By: Steven Downs

Every year teachers strive to claim the title Teacher Spotlight for a short time. They race to school before the sun touches the horizon to ready their lesson plans and beat the big guy… Mr. Kelly Martin. But among these highly spirited men and women one stands out: Mr. Black. Better known as Blacky, Mr. Black is our high school gym teacher, and is involved in many clubs and activities. He teaches everything from competitive sports and weight lifting to help keep us in shape, to health and first aid to help us better support ourselves. But it doesn’t stop there; he claims he could kill a full grown mountain lion with his bare hands. To test this, we locked him in a classroom with a mountain lion for forty-two minutes. Just kidding, although we’re sure it wouldn’t be a problem. To gain a better understanding of the inner workings of such an ambitious individual, I set off down the hallway to interview him.

The Squire: Do you enjoy participating in your classes?

Kris Black: Yes, very much.

TS: What is your current badminton win/loss record?

KB: 2000+ wins and four losses.

TS: On a scale of one to two, how much do you love your job and why do you love it so much?

KB: About a 1.75 because of some of the students in my day!

As you can see, he is very fond of his job and nothing makes a better teacher than one who loves what they do. He claims his favorite sport is wrestling, but in class he enjoys international handball. Like any sane person, Ms. Howe was very concerned as to which superpower Mr. Black would choose, assuming he were able. Mr. Black said he would choose to be invisible, clearly to be able to better study wildlife in Outdoor Adventures; one of his favorite classes.

So what drives such a motivated man? Type AB+ blood, he told The Squire. I had one more question for Mr. Black, the test of a real man. So I asked, “Would you eat a bowl of crickets for $40,000?” He responded by saying, “Yes – not even a question about it.” We  all know any real man would eat just about anything, dead or alive, for $40,000. And on that note, we tip our hats to Mr. Kris Howard Black.