Submitted photos Sandy Ketchum, 80, has taught physical education at area schools for nearly 60 years.

If she were graded on the teaching qualities of enthusiasm, excitement and experience, Sandy Ketchum would have an A-plus in every category. Ketchum, 80, grew up in Youngstown and lives in Boardman.

She attended Woodrow Wilson High School and graduated from Youngstown State University for the first time in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in health and physical education.

“After 20 years, I went back to YSU and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in education,” she said.

Her first teaching job was at the YWCA downtown where she taught from 1968 to 1972. She taught “mostly kids,” she said. “Swimming, volleyball and exercise classes.”

In 1972, Ketchum began her career as a physical education teacher in the Youngstown Diocese, teaching at St. Brendan’s, St. Joseph and St. Christine schools. She noted she eventually taught at 10 Diocesan schools. She laughed as she said, “Physical education was considered one of the special subjects, so there were no five-day-a-week jobs at one school.”

Ketchum teaches physical education twice a week at St. Nicholas School in Struthers.

“Oh my goodness, I’ve taught there for 41 years,” she said, beginning in 1985.

She teaches students in kindergarten through eighth grade. She described herself as “a disciplinarian, an old school type teacher.”

“I don’t put up with misbehavior,” she said.

She acknowledged she had to discipline only a couple children by having them removed from her class.

“Not many,” she said.

As an alternative, when needed, Ketchum has an offending student write an apology and then read it to the class.

“After all, they have disrupted the class, took time away from their classmates, so it is only proper they apologize to them,” she said.

She admitted this usually works because students know if they commit another infraction, “They’ll have to do that again and they sure don’t want to do that!”

Ketchum said she enjoys teaching all the students, though the kindergarten students are a challenge as they develop their motor skills.

She said the fourth-graders are fun because they “are not babies anymore and happy to learn new games.” Her favorite game for the little children is “dog catcher” and, for the older kids, she enjoys volleyball and the recently added pickleball. She said she also teaches children baseball and some basketball, but the latter is not her favorite.

“It’s a street game,” she said. “There is physical contact, and it is tough to officiate.”

She said it’s not all about winning or losing with her physical education students. She also teaches empathy and community service. She explained that every year, the physical education students participate in a fundraiser for the American Heart Association.

“The kids collect donations from family or friends; no door-to-door canvassing,” Ketchum said.

The children bring their donations into school where the money is turned over to the AHA. As a thank you, the heart association provides pizza to the students. She is proud her students have “donated over $50,000 to the Heart Association since the fundraising began in 1996.

One of the biggest changes she’s seen over her career has been in the children.

“Children have changed,” she said. “Over the last 12 to 15 years, I have noticed a greater lack of respect for authority — teachers, parents, adults in general.”

She believes many children are not taught respect at home and that it carries over into school. She said if what was taught at school was reinforced at home, it would be a better situation.

Despite the increasing lack of respect, Ketchum said she has been blessed with the opportunity and ability to instruct children. One of her favorite moments happened when she was teaching at St. Brendan School in Youngstown. One of her former students, Jerry Olsavsky, who was preparing to play in the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers, stopped by the school.

“He came to visit St. B’s right before the Super Bowl and the kids loved it,” she remembered.

Ketchum said many attributes define her.

“I am a Christian,” she said. “I was a good daughter, and I am a great sister, a true friend and an athlete.”

About that athlete role: She participated in the National Senior Olympics from 1997 to 2008, playing tennis — “singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.” During that time, she won a silver medal in doubles and a gold medal in singles in 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. She added she has won numerous gold medals in the Northeast Ohio competitions. She is in several halls of fame, including Cardinal Mooney’s as girls’ tennis coach in 2017 and the Ohio Senior Olympics’ for tennis.

Sandy Ketchum has taught physical education for 58 years.

“When kids ask how old I am, I tell them I was born the day after President Truman ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima,” she said. They get a little history lesson in gym class.

When asked how many more years she intends to teach, she said, “I just signed a contract for another year at St. Nick’s. I take it year by year.”