photo credit: Sam Almond
With the new school year comes new teachers at the high school, but one staff newcomer is not so new to Orange High School. Economics Teacher and Freshman Football Coach Samuel Almond has returned to high school since graduating from the school seven years ago.
Almond graduated in the class of 2017 and spent his college years at Miami University. While it has been a while seven years since his time as an Orange student, Almond can still vividly remember his experience at the high school. As a student, Almond was an active member of the community.
“I played football, so I’d say sports were definitely a big part of my experience. I also wrote for the Courier and was part of the Juice staff; both were definitely key parts of what made high school fun,” Almond said.
During his high school years, students took part in traditions different than what the current students are familiar with.
“Painting the rock was a huge thing when I was a student! I swear it was different every week. If teams had big wins, they’d paint the rock, and we’d also go paint other schools’ rocks. We did a senior bonfire each year too! That was also super fun for us students as well,” Almond said.
Since COVID, so much has changed in the way students navigate high school. Lots of the ways students interact were lost to virtual schooling. In the last seven years, there has been so much change to high school environment including using Schoology in most classes as an online learning platform, and Almond has witnessed it first-hand.
“Most of the change I see is not specific to Orange, but more so changes to the trends among the students. It still feels like the same type of environment that it was when I was a student. In terms of the school as a whole, the community is pretty much the same, but the administration is probably the only large change,” Almond said.
One of the many teachers Almond experienced in high school was English Teacher Kelly Cable. As his former teacher, Cable describes Almond as a great student.
“Sam would see the good in people, he was a leader in the school and he kind of united lots of different students in a sense,” Cable said. “He was also very easy to work with. He definitely cared about his learning.”
During Almond’s high school years, he also had different principals than the ones currently present at the high school today. There were two principals, Todd Meyer and Dr. Kathy McFarland. Meyer is now the superintendent at Olentangy Schools while McFarland is the chief executive officer for the Ohio School Boards Association.
“I remember Dr. McFarland being very tough and a little scary but also a nice person to talk to. She’d always talk about students developing grit. Meyer was also great. Everybody loved Mr. Meyer,” Almond said.
Like others, Almond remembers a large amount of school spirit. Cable remembers the class of 2017 as a great period in the high school’s history.
“They were a close knit class and very fun to be around. We were always laughing,” Cable said. “There was lots of school spirit in the building, and pep rallies were so much fun. I remember for one spirit week, Mr. Almond even dressed as police officer and rode his segway through the halls.”
Not many teachers experience becoming coworkers with their own students, and Cable is among the few teachers who has worked with many including Almond.
“Right now, I don’t ever see him, but when we do randomly pass in the halls we catch up really quick,” Cable said.
Between his two experiences at the high school, Almond has seen different student bodies and Almond said that if he was given the choice to be a student in one of the two he’d still choose his original experience.
“Nostalgically, I loved my original experience at Orange. I’m glad students now are also still having great experiences, and that adds to how special this place can be for kids,” Almond said.
