Physical education teacher Anthony Pykosh went to college for soccer and then went to get a teaching degree, leaving his soccer career behind for the chance of getting a job doing something he enjoyed: working with children.

Pykosh attended the University of Maryland Baltimore. During the summers of his college career, he worked at camps with children. He realized he wanted to work with kids in the future and teaching would be a great option for doing that. “I enjoy working with kids and I like the subject matter of teaching phys ed and health plus I always wanted a job where I could wear sweatpants to work,” Pykosh said.

With being a teacher comes a lot of responsibility and possibly stress. Pykosh has been a teacher for a long time. That means a lot of students to meet and have a connection with. Teaching may change an adult’s view on life, seeing all the different events that happen with students and maybe faculty. “Teaching gives me energy and working with kids keeps me young, psychologically,” Pykosh said.

Pykosh worked at six schools before this, starting his career at four elementary schools, then Pyle Middle School, Richard Montgomery, and finally this school. Pykosh is busy a lot of the time with coaching club soccer for Bethesda and being a teacher so free time is not too often. “In my free time I like to coach club soccer, coach both of my sons in rec soccer, and spend time with family and travel,” Pykosh said.

Pykosh played soccer for years before becoming a coach; he played at Sherwood. “Wootton and Sherwood are pretty similar. I liked Sherwood, I played soccer and had many friends from soccer but the students here are generally really nice, similar to Sherwood,” Pykosh said.

As a physical education teacher here Pykosh gets to meet students and has a great teaching faculty around him. He is also a homeroom teacher and gets along well with the students in his homeroom too. “Mr. Pykosh is my homeroom teacher and I enjoy his class. He has let us choose his NFL teams for a league with his friends and even though he lost he still let us choose again and he makes homeroom more fun,” freshman Justin Heller said.

Pykosh has worked at schools before this school and he likes the teachers here a lot as well as the students. “I would give a good report for the students here and the PE department is the best,” Pykosh said.

Pykosh is a teacher kids love to have because his energy in class is always positive and uplifting to the students. “Mr. Pykosh is a great teacher and I like him because he is always positive,” freshman Joanna Jacob said.