After 28 years at West, Multilingual Learner (MLL) teacher and tennis coach Brad Wilson will be retiring this year. He has had a very successful and illustrious career as both a teacher and coach, and is remembered very fondly by students and co-workers.
“I’m lucky,” Wilson said. “I feel like I’ve been very fortunate to have worked in a building as diverse as West with so many teachers who are so dedicated and inspiring and providing such a great example to me of how to work as a profession.”
His former tennis mentees remember him as a warm, friendly and encouraging coach.
“From the first day of practice, I remember him being extremely supportive and welcoming,” sophomore Emma Velimirovic said. “His patience and encouragement made the toughest days at practice and games feel manageable.”
Not only was he remembered as friendly, but students also recount that he was a talented coach.
“I mean, overall, really great guy,” sophomore Cole Lichterman said. “He was really nice, and he really took the time to help me improve my tennis skills overall, and would even stay after sometimes to help me with my forehands and backhands.”
Wilson reflected on former students as well.
“ Just a lot of great memories of students, you know, who show amazing growth, and now they’re fully functioning adults with jobs and families of their own,” Wilson said.
As an MLL teacher, Wilson primarily helps students who are not from the United States learn English. He offered his thoughts on this particular element of his career.
“That’s always interesting, to see how our jobs are affected by things that are happening around the world, in ways that other departments don’t see,” Wilson said. “I’ve always found that very interesting. And of course, the stories are themselves, how they came to the United States, what they had to go through together. Those were always inspiring because it’s not something that I had to deal with, certainly.”
World Language teacher and tennis coach Andrew Suarez also reflected on his time with Wilson.
“I’ve learned a lot from him, and I’ve shaped and molded a lot of what he’s done because it’s impressive to see how we handles himself and he manages all the different hats that we need to do as coaches., as teachers… he’s just somebody that does it seamlessly, so I’ve adapted and learned from him, and he’s going to be missed,” Suarez said
Wilson also expressed his plans for the future.
“I’ve got a couple of part-time jobs that I’m going to start doing, and I’m going to want to play guitar finally after many years of wanting to do so,” Wilson said. “And there’s more cooking [and] leisure reading, things that I haven’t had time to do for a number of years.”
Although he is leaving, his impact as a teacher and coach at West will not fade for a long time.
“I will always appreciate the amount of work that he has put into the team,” Velimirovic said. “I personally felt that my confidence and my progression in tennis have significantly improved with Mr. Wilson being there by my side.”
