This One's for You Coach Wednesday, February 24, 2010 By Ethan Lowenstein After close to 30 years of teaching, Coach Wake looks forward to retirement. - Advertising Life is all about getting to the next level, from having a kid to retiring. For one Cameron teacher, it's time to go to the next level. Parkview Gym Teacher/CHS Head Coach Mr. Lanny Wake is retiring after this year after 29 years of teaching. Coach Wake is the head coach for the CHS wrestling/men's tennis teams.   Coach Wake is remembered by everyone who had him. Senior Cody Poole remembers having him since first grade. Cody said, "My favorite thing about Coach Wake was his sense of humor. He was always able to make me laugh no matter what kind of day I was having. I also remember when we would play games we would always listen to AC-DC because that was his favorite band." Cody remembers his favorite game was the dinosaur game. Cody said, "I loved being the velociraptor because that was the coolest dinosaur I thought."  Cody especially liked Coach Wake's inviting attitude. "Some teachers play favorites with their students, but that wasn't the case with Coach Wake," Cody said. "Coach Wake never discriminated against any of the students and everyone felt like they belonged."   A lot of people have had Coach Wake and he hasn't really changed. Kindergartner Ty Speer said, "The thing I like about Mr. Coach Wake the best is he is really funny." Ty's favorite game in Mr. Wake's class is basketball because Mr. Wake always has 'fun ways to make basketball fun.' Ty said, "I'm going to really miss Mr. Wake because his class is a lot of fun." Ty is going to miss Coach Wake a lot and hopes that the new teacher will be as good as Coach Wake.   Retiring can be an emotional thing, filled with not just sad feelings, but happy feelings. Coach Wake said, "The things that I'm going to miss the most are obviously the kids because you can't not like kids and do this [teach] for so long. Also the thing that I think that I will miss the most is the teachers because after teaching for close to 30 years they become like a family to you."  Coach Wake started teaching in 1981 at Parkview and he's been there ever since. Coach Wake said, "After I retire, I look forward most to just being able to relax, but I also want to travel." Coach Wake is still going to be the head coach for tennis and one of the assistant coaches for wrestling. "I'm really excited to retire and I've been looking forward to retiring for awhile, but at the same time it's really hard for me to just leave all that behind. I've been teaching at Parkview for over half my life and that's a long time, but it's time to retire and I'm going to definitely miss teaching."   A great man once said, "People only remember the good teachers and the bad teachers." No one remembers the average teachers. Everyone will remember Coach Wake because he loved what he did and because of that he did a great job and for that he always will be remembered. From everyone who he ever taught, "Thank you Coach Wake."

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