TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Teacher Is A 'Roll' Model For Students At Sk8skool

ADVERTISEMENT

By THOMAS BECNEL Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2008

Before Dan Giguere moved to Sarasota, before he became a schoolteacher, before he started a skateboarding team, he worked at a psychiatric hospital in Columbus, Ga.

That is where he met a young heroin addict named Jason Horner.

They hit it off immediately. Giguere, an intern out of college, was only two years older. They talked for hours about skateboarding, underground music and how an addict could turn his life around and share a message of hope and redemption.

Horner's death from a methadone overdose the next day shocked Giguere. He thought about what could have been and what he should do with his own life.

"It all started to click," he says. "I couldn't think of a better way to reach kids. I'm not a real spiritual person, I don't go to church every week, but this one day it felt like God was talking to me."

Giguere decided that he would use his passion for skateboarding to work with young people. That is what he has done at the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences.

Five years ago he started a program called Sk8skool, as in "Skate school." The next step is to recruit other schools for a local league. The first event of the fall is this afternoon at the Sarasota Skate Park.

"This year we're going full force," he says.

Giguere is 30 years old now, with a trace of gray mixed in the stubble on his chin, but he still rolls, kicks and flips beside his middle school students.

Tommy Niedospial, a freshman at Booker High School, remembers the first time he saw "Coach Dan" speed down a ramp at the Sarasota Skate Park. "I was, like, 'Jeez,'" he says. "I wasn't expecting him to be that good."
Holistic Approach
Mike Long, a skateboarding father, has a son in Giguere's program.

He remembers a field trip to the Skate Park of Tampa, where students, parents and the teacher got carried away with the fun.

"I don't know what we were thinking, but we were running about half an hour late, and buses only go 55 miles per hour - they don't go any faster," Long says, laughing. "We needed to get back to school. Dan was calling people on the phone, trying to get them to wait for us. I think we made it with a minute to spare."

Pepar Anspaugh, executive director of the School of Arts and Sciences, welcomes nontraditional programs at the charter school. This means that "The Holistic Approach to the Total Child" includes skateboarding.

"P.E. is as important as language arts," Anspaugh says. "Often it's the extracurricular activities that get students excited about school."

Giguere may have the enthusiasm of a 13-year-old, but he is still the grown-up in charge. Skateboarding team members must maintain a 2.0 average, like any student athlete, and avoid disciplinary problems.

Students who do not follow the rules do not get to skate - the ultimate punishment. Students who do follow the rules get a coach, mentor and role model.

Make that roll model.

"They all look up to him," Long says. "It's kind of wild. He's got 30 kids yelling: 'Hey, watch this!' 'Coach Dan, watch this trick!' 'Hey, watch this!' I don't know how he does it."

Giguere started with about a dozen skateboarders at the School of Arts and Sciences. Now there are 50 students.

Skateboarding Dreams
Giguere grew up skateboarding in Windham, Maine. When he was 13, he wrote a letter to the local newspaper, asking for better parks and facilities.

That letter did not do much good, and he went on to play basketball and other sports.

At the University of Southern Maine, Giguere studied recreational therapy. He moved to Sarasota and worked as a counselor before becoming a physical education teacher and coach.

Giguere started the Sk8skool program and dreamed of becoming a pioneer in the sport. Then he found out about a Los Angeles lawyer who had just started the California High School Skateboard Club and the National High School Skateboard Association.

"It kind of bummed me out when I found out about it," Giguere says. "I went into a depression for two days, seriously, because that's exactly what I wanted to do. Then I thought, this can only help."

Now Giguere dreams of building a Florida league and starting a national competition. That might give the school sport a kick-start, or at least a kick-flip.

"East versus West," he says. "Start something like high school basketball, with city championships, county championships, national championships."

Last year, Giguere did a skateboarding art project with students at the Ringling School of Art & Design.

His wife, Alexandra, a psychologist, just finished her residency.

Their son Daniel, 3, is already a skateboarder.

Sometimes he still thinks about Horner, the drug addict who inspired him. After his death, Giguere wrote a letter to the young man's mother.

"I told her that Jason's last wish was to make an impact, even if it was just one person," he says. "And I said he did: He made an impact on me."

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT