'She Has Made me a Better Person'

There is a time in your life when you know that you have bumped into an influential person, a role model, a leader.

I worked alongside Jen Huettner my senior year in Newtown High School as she was one of the senior advisors for the class of 2005. I had known her before then -- heck who didn't? She was all over the place. But it was that year that I was able to really soak in the person she really was.

She was a hard worker, who loved to gab and gossip, but one who really cared. She always asked how things were going, and how my family was, and she wasn't fake about it. She meant it. That's something most teachers don't take the time to do these days.

Ms. Huettner, "Heutty" as most people know her, is leaving Newtown High School after 11 years as a Latin teacher and nine as the head golf coach to teach at Staples High School in Westport -- a double bogey for Newtown.

Staples, known to have one of the top golf teams in the state, is coached by Tom Owen. Huettner, who also dabbled with field hockey for a few years and boys tennis her first year at Newtown, has no set plans for coaching at Staples, but would entertain the idea if she was approached.

The sincerity she has shown to each of her students over the time she has been at Newtown is what sticks out to most of her students and athletes.

"I get them, and they get me. I hate when I let them down," Huettner said.

It is a relationship that most teachers don't dare enter. It is this real connection that students feel comfortable enough and trust her enough to approach her.

Maybe the place most people have seen Huettner throughout the years is behind the scorers table at the high school gym or in the booth at Blue and Gold Stadium. She's seen every big shot, every pin, every goal and every touchdown in Newtown for the past few years.

During Huettner's first year at Newtown, athletic director Gregg Simon approached her to coach the boys tennis team. The team finished second in the South-West Conference. She made her mark as a respectable person and coach that very first year.

After that year, she turned to golf, a passion instilled in her by her father when she was younger. After a year as an assistant, head coach Jim Casagrande retired from the helm and Huettner stepped up to the tee. She had coached for 10 years while previously teaching down in Oklahoma.

Her greatest memory as the Newtown golf coach came in 2006, when the Nighthawks had an undefeated regular season. She recalls calling Gregg Simon after a match against Weston to tell him the news, "We got 'em by 12! We got 'em by 12!"

It was the first year Newtown had ever beaten Weston, and they hung on to beat Pomperaug by one stroke in the same year. Although the team had a disappointing finish in the SWC championship, Huettner said, "I'd rather have 16 good days and one bad day, than 16 bad days and one good day."

Stephen Oberstadt, a 2008 graduate of Newtown High School and stand-out golfer on the 2006 undefeated team enjoyed having Huettner around.

"When I think of Ms.Huettner as a coach I instantly think of her easygoing attitude, laugh and corny jokes," Oberstadt said. "She always had a way of being able to take the pressure off in important situations by just being easygoing and laid back."

Oberstadt mentioned that Huettner would always bring him back to earth when he didn't swing the club that great.

Huettner loves to golf, especially in these summer months, but says she never played while the team played like most other coaches do.

"That would be like a basketball coach shooting around in the back gym while his team practiced," she said.

That sums her up pretty well -- a teacher who was always on task.

Simon, who has worked with Huettner for the past decade. said she has been an extremely important fixture at the school who has worked hundreds of sporting events.

"Jen Huettner is a consummate professional who brought a tremendous amount of energy and dedication to the Newtown High School Athletic Department," Simon said. " She will be impossible to replace and greatly missed by everyone at the high school."

Her memories of Newtown are nothing but good ones in the classroom, on the golf course and behind the scorers table. When she wrote a letter to the faculty explaining her decision to leave the school, she received 55 responses wishing her luck.

"I saved all of those,"  she said in appreciation of those who did reach out to her.

Huettner, a native of New Jersey who transplanted to Oklahoma for 17 years to teach Latin, currently lives in Brookfield where she plans on remaining.

She will be missed. There is no doubt about that.

When I heard the news, I was saddened to see her move. But in the years I have known her, she has made me a better person.

She has been one of those people that I have "bumped into" and has been an influential person, a role model and a leader in my life. I know the hundreds of people she has coached and taught over the past eleven years in Newtown who feel the same way.

Oberstadt may have summed it up the best.

"I wish her nothing but the best at Staples High School, but we all know Newtown is her true home," he said.