On Thursday, September 19, the Echo met with the new Mount Greylock PE teacher, Coach Jutris, to discuss his new position and how his transition has been.

Echo: Where were you before you came to Greylock?

Coach Jutris: I worked three years at Drury High School. I worked there as a Special ED teacher and a behavioral interventionist.

E: Are there any specific ways that the two schools are different that you have noticed?

CJ: Both schools are similar in some ways but I found that it’s a very tight knit community at Mount Greylock and the kids are very involved and show lots of energy and enthusiasm. They strive to get better every single day. The participation is through the roof here.

E: Did you play any sports when you were in high school?

CJ: I played three sports. I played football, basketball and baseball.

E: Did you realise when you were younger that you wanted to do PE coaching, or did you have a different goal?

CJ: I thought I wanted to go into sport management, but around my junior or senior year in college I realized that I wanted to teach and I wanted to coach and possibly be a high school athletic director one day. Unfortunately, I was already taking business at the time and would have cost me a lot of time and money to go back and change my major.  I decided to take as many education courses as possible and as many coaching courses, and then go ahead and try to be a teacher after I graduated and take my teachers test and get my certification. So that’s when I got my job at Drury high school, and then here.

E: What do you do for fun?

CJ: I coach football, basketball, and baseball. I also love hiking. I have a dog so I go hiking all the time. I also like to fish and to go out to eat to get food at restaurants. I like trying new restaurants.

E: Are there any changes that you may want to add or take away from the PE curriculum here?

CJ: Coach Jordan and Coach Gill do an awesome job, I think they incorporate in a lot of different activities. They have it all mapped out very well, so I do take a lot of things from them. I think there are things that eventually I’ll kind of twist the way I see fit in my own classes. But they do an awesome job and I’m really learning  a lot from them.