As a player and coach, Joel Dohm has found sports to be a good way to build leadership abilities.
Dohm, 27, a former player on the Saginaw Valley State University baseball team, will bring that experience to Brandon High School in the 2005-06 year. Dohm will teach United States History at BHS.
Before coming to Brandon, Dohm taught several social studies courses (Geography, World History, and U.S. History) as well as physical education and weight training at Camden-Frontier High School (in Hillsdale County, which borders Indiana and Ohio) for four years.
He said he was interested in the Brandon job because ‘he really liked the area.? Dohm grew up in Owosso, while wife Jennifer, 29, grew up in Walled Lake.
Dohm graduated from Owosso High School, where he played varsity baseball for four years and made the All-State team.
At SVSU, he made the transition from catcher to outfield, but it did not hinder his hitting ability. At the time he graduated from SVSU in 2001, he was tied for first on the school’s all-time career home run list and first in career RBI, and was in the top 10 in several other career hitting categories.
The Cardinals won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in 2000, going 23-5-1 in league play and 40-11-1 overall. They advanced to the National Collegiate Athletic Association regional finals in Indianapolis that season.
Dohm said his baseball experience at SVSU, particularly when mentoring the younger players on the team, has helped him become a more effective teacher.
‘You really learn how to teach other kids and take them under your wings,? he said. ‘It’s the same thing with teaching ? the kids really buy into what I was saying.?
He gained further leadership experience as a coach at Camden-Frontier, where he was the varsity baseball coach and an assistant varsity football coach.
The Dohms have two children: Tate, 21 months, and Tyler, four months.