Fleetmack.com - Definition of a Hero

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"All our lives all we ever sacrificed has paid. Everything is possible to me." --Slipknot - Scream

The Definition of a Hero
by Bryan Mack
06-15-2005

What is a hero? Is Corey Taylor or Johnny Cash my hero? Could Shaun Alexander or Joe Sakic be my idol? Mr. Charles Barkley stated it perfectly when he stated, "I am not a role model." While it is fitting to say that Jesus is whom I look up to the most, there are still people in modern day who meet this unique profile of a role model. A hero is not judged by how many yards ran in the Super Bowl, triple-hats scored, or the wonderful music he or she has created. A true hero provides a blueprint and instruction guide to a positive lifestyle, his or her every day actions motivate and inspire me to become a better person. If some day, just one person on Earth can give me half the respect I have for my hero, I feel my life will be successful.

I personally feel like my hero's one goal in life has been to make my life become more positive and successful, yet he probably has no idea of his influence on me. His intentions are selfless and unbeknownst to him. The funny thing about this is, it wasn't just me whom he made feel this way. I know it's cliche to say that a teacher was a hero, however, in the case of my life, it'd be a complete falsity if I were to say my hero is anyone other than Mr. Sexton. Before I was enrolled at Kuemper and had ever met Mr. Sexton, I was already aware of how great a man he was. I remember my brother saying Mr. Sexton was his favorite teacher. When I arrived at Kuemper, I would soon realize this on my own.

Some teachers get walked all over while trying to maintain control of their class. In the classes of Mr. Sexton's I was in, all the students were respectful. I wouldn't say I was ever out of control in any of my classes, but I got in my share of trouble. However, when I was in Mr. Sexton's class, I wanted his respect. Always wearing a shirt and tie to work, never (and I mean never) absent from the classroom, and always finding the good in everything, that's what Mr. Sexton is like. These are the qualities of a hero: professional, reliable, positive. These qualities earned my respect within minutes, and you can tell he's sincere.

The man just puts a huge smile on my face. Just as students have felt since the beginning of time, I never wanted to be at school, and I rarely enjoyed it. I looked forward to my classes with Mr. Sexton every day. He has many familiar quotes which all who attended Kuemper High School are familiar with. If you were spotted with an untucked shirt, he wasn't like the other teachers who enforced a mandatory detention on you. Instead he simply stated, "Tuck it in, if you look sharp you act sharp." If you know me at all, you know that I talk a lot, but I always expect people to pay attention to my actions, not words. This is an influence Mr. Sexton has on me with his common phrase of, "I'm from Missouri, SHOW ME!" With his laid-back attitude and distinct accent, he'd find a way to be serious and funny at the same time. Kids are running in the hall you say? No problem, Mr. Sexton solves it by yelling out "The indoor track meet has been canceled, slow down!"

My sophomore year of high school I decided I was capable of making it in the Honors program for my English courses. Mr. Sexton was the teacher for Honors Composition for Sophomores, so at age 15 I would be sitting in room 163 under his guidance for the first time. In most classes in high school you walked in on the first day expecting to read the beginning of your textbook. Mr. Sexton would have a picture of a man with a big head drawn on the board, and inside his head were all these thoughts represented by letters. Two similar letters were highlighted in the cluster of letters in the man's head, and he used this example to show us how he would help us organize and clarify our many thoughts which dwelled in our minds. Instead of being told to read fifty pages, you had a man talk to you about life. His ambulatory persona would never sit still, he'd get in your face. If you showed signs of being alive, you were getting called on. "You blinked, that means you have something to say! Let's hear it!" We'd learn about the maturation process and examine ourselves in essays. Our English skills were being tremendously increased while at the same time Mr. Sexton was helping us discover life.

After my initial class with Mr. Sexton, I decided to take Honors courses for the remainder of my time at Kuemper. I'm proud to say the reason was I wanted Mr. Sexton to teach me. The courses I took were loaded with the Top 10 of my class, other 4.0 students, and there I sat with my 2.6 grade point average. I always felt as if the "smart kids" were looking down on me, thinking I was in the class for a joke, and believing I didn't belong there. The thing was, Mr. Sexton never doubted me for a second. I remember a paper I wrote as a Senior in AP Language & Composition. It was the first week of class and he had us write a paper about an event or events that made a difference in our lives. He asked if anyone wanted to read them out loud, I volunteered. The confidence was instilled in me that there wasn't a wrong answer or a bad writing, and I wanted to share what I had written. After class, Mr. Sexton came up to me and told me he liked how I expressed myself in my writing, and that he enjoyed what I had written. I smiled as I didn't see him say this to anyone else in the class, although I'm sure at the bare minimum he wrote encouraging comments on their papers.

