He used to walk the halls with a backpack, now he walks the halls with his coffee. He used to turn in homework, now he hands it out. He used to be the student, now he’s the teacher. Students used to call him Cole, now they call him Mr. Wheeler.
2021 Lampasas high school graduate Cole Wheeler returned this school year to begin teaching world history and public speaking along with coaching UIL speech and debate and current events.
“I looked at the opportunities this high school provided to me when I went here, and I thought it’d be a good thing to give the opportunities to other people,” Wheeler said. “I thought there was a good support system, because I know a lot of teachers here, because they taught me, and I know students here.”
During his time as a student, Wheeler won first place at UIL state in informative speaking, was crowned the 2020 homecoming king, competed at UIL state in One Act Play, was a member of NHS and graduated salutatorian of his class.
“I was thrilled to find out Mr. Wheeler was coming back,” speech and debate coach Judith Ann McGhee said. “He’s a state medalist in speech and debate and has gobs of experience and a teacher’s heart. I’m happy he will have a platform to share his knowledge and teacher’s heart.”
Wheeler teaches novice public speaking classes and will help coach UIL speech and debate with McGhee, his own former coach. Wheeler said his goal for speech and debate is to have a state champion this year.
“I think we can do it,” Wheeler said. “I want to see kids improve, even if they don’t necessarily get to state. I think it’s important to have kids starting from one place and getting to where they feel comfortable speaking in front of others, talking about issues they are passionate about. So on one hand, we have goals of getting kids to state, having them place, having them win, but also I also want kids to just improve their skill set when it comes to public speaking and debate.”
Wheeler said he is excited to coach his younger brother senior Cale Wheeler in speech and debate and hopefully push him to win a state medal like he did his senior year. The brothers don’t see each other much during the actual school day, but they do see each other at speech and debate practice and will travel to UIL competitions together as well.
“It’s a cool kind of full circle moment,” Cale said. “We’re five years apart so we were never really in school together, so it’s ironic that we are now during my senior year. Me and my brother have always been very close, so it’s nice to have him around.”
Wheeler graduated from the University of Texas in May and began student teaching at the high school the same month. Wheeler’s original plan wasn’t to be a teacher but to go to law school.
“I went to college and I decided that I didn’t want to do law school anymore, for a lot of reasons,” Wheeler said. “One is because it’s a lot of work and money and two I got kind of disillusioned. Like, I didn’t really know how I could help people in that system. I got an on-campus job that allowed me to help other students in college and kind of teach them in a pseudo classroom setting. Then I thought okay teaching, this is how I can help people face to face.”
Wheeler said it has been good to return to alma mater.
“I think I have a good support system here, because they don’t want me to fail,” Wheeler said. “I was a good enough student in high school that they don’t hate my guts, you know. The staff have been very welcoming and very helpful. I’m still making mistakes as a new teacher, but I’m learning and it’s helpful to have people that taught me continue to teach me in this process as I become a teacher.”
