St. Charles East history teacher Neil Currie has become ‘Voice of the Saints’

Neil Currie didn’t think St. Charles East would become his home.

After finishing a stint of student teaching at Glenbrook South in 2006, he was approached by Geoff Falk, who was head of the social studies department at St. Charles East at the time, and told of an opening.

Currie did not want to work far from his home and family in Northbrook, but decided to interview for practice. He ultimately was offered the job.

He initially thought it would be a temporary change. He ended up falling in love with St. Charles.

“The community is wonderful and I love the students,” Currie said. “And not just the school community, but the St. Charles community is amazing. It’s a very welcoming and kind community with great parental support and that’s what made me stay.”

Nineteen years later, Currie has become a staple at the high school. And nothing better encapsulates his character than his announcing at St. Charles East sporting events.

Currie got his first chance at the mic in his second year at East. After the usual basketball announcer called in sick, then-athletic director Jerry Krieg pulled Currie to the side and asked him to sub in.

Not long after, while on vacation with his family in Colorado, Currie got a call from former girls basketball coach and assistant athletic director Lori Drumtra asking him to announce soccer and basketball games for the future.

“I was already working extra events like crowd control at football and basketball games,” Currie said. “So when she called me and asked to announce, I said yes.”

He originally started with the two sports. The list of sports eventually grew to include football, softball, baseball and volleyball. He’s also done work outside of sporting events, the most prominent being The AmazinGrace held by The Hardy Strong Foundation over the summer at Mt. Saint Mary Park.

“I always make it a point to go out and help them,” Currie said. “It’s another great cause, and he was just an unbelievable young man.”

Part of Currie’s signature style of announcing is bringing attention to things outside of the field of play such as dog walkers going behind the stadium along Kirk Road.

Currie said the idea began after asking the crowd to wave to former assistant principal Robert Abraham, who rode his bike past a soccer game.

“He came up to me the next day and was like, ‘That was really funny. Do you always do that?’ ” Currie said. “I said no because I didn’t usually know the riders, but he asked if I could just say bike rider and that’s how it started. And then I started incorporating that goofiness into football and basketball as well.”

That style, which Currie said is similar to the way he teaches, is one that many former students and athletes have come to adore. One such former student is Saints football coach Nolan Possley.

Possley was a student in Currie’s American Studies course during his senior year in 2010. Even after 15 years, Currie still remembers the smallest of details of Possley being in his classroom. Details such as Possley’s love of Three Musketeers chocolate bars.

“I don’t know what I said in his class 15 years ago, but he latched onto my Three Musketeers comment,” Possley said, laughing. “I can’t say I’m as passionate about them now as I must have been then.

“But even now, he still remembers people in my classroom. Like that’s incredible that he remembers someone that was in my class that I had for one semester and we’re looking 15 years later and he still remembers that student.”

Possley said that even as coworkers, Currie exhibits the same level of thoughtfulness that he remembers him exhibiting as a student.

“I’ll hook him up with a football T-shirt and I’ll have a handwritten thank-you note from him the next day,” Possley said. “He’s so conscious of the people around him. He’s just very in tune to making those people feel special, and making those few people feel appreciated.”

Currie finds it rewarding to see how much former students and athletes have grown over his years at East.

“When you see former students doing great things and just excelling in what they want to do, it’s kind of humbling,” Currie said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not about yourself. You’re just there to make others better.”

And while he certainly appreciates the support he’s received from the community over the years, it’s clear the feeling is mutual among the Saints’ community.

“He’s a great representative of what it means to be a Saint,” Possley said. “His impact just stretches so far. Whether it’s students or players or anybody, you think of the voice of the Saints and he’s the perfect representation of everything that we want to stand for here.”