Lyons Township PE teacher ‘won the lottery’ when she returned to alma mater

Once a Lyons Township High School student and athlete, Katie Meyers has been walking its halls as a teacher since 2006.

Initially there was a bit of “déjà vu,” but there also was a feeling of being “home.”

Meyers, who is a physical education teacher, said, “I am very proud of my school and bleed blue gold.”

“I feel like I won the lottery coming back to the school that I attended,” she said.

Growing up, if there was an opportunity to join a sport, Meyers did.

Today, Meyers, who went on to play college basketball, plays on a USA National women’s 40-and-older volleyball team Set to Kill.

“I am still a sports person, but that is not why I teach,” Meyers said.

Today, she said, “I value health and physical, emotional and mental wellness.”

Teaching physical education, Meyers said, “is a unique area where a teacher gets to have every area of a human addressed” – the physical, social and cognitive.

“It is a special arena as an instructor where I can tackle a way to move forward in life in a healthy way,” she said.

The mentorship of former Lyons Township basketball coach Dawn Schabacker initially drew Meyers to teaching as a career.

“I was living this dream playing basketball at Lyons Township. I looked up to her so much,” Meyers said. “I said I just want to be like Coach Shaz. I want to teach PE or health and coach girls basketball.

“It is a dream that I am here at Lyons Township, the school that I went to. That was never part of the plan. I consider myself very lucky to be here.”

Looking beyond the usual offerings for physical education, Meyers became interested in starting a self-defense class at Lyons Township.

Hearing about a similar program at Oak Park and River Forest High School, Meyers said, “I was intrigued.”

“We can offer our students more meaningful opportunities to grow in PE,” she said.

Meyers and several other Lyons Township instructors became certified in R.A.D. Systems of Self Defense and today more than 1,000 students have enrolled in the semester-long course.

“We realized that the training was more than physical skills,” she said. “It was a way of life. It was about personal safety, awareness and reducing risk. There was a large education component and a large empowerment component.”

The students who enroll in this class will have a very valuable tool for the rest of their lives, Meyers said.

“Whether it is setting boundaries, saying no to other people or worst-case scenario to use their body to protect themselves,” she said.

More than a decade ago, Meyers became one of Lyons Township’s first sports officiating teachers.

The course gives students the opportunity to learn the rules of soccer, softball, volleyball and basketball.

Meyers also teaches exercise physiology, which is more “science based.”

These types of opportunities, she said, bring curriculum to students that is meaningful and can be marketed outside of their high school experience.

“I want to give kids the opportunity to learn healthy lifetime habits and feel their own confidence and joy in their own body and mind,” she said. “I try to meet kids where they are at and as a teacher for 20 years, every student comes from a different place and adjusting to them is one of my goals.”