Stiefelmeyer going out on top
When Jill Stiefelmeyer walks out of Governor Simcoe Friday for the last time, she will do so with no regrets.
The 54-year-old Niagara Falls native is retiring this week, putting a bow on an eventful, successful and memorable 27-year career as a teacher, coach, mentor and organizer.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Stiefelmeyer said. “No second guesses at all whatsoever.
“I’m going out in my mind on a high note. I’m not negative about education. I continued to coach the whole time. Maybe in another year I would have started not wanting to go to meetings and things like that. I wasn’t burnt out and I still enjoyed coaching both boys and girls basketball this year.”
Stiefelmeyer has spent her finals days at Simcoe cleaning out her office, saving a few memorable items in a box to be taken home while taking pictures of other items she chose to discard.
The fact she won’t be coming back in the fall still hasn’t hit her.
“So many people have asked and I still feel fine, I don’t feel emotional yet or anything like that,” she said. “Taking things down has, I guess, been a bit difficult but I think it’s going to hit me in September. Right now, it’s just summer. It’s normal. In September it’s really going to hit me. All my routines and organization, I usually start thinking (about school) as soon as August hits.”
Stiefelmeyer isn’t quite sure what her life with look like in retirement other than she plans to do some travelling — she’s booked a cruise with her parents for November — and that she still plans to supply teach at Simcoe, act as an adviser, and is even going to Orillia with the girls basketball team for a tournament in September.
“The first year I’m going to see how it all plays out,” she said. “It’s now on my schedule, on my terms.”
Stiefelmeyer grew up in Niagara Falls the daughter of two teachers. Her mother, Betty, was a phys-ed teacher and her father, Bruce, was a math teacher and soccer coach and basketball coach and organizer in Niagara Falls. In 2013, Bruce was inducted as a builder into the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame.
But Stiefelmeyer’s first career choice was radiation therapy, not teaching.
“I went to Western and said I wasn’t going to be a teacher because my parents were teachers so went into the medical field,” she recalled.
After graduating and finding jobs hard to come by, Stiefelmeyer worked in a plant in Toronto for over a year before deciding to obtain her teaching degree from D’Youville in Buffalo.
“I got my teaching degree and I’ve never looked back,” she said.
After a year at Merrriton High School, she moved to the St. Catharines Collegiate until 2005 and then to Simcoe where she was recruited by retired Simcoe coach/teacher John Dakin.
Along the way she developed a reputation as a hard worker who didn’t mind sweating the details but also someone with a pleasant personality that her students could identify with.
“My teachers were both parents so I had great role models with them and I just think that’s my personality,” Stiefelmeyer said. “I remember from Day 1 when I came over here, John Dakin told me, ‘Make sure these kids learn life lessons.’ That’s what I always tried to teach. There was always something about life and make it fun and would always remember me from that phys-ed class or that team when they were done.
“My motto was to make it fun, and it was. I always taught Grade 9 every year and it’s been great.”
She appreciated her position, enjoying coming to work right up until the end.
“I would say teaching is one of those jobs, one of those careers, where you could definitely have that,” she said. “Phys-ed is an amazing job. Get to work out with the kids, play with the kids and have fun and be silly and you don’t even have to dress up for school.
“I can’t honestly say I never had a bad year of teaching beside the COVID stuff. I’ve had wonderful students from Day 1 in my 27 years of teaching.”
Stiefelmeyer’s zest for teaching and coaching and her genuine interest in her students did not go unnoticed.
“She’s integral to Simcoe,” Simcoe teacher/coach Jamie Brophy said. “What she contributes not only with coaching, but the phys-ed department and all of the other stuff outside of school, she’s here all the time.
“It helps everybody and the kids feed off of that too. If a person is invested in the school, then the kids get invested too. It makes a huge difference.”
She lists Dakin and retired educator Rina Rode as her mentors.
“I learned so much from them, they were such great role models,” Stiefelmeyer said. “I could ask any question and they defined who I was.”
Rode appreciated Stiefelmeyer’s dedication to her career.
“Jill was amazing,” Rode said. “She did everything she could to ensure that kids had opportunities in sport. She coached, staff advised if a team was in need of a coach, convened, ran tournaments, sat on committees, etc. Whenever I need someone to throw an idea at, she was available. A great coach, a great organizer, and an even better person.
“It’s a big loss to Simcoe, SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association) and OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations).”
The decision to retire came at a Toronto Blue Jays game last summer.
While discussing the upcoming year with her best friend, Nicole Terryberry, Stiefelmeyer realized she wasn’t as eager as normal for the school year to start.
“We started talking and I wasn’t overly excited to come into school,” Stiefelmeyer said. “I’ve done everything, what else can I do in another year that I haven’t accomplished?”
The friends made the decision official with a pinky swear and a picture.
“In September, I told my principal because I was going to get evaluated and I don’t want to get evaluated again but we didn’t tell anyone,” Stiefelmeyer said.
Stiefelmeyer has seen it all — some good, some not so good — after over a quarter of a century in education.
“There is more parental involvement and also the technology and the phone is a big issue now,” she said. “Getting the kids active in phys-ed is sometimes difficult. You always have that small group of kids who prefer to be on their phones and not as active. The younger teachers have more enthusiasm. I had it great when the kids were younger and I was a younger teacher and they always wanted to play, play, play. Now you have the issues of kids changing, cell phones, and not being motivated to participate.”
Stiefelmeyer was feted recently by about 100 friends, colleagues and family at a local eatery.
“It meant a lot. It was very, very special. It was so great,” she said.
It was a fitting tribute to a career which did honour to the profession.
“It’s been a great career. I have so many people in my coaching career and my students, it’s just been fun. I’m so glad I got into this career. It took me awhile before I got into teaching and it’s the best thing I have every done. It’s been so worthwhile. I’ve had such a blast.”
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