For 42 Years, Helping Students Become ‘Better Each and Every Day’

file photo

The 1973 Shamrocks baseball team, including Mr. Mike Chancellor ’75

Robert Young, Staff Reporter
March 12, 2021

Teaching is much more than 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Mr. Mike Chancellor. For 42 years Mr. Chancellor, Class of 1975, has dedicated himself to Trinity in the classroom and far beyond the classroom walls. Mr. Chancellor will begin a well-earned retirement at the end of this school year. From teaching mathematics to coaching basketball, soccer, baseball, golf, and fishing, coordinating intramural basketball, and operating the scoreboard at home football games, Mr. Chancellor, who has helped thousands of students enjoy a complete Trinity experience, answered a few questions.

Q: How long have you taught? Anywhere other than Trinity?

A: This is year 42 at THS. I began teaching at Male HS before I graduated from Bellarmine College in the fall of 1979. I continued there in the spring of 1980 and came to THS in the fall.

Q: Who or what inspired you to become a teacher?

A: I knew I wanted to coach baseball at the high school level while I was playing at Bellarmine. My coach at THS was Rich Rostel. My dream was to return to Trinity. The route for me was to proceed through the secondary education process.

Trinity teacher Mr. Mike Chancellor ’75

Q: What do you enjoy the most about teaching?  Why mathematics? 

A: Having fun, sharing experiences and being a small part of my students success has kept me in the game every year. I had taken six mathematics classes when I decided on a major. My supervisor encouraged me to follow that path for the secondary education degree.

Q: What positives have you found while teaching during the pandemic? 

A: Adapt and make it work even though there were setbacks along the way. Every day was a learning experience.

Q: Over the years what have you learned from students?

A: Every student learns best in their own unique way. That is why I want to know my students’ interests and outside school activities, so I can apply the math concepts to their situations. It makes it real.

Q: What sports have you coached, and what do you enjoy about coaching?

A: I have coached basketball, soccer, baseball, golf and fishing. I enjoy being with my student-athletes, trying to make them better each and every day.

Q: Having been with Trinity as a student and teacher since the 1970s, what do you think are the biggest changes in the school?

A: The physical change in the campus is obvious. It is beautiful! Technology is by far the biggest change. There is something new every year that challenges teachers to keep up.

Q: Why is Trinity important to you?

A: Trinity is important to me because my dream in college came true.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you are not teaching?

A: I enjoy working in the garden growing tomatoes to share with family and friends. My weekends are filled with fishing in tournaments. I love the competition. I also enjoy the time my wife and I get to spend with our grandson.

Q: If you hadn’t become a teacher, what career would you have pursued?

A: I am not sure, but it would have been related to a sports profession.