Sunday afternoon had already arrived at the Tau Kappa Epsilon Frat House on the campus of Muhlenberg College. It was mid August and barely a creature was stirring. We were like leftovers from a Gatsby party sprawled on the couch with zero plans for today, let alone the future. We were freshly hatched college graduates with fancy degrees. We were unemployed and not in any big rush to seek out gainful employment. Two lost souls stuck together in Allentown Pennsylvania waiting for a sign. The girl spoke up from under her newspaper. “You’re from New Paltz, N.Y., right?” the young man on the sofa was barely awake. ‘Yeah, I heard of it.” The girl, a recent graduate of Cedar Crest College (an all-girls school also in Allentown Pa.) kicked him gently in the ribs. “Have you heard of Pine Bush, New York?” That second question got him to sit upright. ‘Yeah, it’s a little rural farm hamlet about 30 miles west of New Paltz. When I was in high school people in the scholastic sporting reaches called Pine Bush “a sleeping giant” because of how fast it was growing in enrollment?” They both sat up from their overextended malaise, for the first time in months I was directly facing my future, and that meant making a move off of the couch. The young lady started reading from the want ad section of The New York Times, “Wanted: High school history teacher, certified grades 7-12, and head varsity basketball coach. It was 42 years ago, and even in the present I can recall every detail of the day my life would take a direction I was meant to go. After a phone call back home, my car was loaded for what was going to turn into the first major move of my life and it was bringing me back to the Hudson Valley.
One week before I was comfortably stuck in “what am I am going to do with the rest of my life,” depression to being dressed in a suit and tie sitting in the principal’s office in Pine Bush New York. I was being closed by two old school educators (Ward Tice and John Shaughnessy). They were the High School Principal and the Athletic Director pitching me on what a wonderful future awaited me in the land of the Bushmen. Of the two senior educators in the room the principal seemed to be steeped in an over glowing optimism about the future in this land of farmers. “Pine Bush struggled in its early years of entry into the Orange County Athletic League, but we truly believe this district is a sleeping giant ready for a great awakening. We are looking for young ambitious educators ready to put roots down in the community and lead us to a dynasties in both academics and athletics. Ward Tice’s sales pitch was excellent, but he was sitting with a cynical, some claimed jaded young man. “I was checking the sports pages, I’ve noticed Pine Bush has not won a football, or a boys basketball game in two years (my dad told me after I told him I was on my way to Pine Bush). You guys had trouble in the smaller Ulster County League, now you’re playing the likes of Kingston, Newburgh, and Middletown.” The athletic director (John Shaughnessy) hadn’t said much up until now. “It won’t be easy, but with a redistricting plan that will bring a large Scotchtown student population, along with a commitment from our superintendent, there is no doubt we will be much more competitive very quickly. The administration has been charged with hiring hungry young, committed people to teach and coach that will lead us into the 1990’s as the “diamond in the rough” of the league. It was August 15th , 1982 and, on that day, the self-proclaimed Ne’er-do-well came off the couch to be officially named an 11th and 12th grade history teacher, as well as the Varsity Basketball Coach of Pine Bush High School.
The day after labor day 1982 the hallways in the Pine Bush school district were breathing in the winds of change. The once rural farming village was engaged in a transformation that was visible in real time. The area just south of Pine Bush is called Scotchtown and it is a community that once had been encompassed in the Middletown school rolls but now were attending Pine Bush. Prior to the 1980s’ Pine Bush schools was 99% Caucasian in both its student and teacher population. With the movement of district lines, a large influx of what used to be Middletown students increased Pine Bush’s minority community to approximately15% during the 80’s and 90’s. The energy was palpably positive. Looking back there was a lot of good-natured sense as if a movie was being filmed:’ Farmers meet City slickers. The week before labor day I received a phone call (a few days after I had signed a contract) from Charles Moore the district’s new superintendent; “We had a last-minute candidate apply for the opening we have offered to you. He has experience coaching varsity, and I think he will be a great person to begin your career with. I would like you to consider an opening in the Circleville Middle school and Junior Varsity basketball coach. We are excited to have you as part of our team and I feel this position will be best in the long run for all those concerned.” For sure, the call was both a kick in the stomach along with it being a tremendous relief.
The only sounds in the gymnasium were the screeching of sneakers into the hardwood floor. “See the ball.” “Get in your stance.” Sprint back,” head basketball coach Jerry Leonardi’s screams could be heard over the sounds of heavy panting. The Bushmen hoop prospects were filled with desire, filled with hustle, filled with determination, but were a bit lacking in talent to compete against the big bad Orange County ballers. That first year in Pine bush we did not win a varsity basketball game, extending a losing streak on the hardwood to 40 games. Yet, during my first-year teaching in Circleville Middle School and coaching in the high school it was obvious that progress was being made towards surging forward ready to strike. By the time I was teaching in the high school (1984) Pine Bush was one year away from competing for the Orange County League Title in football, and the varsity basketball team made the sectionals for the first time in years finishing 12-8. In the hallways of the high school this new injection of diverse and open attitudes were welcomed in with open arms after a long-shaded past of racism and antisemitism. The new recipe was filled with pride, and a oneness throughout the entire district. By 1989 Pine Bush High had grown to over 2,000 students coming from Pine Bush, Circleville, Bloomingburg, Scotchtown, and Walker Valley. The once lily-white school enrollment was urbanized and seemingly spiritually united. Academically, socially, and on the athletic fields the Bushmen were doing their best to leave behind a history of separation and discrimination.
