By Callie Honeycutt, Staff Writer

Some people sit at school and all they can think about is going home and spending time with their family. For new math teacher and assistant football coach Larry Dale, seeing his family is harder than you would think.

Dale has relocated to the Outer Banks, while his wife and daughter still live in Oxford, N.C.

“Just being away from them and missing the day-to-day conversations and time together,” Dale said when asked what the hardest part of the long-distance relationship was. 

Dale previously taught math at Granville Central High School in Oxford, which is about 30 minutes northeast of Durham as you’re heading up Interstate 85. He made the three-and-a-half-hour move to the Outer Banks when he was offered a math teaching position and the opportunity to be an assistant football coach. 

“My wife and I wanted to make a life decision to live closer to the ocean and a great opportunity came up to work here at First Flight,“ Dale said.

As the coach of a three-time conference champion football team at Granville Central with two conference players of the year, it’s going to be a change of pace working with the Nighthawks, who have had some successful years but are coming off a two-win season.

“I am here to help Coach (Jim) Prince in any way he might need,” Dale said.

That can even include extra help on the sideline. Dale’s daughter, Avery Kovarik, worked a lot with the Granville Central players. 

“During football season, I help out a lot, and I plan on doing the same thing with the football team at First Fight,” Kovarik said. “Helping with water for games and practices, or if someone forgot something I can run up and get it, or at the end of games and everything needs picked up, I would be the one to pick it up.”

Kovarik had to spend the last half of her sophomore year apart from her dad. 

“It is very hard having my dad not living with (my mom and I). We are a very close family,” Kovarik said.

Coach Dale’s wife, Ali Dale, teaches at the same school their daughter attends. She has taught for four years and currently teaches Special Education in a self-contained classroom (a classroom where the teacher is responsible for teaching all subjects). 

“I hope to continue to teach, my students are amazing and I am super excited at the possibility of meeting new kids,” she said. 

With both teaching, they bond over their days, experiences and ideas.

“It’s cool both of us being teachers because we get to reflect off each other and bounce ideas off each other and I understand her day and she understands mine,” Coach Dale said.

One thing students quickly come to understand in Dale’s classroom in his “no cursing” rule.

“The rule came from hearing students cuss all the time. It wasn’t meant to be mean or disrespectful, they just used it in everyday language,” Coach Dale said. “I know as someone that used to be in customer service that you don’t want to speak in front of customers this way. So I wanted to get students thinking before they used certain words.” 

Sophomore Callie Honeycutt can be reached at 22honeycuttca54@daretolearn.org.