Profile

BY ANDREW VALENTINI & PAIGE WHITESIDE

Editor & Editor-In-Chief of Web and Copy Editor

When walking through the C hallway of Kaneland High School, you’ll pass a room filled with colorful flags from all around the globe and a teacher usually wearing a pair of Air Jordan Retros greeting students as they walk by. Steve Auchstetter, social studies teacher and former coach of a variety of sports, is one of Kaneland’s longest tenured teachers, and he would have the most consecutive years here if it were not for him stepping away from teaching to take care of his family. Auchstetter grew up in North Aurora and attended Eastern Illinois University where he majored in psychology. While some teachers never thought that they would set foot in another classroom after college, Auchstetter was planning on returning to school and pursuing a teaching career since he was in middle school. “I did my eighth grade career report on being a teacher. My mom saved it and I still have it,” Auchstetter said. Auchstetter started teaching right after he graduated from college, getting a permanent substitute job at Waubonsie Valley High School in 1991. He taught every day and even started his coaching career there with the sophomore baseball team. Soon after, he got a full-time teaching job at Fox Valley Lutheran Academy in St. Charles. Auchstetter taught there for two years until the fall of 1993 when his career at Kaneland High School began. His first stint at Kaneland lasted 10 years from 1993-2003. During this time, Auchstetter taught a variety of social studies classes, including human geography, U.S. history and psychology. In addition to teaching, coaching was a big part of his first decade at Kaneland. Auchstetter coached football, basketball and softball in his first year at the school. He was also the first to coach spring baseball at Kaneland. Baseball used to only take place during the summer, but this changed in 1995 when the athletic department came to Auchstetter and asked him to coach baseball in the spring. The multi-sport coach, though, was probably most known for his role on the football staff. He started his coaching career with the freshmen before moving to varsity assistant, where he coached wide receivers and the defensive line. Alongside Tom Fedderly, who has been everything from Kaneland's offensive line coach to the head coach, Auchstetter coached the likes of future San Francisco 49er and current University of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. “[Auchstetter’s impact] wasn’t just on Fleck, but on everybody he coached. He did such a good job getting all the kids prepared, not just on the field but in the classroom, too,” Fedderly said. “He is an amazing teacher. You have to be a great teacher to be a great coach. He was prepared mentally and fundamentally, and since he is such a nice guy, that has to have an effect on everyone he [works with].” In 1997 and 1998, the Kaneland Knights football team won 28 straight games, going undefeated both seasons and taking home the title of back-to-back State champions. When asked about which State championship felt better, Auchstetter mentioned that both were great, but one came with more pressure than the other. “[During] the second year, there was more pressure because we had basically all of the same kids coming back and everybody expected us to win State again,” Auchstetter said. They did, in fact, win it again with wide receiver Fleck having an amazing year while being mentored by Auchstetter. Auchstetter would continue to coach at Kaneland for three years after stepping away from classroom teaching in 2003. After a 10-year span of teaching at Kaneland, Auchstetter temporarily left the job he loved when he and his wife had their third child. Auchstetter made the decision to sacrifice his teaching career for the time being to be a stay-athome dad for his young children. A year after having their third child, the Auchstetters had another, bringing the total to four children and extending Auchstetter's time at home. Even though he was at home, Auchstetter still found ways to be involved in teaching. He would often help in his children's classes and chaperone for school trips. He also coached his children’s sports teams as they were growing up. Even though he was away from his career for a while, Auchstetter enjoyed being home with his family. “I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. I loved what I did. I loved being home with them every minute,” Auchstetter said. While he did enjoy staying home, he found it to be much harder than teaching. Auchstetter gives credit to any stayat-home moms for how much they do for their families. After 12 years of being away from the classroom, Auchstetter finally decided it was time to return. Conveniently, there was an opening at Kaneland and he took it. He volunteered to coach lower-level sports the first two years he came back. He stopped after his kids started high school because he wanted to spend his time watching them play sports instead of coaching them. His second stint at Kaneland has lasted nine years so far, and he’s not planning on stopping anytime soon. “As far as how many years I have left, I’m just going to keep teaching until I don’t like it anymore,” Auchstetter said. Auchstetter has been at Kaneland for a total of 19 years. Despite the 12year absence that separated his time of employment here, only he and Fedderly have been here since 1993. For all the years that Auchstetter has been at Kaneland, he still loves coming to work and seeing students every day. “[My favorite part about teaching] is when I see a kid make a connection in class with something that we talked about before,” Auchstetter said. “The relationships with kids [are important], and now sometimes they’ll tell me their parents had me as a teacher, which is cool to see.” Whether someone has had him as a teacher or not, they can most likely tell how much Auchstetter loves his job. He’ll often play music outside of his classroom, dress up in costumes on holidays and participate in school spirit weeks. Students, like junior Andrew Walter, enjoy his method of teaching and how he makes normal history lessons fun and entertaining. “I had Mr. Auchstetter my freshman year. The reason that I liked him a lot was that even during [the pandemic] he would always make lessons fun and interesting,” Walter said. “He is really good at teaching and knows how to keep us engaged.” While he plans to continue teaching until he doesn’t enjoy it anymore, Auchstetter hasn’t taken on a full-time coaching role ever since his return to Kaneland. When asked about making a return to the gridiron, he said that he is often busy with visiting his children in college, but that he wouldn’t rule out a possible return to the action in the future. Regardless of whether or not he returns to the field, Kaneland is lucky to have a teacher like Auchstetter, who enjoys teaching, coaching, connecting with students and making the classroom a fun and engaging place for high school students to be.