By Bethany Hutchens

Gargoyle staff reporter

Posted Thursday, March 8, 2007, The OG, features

DOUG MYNATT IS in his 12th year as a physical education teacher at Uni High. He also coaches the school's cross country and track teams, both girls and boys, and in that capacity he's influenced a generation of Uni athletes. But his identity goes beyond that of teacher and coach. He's a husband (wife Susan works for the U of I and used to be Uni's account technician), a father (son Knox was born last June), a philanthropist (Doug is a perennial participant in the school's annual Habitat for Humanity trip to Mississippi), a Southerner (color him Tennessee orange), a football fan (Go, Vols!), and a pie lover (keep on reading). Find out all about Doug in his exclusive interview with the Gargoyle.

How did you become involved in Habitat for Humanity?

I was fortunate enough to have [history teacher] Bill Sutton ask me to join him for the
inaugural trip back in 1997 at the urging of his students.

What do you get out of the Habitat trips and why do you keep coming back
every year?

I love seeing Uni students out of their element and accomplishing so much
in one short week. Also, I think it's good for the students to see me out
of my usual environment. And I do it because it's the right thing to do.

Are there any experiences that really stand out for you on the Habitat trips?

The Mississippi Delta is a different South than where I grew up, so it's been a remarkable learning experience for me to hear Bill Sutton lecture on the history of the region. And finding Memphis Music on Beale Street with [history teacher and fellow Habitat chaperone] Chris Butler was a profound experience. It's something I look forward to every year, along with charbroiled ribs from the Rendezvous. Is that shallow of me?

You recently became a father. How has that experience been for you?

It's amazing. I find myself in awe of what two people can create. Nothing is stronger in my life than the feeling I have for Knox. I have a newfound and profound appreciation for mothers, too. Susan does so much for him every single day. It's phenomenal.

What do you think is the most important thing a parent can teach their children?

I'm trying to figure that out. Every day I'm asking myself a different question about what I need to teach Knox and how I'm going to go about teaching him. I want him to be happy and healthy, but not at the expense of anybody else. I want him to be kind and polite, but not a pushover. I want to teach him how to play and learn for the rest of his life. I just have to figure out how to do all those things. I'll need a little help.

You grew up in Tennessee, correct? What was it like growing up in the South?

Yes, I was born and raised in Knoxville, Tenn., gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. Growing up in the South, that part of the South, was fantastic. Knoxville is large enough to keep you occupied, but not so large that it swallows you up. The University of Tennessee is located there, but the city has an identity of its own that keeps it from feeling like it's just a college town.

Is there anything from the South that you miss now that you live in Illinois?

Of course I miss seeing my friends and family, along with the mountains, the lakes, the rivers, college football … well, good college football. Whether you like college football or not, the atmosphere of a football Saturday in Knoxville is quite an experience. I miss my mom's home cooking, Big Ed's Pizza, seeing the “Hot Doughnuts Now” burning bright at Krispy Kreme. I do go home for Christmas and every August for my family reunion, so I have these things to look forward to when I get there.

What were your parents like?

They were great, still are. They made sure I had everything I needed but never let me think I would get everything I wanted. My dad was a chemical processor at Rohm & Haas, making Plexiglas and all sorts of chemical goodies, while my mom worked as an insurance underwriter. I'm a lot like my dad in that neither one of us talks much, but we're always thinking about grand things. He could care less about sports, but we share a common bond with our music. I spent much more time with my mom growing up and I'm sure I was a mama's boy, but unfortunately she has kept her East Tennessee Republican roots, so we differ greatly on all things political. I was born on her birthday, and I still think of myself as her best birthday present ever — she does, too!

What led you to become interested in track and field and cross country?

It was just something that I found I was good at. I was always outside as a kid. I was always playing. Running came naturally as a part of that. In eighth grade, once I realized I was pretty good at it, better than most of my peers, my interest soared. From then on, I was always involved in running, participating with the Knoxville Track Club, watching and working track meets at UT. This was back in the mid-'70s when the running boom began, so I was fortunate to catch that wave and ride with it.

Why did you decide to become a PE teacher?

Teaching PE, coaching at Uni all sort of fell in my lap. Serendipity, I guess. When I moved to C-U in 1994, I had no intentions of staying much longer than four years, let alone teach or coach at Uni. When I found myself looking for something else to do between the two classes I was taking at the U of I and working at the Courier Café, I came across an ad in The News-Gazette about an assistant coaching position at Uni. I sent a letter to [athletic director] Sally Walker, after the deadline, I think, but it did the trick. I got an interview, and the next thing I know, I'm a track coach. When the head coach [Bonnie Moxley, now girls track and cross country head coach at Mahomet-Seymour High School], who was also a PE teacher, had back surgery in the spring of 1995, Sally asked if I would like to substitute teach her fitness classes, so I did for the next three months. When the coach left for another job the next school year, Sally asked if I was interested in her position. I took her up on the offer, and the next thing you know, I'm a PE teacher.

My sources tell me you served in the Peace Corps after holding a trucking job. How did you get involved with the Peace Corps?

After I graduated [from the University of Tennessee] with my degree in anthropology, I had no real idea what I wanted to do next. I wasn't really looking forward to graduate school. Over the next year, I contemplated the idea of doing something other than school. That's when I picked up an application [to the Peace Corps]. It sat on my desk for a long time before I started filling it out, but I finally finished the forms and began the process. No one steered me to the Peace Corps, and I don't even know if I informed my family I was contemplating service. Surprise, Mom! I'm going to Africa!

Where did you go in the Corps, and what did you do?

I was selected to serve in Mali, West Africa, and my official job description was natural resource management volunteer. With my varied, and I do mean varied, course work, that was the best fit for me. My charge was to work with programs dealing with soil, forestry, and water conservation. In the bigger picture, I was a member of an AFSI team (African Food Systems Initiative), where I worked with volunteers from
other sectors (agriculture, small enterprise development, water resource management), and our biggest project was the Guinea worm eradication program.

How long did you stay in the Peace Corps and why did you leave early?

I came back a little over six months short of my two-year term. Without going into details, it was the perfect storm of stress … a string of unfortunate and tragic events, full-frontal government bureaucracy, and a whole lot of homesickness. After two terrible weeks of literally doing nothing, I decided to leave with my health and my sanity.

Are there any experiences that stood out for you from your time in the Peace Corps?

Several: the moment we stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at Bamako; our arrival as a group into our host village of Samanko, where we stayed for the first three months; being given our names by our host families (I was Yacoubah Diarra, later Yacoubah Nantoume' when I moved to my Dogon village of Koundiala in the Mopti Region); seeing the mosque at Djenne; traveling north up the Niger River into Timbuktu. All very vibrant images and experiences.

How has teaching at Uni been so far?

Fantastic. I'm still here going on 12 years. Must be something I like about it.

I hear you're a Tennessee football fan. Who is your favorite player, and why?

Peyton Manning, recent MVP of the Super Bowl. He embodied everything a student-athlete should be during his time at Tennessee, finished his degree in three years, then stayed in school for his senior year when he could have been making millions.

What three words sum up Doug Mynatt?

I like pie.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

No, but I'm hungry now.

RELATED

— Gargoyle story: The making of the Mynatts