Third in a series
Re “When Students Learn to Love Government and Economics, Chabola-style”
[img]1372|left|Jerry Chabola||no_popup[/img] For those who never have been a student in a Jerry Chabola classroom, it is impossible to separate Mr. Chabola the teacher from his persistent image as a sports guy.
After nearly two decades, he is retiring from Culver City High School as Athletic Director at the end of next month, having relinquished his teaching duties the last day of January.
Last night at the School Board meeting, appearing as the best-known, most-liked athletic director within miles, Mr. Chabola glided to the podium and recounted the many successes of Centaur teams this spring.
But there would have been a gaping cavity in his quite-fulfilled life if he only had been a sports guy. His Government and Economics classes occupied crucial dimensions of his career. He was not monopolistically wed to ESPN or Sports Illustrated.
To stay informed for his students, he faithfully read the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and less often Washington newspapers and the Sacramento Bee. With unanimous online availability in recent years, it has been much easier.
For a moment he looked sheepish as he confessed “sometimes I go straight to the sports section.”
How has he balanced sports with academics?
“All I have tried to do is work with students in the best way possible. There is no doubt, no secret, from when I was probably 5 years old (in 1954 in his native Linesville, PA, midway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, on the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line), that I wanted to be involved in sports and athletics.
“My mom and dad were always supportive. My dad was an athlete in high school, had an injury that wouldn’t allow him to go much beyond. But the fact that he did compete, and well, that was inspiring.”
Born into a farming family who bought the precious land during the Great Depression and grew its own food, Mr. Chabola laughs at the question of whether he wanted to perpetuate the the Chabolas’ bucolic tradition.
“My mom and dad moved to Venice when I was starting first grade,” he said.
“Here is when I decided farming wasn’t for me. We went back to visit during the summer that I was 15½. I had my driving permit, and I had a chance to practice. I drove down various stretches of road across the United States.
“When we got back there, my cousins were helping farmers in the area. They were asked to go hay. I asked what that was. They said, picking up the bales of hay, putting them on the flatbed, taking them and putting them up in the loft in the barn.
“Obviously, the Midwest in July and August is hot and humid. The bales were much bigger than I had anticipated.”
Mr. Chabola laughed again.
“I learned very quickly that day that it’s hard work being on a farm. I decided my career was elsewhere,”
(To be continued)
