[HOB] Coach Mayo

Turning failure into success

“My first job right out of college was at Braeswood High School as a football coach, baseball coach and history teacher. I didn’t start teaching business until about five years ago. I left this school to go back to Austin for a year, and then I came back and they didn’t have any history positions, but I have a degree in Business and I’m business certified. I graduated from Bellaire in 1985, back when they had a smoking section here at the school for students. Miss Lancaster was an economics teacher here, and I was one of those kids who sat there and was just dead. Instead of getting mad at me for not having any interest, she gave me confidence and built me up. She was able to take a dead student, and make them alive again. I once had a student who couldn’t read, and I didn’t know he couldn’t read. He would just sit there and wouldn’t do any work. He wouldn’t ask for help; he didn’t want help. It was because he had so much shame about his reading skills. When I discovered that, I came alongside him and helped him by reading to him and gave him some individual attention that he desperately needed. A lot of these students just need attention. They need to know that somebody cares, that somebody is looking out for them, that someone’s on their side. That’s when you really see some kids come alive, because they deal with so much shame. I see my old students everywhere. I was at Goode Company three days ago, and there was this guy that was at the cash register. He said ‘Are you Coach Mayo? I had you four years ago, do you remember me?’ I did remember him. He said “You know, I really appreciate what you taught me. I got this job because of some of the skills you gave me.”