Teacher, coach, and former pro basketball player Joseph Colone.

Many accomplished athletes go on to become exceptional educators once they leave their careers in professional sports. One such teacher is Joseph F. Colone, a former professional basketball player who once played for the New York Knicks.

Joe Colone was born in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on January 23, 1924. He attended Berwick High School in Berwick, Pennsylvania, where he established a reputation as a gifted athlete. Upon his high school graduation, he enrolled in Bloomsburg State Teachers College, now known as Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. There he played basketball. After his college graduation, Joe was not drafted into the NBA, but he still managed to make the Knicks’ roster for the 1948-1949 season.  At 6 feet 5 inches tall and 210 pounds, Joe played the forward position. He played for only one season, but during that season he appeared in 15 games and averaged 5.5 points.

After his brief career in the NBA, Joe moved to Woodbury, New Jersey, and accepted a teaching position at Woodbury Junior/Senior High School, where he taught from 1954 to 1986. There he served as an Assistant Coach for both the basketball and the football teams, and the head coach for the golf team. While at Woodbury, Joseph mentored rising basketball star Dave Budd, who later went on to play for Wake Forest University and then for the New York Knicks.

As a teacher and coach, Joe was described as genuinely nice, fun-loving, and family-oriented. Those who knew him said he had a passion for the art of teaching and a knack for motivating all his kids to do well. “Joe meant everything to me,” former student Dave Budd said in an interview published in nj.com in 2009. “Without him, I’d never have gotten a scholarship to Wake Forest. Without him, I doubt I’d ever have gotten to the NBA,” Budd declared. “He gave me direction, helped me with my temper. Joe was a major person in my life and we remained close over all these years. On the court and off the court, Joe helped many young people in Woodbury,” Budd continued.

Joseph Colone, Chalkboard Champion and professional basketball player, passed away on July 1, 2009, at the age of 85. To learn more about him, see this link at Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame.

Educator Jennifer Burdis inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.

There are many examples of dedicated educators who are also exceptional athletes. One of these is Jennifer Burdis, an elementary school educator originally from Pennsylvania. She has recently been inducted into her state’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Jennifer was raised in the small town of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. There she attended Blue Mountain High School. Even as a young student, she excelled in volleyball and basketball. She also participated in track and field. In 2006, Jennifer was inducted into the Blue Mountain High School Sports Hall of Fame.

After her high school graduation, Jennifer enrolled at Penn State. There she played volleyball, earning All Academic Big Ten Awards 1994 to 1997. Her team won three Big Ten volleyball championships and appeared in the Final Four three times.

Following her college graduation, Jennifer launched her career as an educator. She moved to California and accepted a position as a second grade school teacher. There she started training Brazilian jiu jitsu, sometimes twice a day. She even earned her blue belt. She also completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in Reading and Writing Curriculum Instruction from San Diego State University. In a career as an educator that has already spanned 20 years, Jennifer has taught second, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. She currently teaches at R. Roger Rowe Elementary in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Jennifer is an NCSA Certified Personal Trainer. She’s also been a competitor on seasons 6 and 7 of American Ninja Warrior. And as if all that were not enough, she also authored the book The EduNinja Mindset: 11 Habits for Building a Healthier Mind and Body. Jennifer inspires her students and colleagues to focus on physical fitness, mindfulness, and healthy food choices.

Read more about Jennifer on her website at this link: Jen Burdis.

Fifth grade math and science teacher Caroline Hallisey-Kepka is also a three-time Winter Olympic speed skating competitor.

There are many examples of talented classroom teachers who have also experienced successful careers as athletes. One of these is Caroline Hallisey-Kepka, a three-time Olympic speed skater who now teaches elementary school in Massachusetts.

Caroline Hallisey was born on September 24, 1980. She was raised in Natick, Massachusetts. “I was an average kid, though I did a lot of sports growing up — basketball, soccer, swimming, horseback riding,” Caroline remembers. “I grew up doing everything active kids do, but around the seventh grade I wanted to see how I could do.” She left home in eighth grade to move into an Olympic training center. There she dedicated herself to her Olympic speed skating dream.

And she did very well. Caroline competed on the United States team in the Winter Olympics three times. She participated in the short track speed skating event 1998 in Nagano, Japan; in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah; and in 2006 at Turino, Italy.

Once she retired from speed skating in 2006, Caroline enrolled at the University of Colorado. Later she married J.P. Kepka, a US bronze medalist in 2006. The couple lives in Exeter, New Hampshire, with their 15-month-old daughter.

Caroline now teaches fifth grade math and science at the Glen Urquhart School, an independent school for grades K-8 located in Beverley, Massachusetts. As a teacher, Caroline says she strives to provide her students with the motivation to succeed and achieve their goals.”I chose teaching this grade because my middle school years were really challenging for me,” Caroline confides. “So I wanted to teach that middle school age to try and give these kids the tools I learned when I was training as an athlete — how to overcome challenges they will face,” she continued.

To read more about Caroline’s post-Olympic career, see this article published by the Boston Globe.

Two-time college All-American softball player Sara Loete teaches and coaches in Evansville, Indiana.

There are many examples of fine athletes who have also distinguished themselves in the classroom. One of these is two-time All-American softball player Sara Loete. She is now a high school history teacher and coach in Pekin, Indiana.

Sara was born on February 10, 1988, in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois. She was raised in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois. As a teenager, Sara attended Pekin High School in her home town. While there, she was named a member of the All-Conference first team. She earned second-team All-Area honors as a senior after recording a .515 batting average. She earned Most Valuable Player honors in each of her last two seasons. In addition, her senior year, Sara earned honors as a national qualifying political speaker and the captain of the speech team.

Sara started playing softball when she was very young. “I actually started playing baseball when I was six years old,” she once recalled. “When I was nine and the boys started pitching, my mom wanted me to play softball. I’ve played ever since!”

After her high school graduation in 2006, Sara enrolled at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, as a pre-med biology major. “After quickly realizing my passion was not in medicine, but rather in teaching, I changed my major to Secondary Education with a concentration in History,” Sara remembers. At the end of her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Southern Indiana. While studying there, she played the position of designated hitter on the university’s softball team. Her efforts on the field earned her a position as the Illinois State hitting derby finalist and, in her junior year, she became a sectional champion. In 2011, Sara graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in History and Social Science with a minor in Psychology. In 2014 she earned a Master’s degree in Education at Arkansas State University.

Once she completed her education, Sara accepted a position teaching world history, psychology, and English at William Henry Harrison High School in Evansville, Indiana. In addition to her classroom duties, she coaches the school’s softball, volleyball, and speech teams. She also serves as the adviser for her school’s Link Crew.

To view Sara’s teacher website, click on this link: Miss Loete’s Website.