There are plenty of new faces at AHS every single year. Once of them this year is Josh Cooley. While he has plenty of professionalism, he can also be a little more relatable to the students than the average teacher; ‘’Hunting, fishing, golfing, playing video games’’ is what Cooley responded with when asked about some of his favorite hobbies. He is not just a teacher, as he is also the newest addition to the AHS Tiger Football coaching staff, which is something that he takes great pride in as well; ‘’Being able to have an impact on students is one of the most important things you can do. It’s worth all of the long hours to have a former student or player let you know that you made a difference in their life.’’

While Cooley has only been teaching for 3 years, he’s been doing a lot of shuffling around during that time. ‘’I taught at Bayou Academy in Cleveland, MS and Washington School in Greenville, MS,’’ said Cooley when asked about where he has taught at before, meaning that AHS is his 3^rd school that he has taught at in what will be his 4 years of teaching. It has not been any different with the subjects that he is teaching.‘’I’m a little all over the place on subjects. I’m doing Arlington Online, so I have 4 different subjects. US History, World History, Government and African American History,’’ and that’s only what he’s been teaching this year. Cooley also commented ‘’I did ACT prep for a year, I’ve also taught Speech and Debate.’’ Clearly, he is very experienced in many different areas and subjects.

Cooley has a very interesting teaching backstory, which even goes back to his family routes; ‘’When my Dad retired from teaching/coaching at Ridgeway High School, we held a retirement party for him and invited all of his former players. Hearing the stories they told about how much of an influence he had on their life really inspired me to want to do the same.’’ Cooley is still a very young teacher, which is something that a lot of schools are looking for. ‘’I’m from this area and have had a lot of friends graduate from AHS and they always talked about how nice of a school it was and how much they enjoyed it,’’ said Cooley when asked about why he chose to come teach at Arlington. Cooley is also a very hands-on teacher and is disappointed with the way that school has to be run this year; ‘’The hardest part, for me, especially being all online, is not being able to interact with the kids on a daily basis. You do not get to build the relationships that you would in a normal classroom.’’

Coach Josh Cooley still has a very long way to go, as both a teacher and a coach. He has not been in the teaching business for long and will have plenty of new experiences and challenges. Still, he offered some advice to anyone who would want to become a teacher or a coach one day;