Joe Porrell: Wellness

After 45 years at WHS, wellness teacher Joe Porrell has decided to retire.

Porrell acknowledges that after all these years, he has begun to slow down a little bit. Now he wants to spend more time with his wife, kids and other family members.

“I’m planning on getting my house back in order nice and clean and getting everything fixed up,” Porrell said. “My daughter has a nice 40 acre horse farm in Kentucky, so I’d like to go down and spend more time with her.”

Although he will not be teaching at WHS anymore, Porrell will still remember the teams he has coached and the kids he has met during his time here.

“I’ve been very fortunate in the way I can get through to the kids,” Porrell said. “At least I feel I can because they’re looking at me smiling. Maybe they’re faking it, but they seem to be responding; they’re enjoying what they’re doing.”

Dana Holland: English

“I’m leaving because I want to try something where I can be a little more artistic, a little more hands on, and a little more physical, as opposed to the paperwork of teaching,” Holland said.

Holland will be working slightly more than part time at Winston Flowers, arranging bouquets and flower boxes. She also wants to travel more and will be traveling later this year to China for a few weeks with her husband.

When reflecting on her experience of teaching at WHS, Holland says that her favorite memories are with the students and literature.

“One of the things I’ve loved about teaching is coming in and having a class that’s different from the day before and building relationships with the students,” Holland said. “I’ve also really enjoyed sharing literature with the class.”

Holland loved the works that she taught in class, and she especially enjoyed watching the students play around with them. Seeing the students explore the literature and find things that she hadn’t seen before was quite heartening for her.

“My best moments are really when I’m just sitting quietly in a classroom and listening to the students discover, explore, disagree respectfully and teach each other through discussions about what they found in literature that I’ve loved,” Holland said.

As the school year of 2013 comes to a close, Athletic Director Justice Smith reminisces on his three years at WHS and makes his plans for the future.

Along with the many sports Smith has contributed to at WHS, he has a special memory for helping out the girls’ ice hockey team.

“I loved maintaining the girls ice hockey program when it was almost going to be canceled for one year. We ended up saving it. Then, coming to see them win the DCL this year was just really rewarding,” Smith said.

One of Smith’s fondest memories in his years at WHS is how all of the students, faculty and community members could come together to provide support for each other during difficult times.

“How we all came together as a community, paid tribute and celebrated people that we lost here at Wayland, like Jim Griffin, who was one of our coaches, and Lauren Astley, was really special. They will always be in our hearts,” Smith said.

Despite all of his fond memories at WHS, Smith is excited for an opportunity in Utah.

“The beauty of it is that my wife is from Utah, so we will have family around and be able to enjoy family members with our newborn daughter and our 19-month-old daughter,” Smith said.

Smith has always aspired to work on the college level for athletic administration, and the prospect of living near family in Utah makes the transition even more appealing to him.