Ferda more than just a teacher

I recently read the article that Mr. Ferda was retiring. As I read the article I became very excited for him to start another adventure in his life. Also, the article itself brought back a lot of great memories, lessons learned, and reflection on how much he has impacted my life as a person, athlete, and teacher.

Scot Ferda for me was more than just a teacher, he was a mentor that I had been seeking while dealing with the struggles of divorce and trying to figure who I wanted to be during those “wonderful” adolescent years in middle school. He was the one person that could see through my smile that not everything was great, but when I was able to simply “play and compete” life was great for me at that moment. He provided many moments for me to play, yet he provided so many teaching moments about life and competing.

As a student when I would hear “Watsoon” echo in the gym, I was one of many students he gave a nickname, I knew when I heard “Watsoon” it was good thing, I must have just done something that impressed Mr. Ferda. Usually this occurred during one of the many dodgeball Friday’s we had in middle school.

How he used his words to speak to us as students, made me realize as a teacher and person this guy was totally different than the rest. He is the one person that could get me to believe that I could do anything, yet he was also the one that would say, “Alright, I know you can do even better.”

He never knocked you down, he just simply found ways that would make you rise to the occasion in class, sports, student-teaching with him, or while learning how to perform off-road recovery while in drivers ed.

As a student teacher under him, I learned other awesome qualities about Mr. Ferda, too. His passion for kids to learn and participate is undeniably the strongest I have ever witnessed. To this day, in my fifth year teaching, I haven’t found or met anyone that has the same passion as he has.

I also learned six years ago, his technology skills were very outdated, as I was the student teacher showing him how to use his grade book on his computer and showing his wonderful wife Julie how to input everything once my semester of teaching was up. This showed me that I too could teach everyone something.

The one thing that separated him from his peers and many that I have worked with is his ability to put life and school into perspective for kids. He has an uncanny ability to sense how to treat each student and their individual needs at that specific time in their lives. He has always told me “that it’s not about great lesson plans, but it’s about making connections with your students.” That’s what will make you enjoy teaching so much, it’s simply like playing every day.

I had many great teachers and coaches growing up in Whitefish, but none that made me believe in myself more than Scot Ferda. He demonstrated that you will always be competing in life, whether it’s for a starting spot in athletics, a girl, a job, your faith, your kids attention, or even in a good ol’ fashioned dodgeball game.

With all the memories and life lesson’s learned from Mr. Ferda — from playing every imaginable P.E. game in his class and pushing my body to limits I didn’t know I could — it was that fact that he took time to get to know the skinny middle school, peanut butter eating cookie monster (my lunch most days in middle school), that simply wanted a chance to compete. He provided those opportunities without ever wondering if I was worth the risk.

Mr. Ferda thank you for all of the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years you have invested in me as a student and individual, not because you had to, but because you knew I was worth it before I did.

— Michael Watson is a P.E. teacher at Lander Valley High School in Wyoming.