I have had many teachers in my years of education, but none of them have really stood out as Craig Young has. At the Delaware Military Academy, Mr. Young is the PE/Health teacher, as well as the swim team coach. There are many things about him that really make him stand out. He is always pushing students to do their best, to be their best. He doesn’t believe in “good enough”; you either get it done right or not at all. Another thing that stands out to me is how he treats everyone like they are his family. The last thing that really stands out to me is how he can take a passion that you have, and expand it and direct your energy behind it. He is a very positive person, and that is why I am nominating him for Educator of the Year (EOY).

When I think of a mentor, one of the things that come to mind is someone who works hard to get you to be the best you can, and that is exactly the kind of person Mr. Young is. During the swim season, I can remember Craig pushing us all to get that PR time, a state cut, or both. He would spend hours with us just helping us perfect our strokes, our kicks, our starts, and our finishes. He helped us perfect the sport, helped us be the best swimmers that we could. Mr. Young makes sure to give motivational speeches at the end of our warmup for swim meets, and encourages the team to cheer everyone on. He is always cheering everyone on, making sure we get those good starts, the good flip-turns, the good finishes, everything. Mr. Young understands how hard it can be swimming sometimes as one of the main strokes he swam at the college level was backstroke, a stroke that I swam every meet.

When I first met Mr. Young, I was surprised to see how he treated his students, and how they interacted with him. He treats them like they are his family. His students are like his second family. I have had some teachers that truly care for their students, but not to this degree; Mr. Young’s passion is his students. I remember just this past swim season when we had a swim meet on his birthday. Even though we had other coaches that were there for the meet and he could’ve spent time with his family celebrating his birthday, he chose to be there for us. To me, that meant a lot. Seeing my coach out there pushing the team on his birthday, when he could be other places, such as spending time with his loved ones. It was very inspiring. Mr. Young also spends a large amount of time preparing things for his classes, ensuring that his students will have a good time. Craig is happy when his students are happy. He makes sure that his students are going to be interested in what he has planned for the class.

One thing that Mr. Young is good at is taking something that you’re interested in, and turning it into a passion, giving you the motivation to get things done. Before the swim season started, I had some experience with being on a swim team previously. I had done a summer swim team for a few years, but swimming was mainly just a hobby for me. At the end of the season, swimming had turned into something that I had a passion for, something that I wanted to be the best I could at. This is all thanks to Mr. Young. He made sure to give us plenty of motivation throughout the season, even participating in some of our Friday workouts with us. He always told us that if we ever want to improve you have to put in that work, you have to want it.

I am nominating Mr. Young as Educator of the Year because I think that he deserves it from his endeavors as a coach and a teacher, with all the work he put into our education. Mr. Young understands how hard it is for some people, and because of that, I think that he really deserves this award.