Top Ten Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About Coach Jackie

• In 3rd grade, I held the record in the Presidential Fitness Challenge for longest wall sit.

• I never learned how to do a cartwheel or to whistle.

• I followed Phish (this is a band, Pat) around the country to lots (and lots) of live shows in college. I sold grilled cheese and pancakes from a camp stove in the back of my car.

• I worked and lived in a pub in north London for a summer in college. I know how to pour a draft Guinness with a clover in the foam and how to make a proper Shandy.

• I taught Kindergarten and 1st grade in Atlanta, GA as a Teach For America corps member.

• I was invited to an education round table with President G.W. Bush with 15 other teachers. When we arrived, name cards were placed around the table in alphabetical order by last name. I sat BESIDE the POTUS.

• While working for Flying Horse Farms, I spent a month in Botswana on a game range working with Camp Hope, a sister program through SeriousFun Children’s Network. We weren’t allowed to have snacks in our cabins because the “baboons will come right in the window.”

• I have fought in 10 amateur Muay Thai fights, but I’m a super wimp when my hair is pulled or when snow gets in the sleeves/collar of my coat.

• While traveling in Colorado, I had an incident with Med Ball Slams that ended with stitches in my upper lip.

• I hate pickles. All of them. Cucumbers are fine. Just, please do not soak them in vinegar. Truly.