By: Tyler Garling

LEESBURG, VA- At Tuscarora, the teachers aren’t exactly as they seem. Believe it or not, your everyday teachers live double lives! Three teachers –  Mr. McNamara, Mr. Blair, and Ms. Smith –  have decided to reveal their secret identities to the school. These identities just happen to be an Applebee’s bartender, a golf course supervisor, and a softball instructor, respectively.

One of Tuscarora’s new teachers, Mr. McNamara, is one of many teachers who work another job. When he isn’t teaching Government to his Academic and AP students, Mr. McNamara works at the Applebee’s bar in Warrenton. He usually works on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I already had [the job] and it lets me work over the summer,” says McNamara, who started working at Applebee’s a year and a half ago. Mr. McNamara does find it difficult to balance his teaching and his bartending. “Working in the mornings only allows you to get stuff done at night,” he adds. However, Mr. McNamara plans to keep bartending at Applebee’s because there’s a good amount of income from working over the summer months.

Ms. Smith teaches Pre-AP World History and AP Psychology and is the coach of the varsity softball team. Ms. Smith also works at Diamond Sports Training (DST) in Sterling on Mondays through Thursdays from 4:30-10 p.m. and on Sundays from 9 a.m. to noon.

“I like to work with athletes and it’s a fun way [of giving] softball lessons,” says Ms. Smith.

At DST, she gives lessons in a variety of subjects including hitting, fielding, and catching.
“You get to work in a different kind of environment than coaching,” Ms. Smith says.

She’s been working at DST since she first started teaching in 2006. Ms. Smith, like most people, is only human and does feel the effects of coaching, training, and teaching. “Sometimes it gets a little tiring, but I’ll keep it as long as I can keep going,” she says.

During the day, Mr. Blair is just a regular Tuscarora English teacher, but three days a week and on weekends, he’s a golf course supervisor at Loudoun Golf & Country Club in Purcellville. Mr. Blair not only took up the job for the cash flow, but also because he’s a golfer himself. “I actually enjoy golf and it’s free whenever I want to play. But I also just like getting to know different types of people and being outdoors. It’s just something where I make a little bit [of] extra cash,” says Blair.

Mr. Blair has been working at Loudoun Golf & Country Club for four years now. At the golf course, he supervises any outdoor work, like cleaning and storing the golf carts, upkeeping the driving range, and closing up the pro shop at the end of the day.

However, Mr. Blair doesn’t just work at the golf course; he’s also been a teacher consultant at George Mason University for five years. “I am a consultant for teachers when it comes to writing. I am asked from time to time to present in front of a group of teachers,” Blair says.

Mr. Blair, like Mr. McNamara and Ms. Smith, does find it difficult to manage all three jobs. “Sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day because I’m also working on getting my Master’s degree, so it’s kind of hard to find the time,” Blair says.  He is getting his Master’s through the University of Texas.  “Sometimes I’ll [get] 2 to 3 hours of sleep at night, but it’s all…work that I enjoy,”  Blair concludes.

With school becoming the main focus, Mr. Blair is only working the bigger jobs, like tournaments, at the golf course. However, he doesn’t plan on quitting the job any time soon. “It’s something that I keep around, especially for the summer. I go more full-time during the summer but I just kind of work as I need during the year,” says Blair. “I’m young, I can do it, so why not?”