I remember taking that AP test in early May of 1997. I studied my ass off for that test. Mr. Sexton had been my writing coach of three years, and it was time to put it to a test judged by outsiders. We weren't to be given the results until mid-summer, long after graduation, but Mr. Sexton told us he'd like to know how we did. The second the exam was over, I knew I aced the thing. Some of the others in the class, the "smart kids", didn't even opt to take the exam. My GPA was in the bottom half of my class and I took that test. I got the results, and sure enough, I got a 4 on it. I swear on my deathbed that the first thing I did was tell my Mom, "I've got to call Mr. Sexton!" I immediately grabbed the phone book and made a call. A kid from the bottom half of his class had just passed out of his college English courses and I had to thank my teacher. I called him and I could tell he was smiling as he said, "All right! I knew you could do it! Way to go, Bryan!" He was able to reach me with his teaching.

On the first day of football practice, Mr. Sexton went through the run down of the kickoff-return team. He started off by saying "We're going to play Christian football. We're going to knock them down, but then we'll hold our our hand to help them up." And then, with a little smirk as he tilted his head down he'd say, "But then we'll knock 'em down again!" Everyone got a kick out of Mr. Sexton, and he was a great and serious coach. While discussing special teams, he'd say "We need someone to play the role of an Eighteen-Wheeler. You're blocking for the runner, and just as they do on the highway, nobody wants to run into that eighteen-wheeler! They get out of your way!" Mr. Sexton discussing the receiver of the kickoff: "We need a cheetah-man. Cheetah's are fast and cheetah's are predators. Who is going to be our cheetah?" He had a nickname for every position on that team, and they were all well thought out, fitting, and the way he presented them made football practice fun. Making football practice fun is not an easy thing to do.

When game time came around, it was all business. He was on the sidelines doing his job, and when someone made a mistake, he was visibly upset. He'd encourage us the way a football coach does, "That's not football, if you're not going to play football go down and see the girls at Pokey's." (Pokey's was a restaurant where the high school girls commonly waited tables.) Someone would make a big play and Coach Sexton would turn around and face the guys on the sideline and say, "What a great play, that guy wants to play some football! Who else wants to play some football?"

A hero is able to turn negatives into positives, and I have an exact tale of when he did that for me. Our football coach senior year of high school was not someone I particularly wanted to be best friends with. (I can't picture Mr. Sexton saying anthing bad about anybody, so I'll act like he does and leave coach's description at that.) We had a reverse on a kickoff return that I was the lead blocker for. The kick-returner was right off my back on this play and we were running down field. I spotted my man, and I nailed him. I thought I knocked this guy out of his shoes and wouldn't have been surprised if I knocked the wind out of him. I fell down, I look up, and the receiver had been tackled. The guy I knocked down grabbed the runner's foot while he was running by him. I got back to the sidelines; the head coach screamed at me and benched me the the remainder of the game. I should have fallen on top of the guy when I hit him. It was my fault, and I understand that. I contemplated quitting the team because of this as Urwin made me feel so horrible. I was beating myself up all weekend. Had I done my job better we would have had a touchdown on a kickoff return, it was my fault and I didn't want to play anymore. Sure enough, on Monday morning as I was walking down the hall, Mr. Sexton saw me walking by and pulled me aside. He said with a smile, "I watched the tape of the game, on that kickoff you knocked that guy on his butt! That was a heck of a hit! Nice work." And he was sincere. Suddenly I felt good about myself. Coach Sexton saw what I did and appreciated that I tried. It was almost as if he knew I was going to quit the team. That gesture of his, which I'm sure he did similar things to hundreds of other people that same week, kept me playing football.

When people retire, they should feel like they accomplished a lot during their career. Mr. Sexton is the epitome of this statement. The man has touched more lives than there are stars with his motivational teaching and coaching style. His amiable personality is unlike that of any other person I've met and ever will meet. Mr. Sexton is a real-life hero, my real-life hero.