
73-year-old Mike Mawhinney, who looks closer to 53, and is in his 50th year in the classroom – all at Loyola College Prep (formerly Jesuit High School), told me that story – and his story – during lunch at a place he chose, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. Mike had a cheeseburger, waffle fries, and sweet tea. I enjoyed a chicken avocado sandwich, waffle fries, and a water with lemon.
Let that soak in. 50 years teaching at the same school. Wow. And by the way, Jesuit won that state title, led by another senior – quarterback and now Shreveport-Bossier Journal colleague John James Marshall.
“14-0 baby!”, JJ says with pride.
With five decades in the classroom, I assumed Mike was a really good student in his day. Well, you know what they say about the word “assume.”
“I was your average student. Nothing special. I wasn’t overly motivated. I never liked to read a lot. I was more interested in playing sports and doing other activities.
Born in New Jersey, Mike and his family (one sister) moved south – his mother was from Shreveport – when Mike was in first grade.
“Back then, we played Civil War games. I was the only Yankee, so I was always getting beat up.”
But Mike also played sports – football, baseball, and basketball. When he started high school, Mike concentrated on one sport.
“I just always enjoyed watching basketball. When I was at (The Cathedral of St. John Berchmans Catholic School), I would sneak into the gym at Jesuit and watch the basketball team practice. I saw those older guys playing basketball, and that was motivation. I thought I would like to do that someday.”
He did, playing all four years. But when Mike graduated, he wanted to stay around the game – and stay around the school.
“I thought I would like to come back and coach basketball. I didn’t think about coaching any place else.”
That sounded great, but there was one issue. To coach, Mike would have to teach a subject. So, he went to LSU-Shreveport, then LSU in Baton Rouge, and earned a major in physical education and a minor in math.
“I always enjoyed math and science classes in high school . . . . I thought those would be good areas in which I could possibly teach.”
Throughout five decades, Mike has taught several subjects, including Algebra One, Algebra Two, Trigonometry, and – for the last 20-25 years – Geometry. He’s also coached several sports, including football, boys basketball, girls basketball (he started the program), golf (he’s between an eight and nine handicap), and tennis, which he has coached the past 35-40 years.
Mike has never thought about doing something different.
“I love what I’m doing. I’m not in it for the money. I enjoy working with the kids. Have there been good years and bad years, and good classes and bad classes? Of course. Every day is different . . . . I couldn’t be an accountant and sit at a desk every day and push papers and numbers. Every day is different. That’s what I like about it”
I assumed – there’s that word again – that in 50 years, Mike had seen a lot of changes in 14–17-year-olds. But he insisted kids haven’t changed that much.
“I think the biggest change is technology. Back when you were there (I am a member of the Jesuit Class of ’81), you had a calculator. I wrote on overhead projectors and had blue hands from doing all that. But the technology they have now is scary. I worry about the younger generation and all the access they have with technology. There are a lot of benefits to it, but they are so into cell phones and iPads The social skills, I would like to see people talk to somebody and not text them. I would like to see guys pick up a phone and call a girl and ask her to the homecoming dance. Now, I think they probably just text somebody and see if they want to go. They don’t have the fear of that girl saying, ‘No’ on a live phone.”
For the record, Mike isn’t on social media. No Facebook posts. No tweets. No TikTok videos.
“Somebody said something about Snapchat or something like that. I said, ‘What’s that?’ If you’re going to find a picture of me, you’re probably going to back to the 1970’s and have to find a yearbook . . . . I’m a semi-private person. I don’t care what everybody does every day, and I’m sure they don’t care what I do every day.”
Mike figures he has taught 5,000-6,000 students, which means often running into someone who sat in his classroom.
“I can be at an airport in Atlanta and I will hear the words, ‘Hey Coach!’ I turn around and it’s somebody I taught.”
Sometimes, those encounters come in the most unexpected of places.
“In Arkansas, there was an overhanging bluff we were hiking with friends. We’re climbing over rocks, and all of the sudden, I hear, ‘Hey, Coach!’ In a million years, I never thought I would run into somebody while doing that.”
Worried Mike was about to pull out a disciplinary file with my name on it from my days at Jesuit, I asked my final question. As always, what has he learned about life that he would like to share with you?
“You’ve got to find something you enjoy doing. . . . Finding something you like to do makes a big difference. . . . Find something you like to do and pursue that admirably. I think it will make you a happier person in the long run.”
50 years teaching – at the same school – is a long run. And Mike couldn’t be happier.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.
The Journal’s weekly “What’s Your Story?” series is sponsored by Morris & Dewett Injury Lawyers.