The person I have chosen to nominate for the Educator of the Year is Delaware Military Academy’s very own Craig Young. Mr. Young is my swim coach and soon-to-be fitness teacher. I have chosen to nominate Mr. Young for many reasons: three of these reasons are his motivation, how he cares about his students as friends not just another face in a classroom, and his all-around positive attitude.

The main reason I have nominated Mr. Young is his motivation and/or passion. Because I know him more as a coach, I believe I get to see a different part of Mr. Young that others may not. Mr. Young has confidence in each of his swimmers, even if they may not have any in themselves. Most of the time, someone will go to him saying “I can’t do this” or “I’m not fast enough”. His response usually follows along of the lines of “yes you can”. Then, we get in the water, swim, and look to him for his opinion. Finally, he’ll say something like “I told you you could do it” and we will immediately feel more confident in ourselves. Another part of his motivation is how he sets a goal for every swimmer and will not stop until we reach our goal. Whether that goal be a states cut or personal record, he does not care; we will get to it no matter just because he set it for us.

Another key part of my reasoning for nominating him is how he cares about his students as friends. For example, we recently had an incident that shattered our entire swim team. Not having to do so, he took time out of practice to talk to the entire team. Then, after that, he took some individual swimmers, who asked for it, and “took them under his wing”. He said they could use him as someone else to talk to. He made sure that everyone on the team had some sort of coping mechanism before we went on with our daily routine. Besides that, if he sees any change in any of his students’ moods, attitudes, or work, he is sure to ask them if they are ok. He goes out of his way just to make sure every person, he has some sort of connection to, is ok.

And finally, the last reason I have nominated him is because of his attitude. No matter what time of the day it is, you can always find him with a smile on his face. If you happen to get a chance to say “hi” to him, he will always turn around and say “hi” right back. Everyday at swim practice, he walks in with a huge smile on his face and says something like “alright let’s go” or “let’s do this!” His positive attitude has an effect on everyone and can make anyone around him just as happy as he is.

I believe that Mr. Young should be the Educator of the Year. I believe he displays all characteristics someone of this title should have making him a great candidate. I look up to him not only as a teacher or an adult, but I believe others do the same as well. There is no one else I could possibly think of to nominate for this honor.