A former jiu-jitsu coach, current wrestling coach, and Community Safety officer, Mr. Darryl Mayer has done it all. He thrives in the community as he enters his second year at Choate, helping students and faculty alike.
As an officer, Mr. Mayer feels as if the community is his own family. “I love taking care of people. It has always been a thing of mine,” he shared. “I have so many faces to watch out for, and I try to keep them safe like they’re my own family.”
Interestingly enough, Mr. Mayer often handles popcorn-related incidents while on duty. According to him, students are prone to setting popcorn on fire in microwaves. However, an added bonus is that “you’ll smell like popcorn!” Once after handling a popcorn-burning situation, Mr. Mayer’s jacket smelt so strongly of popcorn that he had to get a new one!
Another side of Mr. Mayer that students often see on campus is his job as the assistant wrestling coach. Mr. Mayer believes there is something special about helping student-athletes achieve their goals. “Winning myself wouldn’t even feel as good as watching a student-athlete do what they wanted to do,” he said.
Mr. Mayer’s sports endeavor started in high school. After wanting to try something other than basketball, he started working on wrestling. Mr. Mayer acknowledges that wrestling is a tough sport. “The first week of the first year of wrestling is miserable. Your body will hurt, and throwing up during practice is not an uncommon occurrence. However, as time goes on, you build upon your foundation and improve,” he said.
Mr. Mayers started by setting small goals for himself, including making it through practice or learning a new skill. He feels like a lot of the things he learned from wrestling translate to other aspects of his life as well. “There’s nothing that can beat me down,” he said confidently.
After coaching for 14 years, he believes wholeheartedly that “once you’ve wrestled, everything in life is easy.” By taking things step by step, it is possible to get through any challenge, no matter how difficult it may seem to start with.
Mr. Mayer’s favorite aspect of Choate is its diverse community. Coming from a public school, he is used to everyone being from the same town and is amazed to be with people from all over the world. “You have people from countries 20 hours away [by plane]. It’s amazing,” he said.
Mr. Mayer’s one message to the Choate community is to take care of each other. “It doesn’t hurt to be nice to everybody,” he said. With all his life experience, Mr. Mayer feels that being nice is an easy thing to do — so why not do it?
“Just take care of each other and be nice. Hopefully, that translates outside Choate and makes the world a better place,” Mr. Mayer concluded.