Some stains are difficult to scrub. In the 1980’s and 90’s Pine Bush did the work, morphing into a true melting pot of critical learning, competitiveness, and togetherness. The district had become the largest demographic school district in New York State. By the time, the 80’s were finished Pine Bush had established itself as a progressive bastion of a united community. It had the fresh face of a diverse student population, a young and ambitious faculty, and all of this began to manifest into successes on the athletic fields. Ward Tice and John Shaughnessy were right on that summer day 42 years ago when they spoke to the young man, they were getting ready to put in the game. “Pine Bush is a sleeping giant ready to rise.” I only made it five years in Pine Bush. It was the place I believed would be the beginning steppingstone to a long teaching and coaching legacy. My years in Pine Bush seem like a dream that I still can’t put my hands around how it all evaporated for myself so quickly. No period of my life would be more filled with the feeling of ‘I am doing the work I was born to do.’ It was like we were all in the fight against the rest, we were the underdogs, the lonesome losers ready to turn into the prince. I left teaching behind me in the fall of 1989 to pursue a life outside of the snug cocoon that had grown into the Pine Bush family. I was not cut out for 40 years of students coming and going and me standing still. The truth was, somewhere in a place of my confessions I was afflicted with the classic Peter-Pan Syndrome; extend my youth as long as I could.
The exit off Route 211, in the land of the malls that is Middletown, a brewery called Aspire was holding a reunion for all the classes and faculty that were responsible for being part of a sleeping giant’s awakening (all classes from 1980-2000). It wasn’t the Circleville Middle School I was looking for this time but a reunion of over 400 Pine Bush high alumni and faculty. I was going back to a magical place where it all started for me, the same place I walked away from in 1989 never intending to return. A place where I was my most vulnerable but filled with a youthful innocence dreaming of glory ahead. Those of us that were in Pine Bush in the 80’s felt like we were part of something that could only be felt by the up-and-coming warriors of the day. A spirted few of those Bushmen (led by Hillary Ingram) had rallied over 300 students and 30 former faculty members to come back home to check out the sleeping giants who had come through the years wide awake. The long-time stars of the Bush had returned to an unlikely gathering of reminiscing of what it was like back then and what had become of all the heroes of our adolescence. The teachers were introduced above wild applause and cheers. The coaches and mentors like Tom Walraven, Dan Greenberg, Carla McLaud and Bob Bender, talked of the bonds and networks that led to the successful stories seen across the evening. We never know how it all turns out, but sometimes we get to go back and confirm that we were part of a special time and a special group of people. Back then my only plans were left to the hands of fate. An old girlfriend from Allentown, Pa. had helped me find my way back to the Hudson Valley that August morning as we were pleasantly wasting away a quiet Sunday afternoon. It turned out I would only be in Pine Bush a brief snippet of time, but in those tender years, I met by wife and future business partners whose influences kept me in the valley of my permanent home.
My limited stay in Pine Push had me feeling a bit awkward as I stood in front of the Aspire Brewing Company. ‘You sure you’re worthy? So many Labor Days had come and gone, and another school year always waited. I went all the way back looking for the faces that would help bring back the past. “Is that you, Mr. Siegel?” said the young lady in the gold and purple blouse skirt combo posing as the cheerful greeter. “Who else could it be?” I asked with a long slow smile. Michelle Pound hadn’t changed much from the days of our first encounters back in the fall of 1982. Ms. Pound, now a 52-year-old kindergarten teacher, escorted me through the door into the land of backwards time. There were 400 former Bushmen, spanning four decades, spinning around a circle of four rooms. There were several opportunities to re-connect discovering how it all turned out. We went back to a place in time when all slippery obstacles were in our way, but we were ready to dodge them together. We were the new kids on the block with attitude. Gary Hans was there, Walter Holmes, Carol Mitchell, Glenn Tolliver, kids who were 17 when their history teacher was 22. Deep into the night the dance floor was filled with old friends who were coming together one more time. As Joe Pound did a “spot on” imitation of his very young teacher’s opening day rant out of 40 years prior my eyes turned to the disc jockey and master of ceremonies. Any teacher who had Jamal Battle as a student would not be likely to forget the experience. Through 42 years Jamal represented the spark that I witnessed ignite, back in a time and place before civilization. “Mr. Siegel, let me introduce you to my wife. Oh, I was a rowdy little student back in the day” The man in the bow tie, the man with the tight cut, the man with a smile that is still percolating. ‘No Jamal, you were just leading a revolution.’ A teacher and a student who lived in the days Pine Bush turned into a giant hugged it out.
