Faculty Features
Coach Whetzel Receives Excellence in Teaching Award
This past week we recognized Coach Whetzel as the 2023 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award. Travis Whetzel is a...
Faculty Features
Gigi Wallace
January 1
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Athletic Director, PE Teacher
EDUCATION:
BA from St. Mary’s College, BS in Physical Education from the College of Charleston
years at cds:
This is my 11th year
who was your favorite teacher and why?
My favorite teacher was Mrs. Hough, my 4th grade teacher at Miss Mason’s. She was tough and we were all a little scared of her, but she also fun and would stand on a desk and show us how to walk the dog with a yoyo. She had a gift for pulling out the best in us. We respected her and wanted to do well in her class. If memory serves, she looked like Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball, with red hair and a feisty personality.
what is your favorite spot on campus?
This will surprise no one…..the Commons for lunch! Not only is it a treat to get such great lunches every day, but we also get to eat with the students. This year I’m with the second grade and the conversations are priceless.
what is your favorite cds tradition?
Hands down….Field Day. The teams are made up of students in each grade, with the 8th graders in charge of their team. The older students really shine as they go from station to station encouraging and helping their younger teammates. If you ask the kids, they’ll probably say the best field day ever was 2 years ago when it rained the entire day! Now that was crazy.
was there a time in your life when you set a goal that seemed out of reach?
That is an easy one. For many years I loved running marathons and I had done many on my bucket list. The one that loomed large was the granddaddy of them all, the Boston Marathon. You have to qualify to run Boston and the time to beat for my age group was 3:45:00. I’d never broken the 4 hour mark. I chose the Marine Corps Marathon as a qualifier, partly because it promised to be a cool day. Unfortunately, on race day they had record highs and I started to fade at about the 20 mile mark. I struggled to finish with a time of 3:45:50, missing my goal by 50 seconds! I was so disappointed until I found out that they give one extra minute to qualify. Off to Boston I went.