Doug Roper did not realize it at the time, but he got his teaching start while he was a senior in college.
He was a student at Elon College when he was enlisted to help coach high-schoolers in wrestling.
Thirty-six years later, Roper sees a strong connection between coaching and teaching. He has been doing both with the York County School Division in the years since, and in April was named the division-wide Teacher of the Year.
Roper did not intend to go into teaching while he was in college, but his father offered to pay for him to attend an additional semester of school to get his teaching certificate. Roper spotted a job opening at Tabb High School, not far from where he grew up in Newport News, and decided to give it a shot.
“For the most part, when I first started, no one wanted to teach the ninth-graders,” Roper said.
He has spent almost all of his years since with freshmen at Tabb High, with a three-year stint at Bruton High School, teaching primarily ancient history.
For him, the ninth grade offers the privilege of watching students grow up from children entering the high school experience to – when he sees them four years later at prom – young adults ready to take the next step into the world. Seeing them develop is his greatest reward as an educator.
Tabb High Principal Angela Seiders said Roper’s relationship with his students is what makes him such a strong teacher. It is a trait she looks for when hiring new staff.
“I can teach them how to teach but I can’t teach them how to care. … [Roper] definitely has that quality,” she said. “He cares tremendously about the Tabb High students.”
Although he would never admit it, Seiders said, Roper is deserving of the award that recognizes his teaching, coaching and mentoring.
Roper was at a state wrestling tournament – one of three sports he has coached over the years – when the principal called to let him know he was being considered. He told her to quit kidding.
Coaches do not always get the recognition regular classroom teachers do, Roper said, and he was surprised at the honor. He said there is a strong mental component in the sports he coaches, especially wrestling, which makes his work on the mat not so different from that in the classroom.
Just like the ninth grade students who grow into seniors, he enjoys watching his players mature. Roper likes coaching wrestling the most because the athletes have room to develop. He said wrestling does not attract the best athletes at the start, but they are hardworking and often evolve into capable wrestlers by the close of their high school careers.
The transformation is what is fulfilling, Roper said. With short seasons, it is also easier to notice the change than over the course of a whole year, he said.
“I think a lot of times, as a coach, we see more of our success than in a classroom,” he said.
Roper has also coached football and softball at various levels, but has cut back his intense time commitment — each sport had summer camps as well as evening practice during the year — to focus on wrestling.
At one time, Roper was a coach for all three sports, while he “coached” five classes.
“There wasn’t much social life that year,” he said. “But if you like something, it isn’t as bad as all that.”
Seiders called Roper a team player because he tries to help out any way he can — even if it means taking on an extra course for an educator on maternity leave.
“He bleeds orange. I think the man wears orange almost every day,” she said of Roper’s tendency to don the school color.
While his service to the division in 36 years has remained constant, the tools Roper uses to educate students are shifting every day.
When he started there were no computers in the classroom. Roper was among the first teachers to embrace the technology, using it to track his athletes’ stats. Now he worries about how it may affect the mindset of his students. He has recently heard complaints from students who do not want to spend time on vocabulary or research when they can simply look it up on a smartphone.
“They can find what they need when they need it, so there’s not really a sense of urgency,” he said.
Still, Roper aims to be patient and flexible with changing times. Flexibility is one of the three pillars he uses to guide his teaching. The other two: Do not argue with the students and always keep a sense of humor.
He wakes up every workday around 4 a.m. to start thinking about what he can do to innovate or engage in the classroom. Whether it is through iPads or by taking his students to Rome to see ancient ruins, Roper wants to keep pushing forward.
“When I start sleeping late, that’s it – it’s time to quit,” he said.
He is eyeing retirement, and would love the chance to travel and possibly teach abroad.
Roper said it is the people who have kept him at Tabb High for so long, many of whom have shared decades of service.
“You surround yourself with good people,” he said.
