By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The “Coaches in the Classroom” feature is a weekly series that is designed to spotlight and celebrate coaches throughout Portage County, who spend their days in the classrooms and hallways leading today’s student-athletes to be tomorrow’s leaders.

JAKE EYE

Today’s spotlight is on Windham High School’s Jake Eye, who is not a teacher, but wears many hats in the district and is a leader at the school on a daily basis. Eye is in his 10th year as the district’s maintenance, transportation and grounds director and in his seventh year as the Bombers’ football head coach.

• School district: Windham.
• How long have you been employed?: 10 years.
• Position held?: Maintenance, Transportation and Grounds Director.
• What made you want to work in education?: I enjoy working around students and making a positive impact.
• What is your favorite part of your job?: I enjoy fixing things and the challenges that come with different tasks. Every day is something different, whether it is cutting grass or painting fields. Every day, it’s always something different.
• What have you learned about working in education that you didn’t know before you started?: I have learned to become more patient and understanding.
• Which teachers influenced you to work in education?: My fathers was always very handy mechanically, and I learned a lot from him growing up. He had a knack for fixing stuff. His nickname was MacGyver, so I would say he had a big influence on me working in the field of maintenance. 
• How does your job and coaching overlap?: Coaching and my job go hand in hand. When working on equipment or repairing breakdowns, you are constantly making adjustments and a lot of it is trial and error — and, at times, learning on the fly!
• Funniest thing that has ever happened to you at school?: I have had several moments that when I look back on were pretty funny. Being soaked from head to toe from a broken water line to falling off of a 10-foot ladder to being shocked by 277 to being chased by bees. While none of those were funny at the time, I am able to look back at them now and laugh.
• Mentors in your building who have helped you along the way?: There have been a multitude of people, including Herb Carrico, Tom Hickman, Aireane Curtis, Gregg Isler, Zack Burns, DJ Gross, along with many others. All have helped me along the journey, whether it was maintenance, transportation or grounds — and even coaching.