By Beth Clifford
Online Managing Editor
With the beginning of a school year almost always brings the entrance of new teachers. This year, Prospect High School has four new teachers that have been added to the staff. This week, we will be posting a quick profile on each of them for students or parents that won’t have the opportunity to get to know them in the classroom.
Krystina Leazer
Out of all of the new four teachers, Krystina Leazer is the newest of them all. Not only is it her first year at Prospect, but it is her first official year teaching as well. She graduated from Carthage College in January, and now she is a full-time physical education, dance, and health teacher at Prospect.
Leazer is actually a D214 alumni. She graduated from our neighbor school Elk Grove in 2009, where she played volleyball, basketball, and softball. She also spent time student teaching and coaching last year at another d214 school, Rolling Meadows.
Although it’s only a few weeks into the year, she is already noticing differences between the environment at Prospect versus the kind of atmosphere she has seen at other schools.
“I feel like [at Prospect] everyone is very united,” Leazer said. “Everyone gets along, and it’s a community. At some schools I’ve been too, even at Carthage, it was very separated. There is just such a strong sense of community here. Everyone, you can tell, really loves being here.”
Leazer has been an athlete all of her life. During high school, she was a three-sport athlete, and at Carthage, she played volleyball during freshman year and softball throughout all four years.
It is very appropriate, therefore, that Leazer is also a new coach at Prospect. Currently, she is coaching volleyball at the freshman level. She feels like she has a good group of girls to coach, and is excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds.
One potential point of conflict for the season would be when they play against Rolling Meadows. Two of her three high school volleyball coaches are now coaching there, and last year while student teaching she also assisted them.
The conflict of interest would be a confusing situation for any coach. Leazer, however, is confident about her feelings toward the inevitable match-up.
“It’s going to be fun to coach against my old coaches,” Leazer said. “But I am a knight through and through now.”