Xerxes Whitney is the sixth grade physical education teacher at
Windsor Middle School as well as a tennis instructor at Windsor
High School, basketball coach for eighth grade boys, cross-country
coach for sixth, seventh and eighth graders, and a published poet.
Remarkably, he is also a cerebral palsy patient.
But Whitney’s friends and admirers said he is much more than the
sum of his accomplishments.
Adults and students alike have said Whitney’s ability to
struggle through difficulties and emerge a success is inspiring and
his go-get-‘em attitude contributes to all of his roles in the
community.
Whitney self-published 2,000 copies of his newest book of poetry
“Breaking Through” last December. He said it is a collection of
poems that speak to the person he evolved into after overcoming the
difficulties associated with cerebral palsy.
He said the setbacks that stemmed from his medical condition
have changed his career goal from a college tennis coach to a kind
of Renaissance Man who coaches boys and girls tennis teams at
Windsor High School, basketball coach for eighth grade boys, cross
country for sixth, seventh and eighth graders, teaches sixth grade
physical education at Windsor Middle School and publishes books of
his own poetry.
Whitney said his poems are very honest about his struggles with
his career and his health and he hopes such honesty will encourage
other people to overcome their perceived difficulties.
“I found people did not believe me, they thought I could not be
a teacher. It was not my physical limitations that were my biggest
limitations, it was the limitations of other people,” he said. “I
really busted through them to show the world what I am really
about. I feel like if I can have the courage to be vulnerable, that
might provide other people with the courage to open their minds and
themselves.”
Whitney started writing twelve years ago at the age of 24 and
said it all started with an essay he wrote his senior year at the
University of Santa Cruz about why he loves sports.
“It was about my intimate relationship with sports and my
teacher said it was super honest. She showed it to other professors
and they were impressed. Sports provided a safe haven for me, it
was black and white. If you caught the ball, you caught the ball,
and if you missed you missed. There was no judging,” he said.
Whitney went on to earn a M.A in applied sports science at
Indiana University and earned his teaching credential at Sonoma
State University.
After reading his sports essay and some poems at a few open
microphone events he decided to self-publish 1000 copies of his
first book of poetry “What’s My Name?” It is a collection of 25
poems that revolve around society’s tendency to label another
person’s identity prematurely. The book is named after one of
Whitney’s favorite poems.
“What’s My Name? Before that time it was so hard to get people
to say my name right. Everything was such a struggle, but after I
wrote that poem, (I accepted) that people are going to mess it up .
. . and I started to own it more,” he said.
Whitney was born and raised in Point Reyes and attended a tennis
camp at the age of 14 on the U.C. Santa Cruz campus that sparked
his love for the sport and the school. He said he would go to a
local elementary school in Point Reyes and practice tennis by
himself against a large backboard to improve more rapidly.
He took speech classes in college to help with the clarity of
his speech and gave the commencement speech for his graduating
class at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Although he became highly educated, a skilled tennis player and
published poet Whitney said he continued to struggle with his dream
to become a college tennis coach. He said after earning his M.A. he
applied for 40-50 coaching positions.
“I put in applications all over the country. I wanted to prove
to the world I could be a great college tennis coach,” he said.
In 1997 he landed a job as assistant tennis coach at Pomona
Pitcher College in Los Angeles but was passed over for the coach
position by a less qualified candidate he said.
“It was a hard lesson for me to learn. I was ready to prove
myself. It was a lesson that coaching tennis at the college level
is not my thing,” he said. “As a teacher, I can touch a lot more
lives.”
Whitney said he loves teaching and interacting with his
students. “I love them. I think I care about them and I think I’m
just a big kid at heart . . . There is no barrier with Mr. Whitney.
I am happy to see them, pretty positive and try to know their names
in the first two days of school,” he said.
Former Windsor Middle School principal Loren Barker said he
hired Whitney in 2000 and chose over other candidates because he is
open and caring.
“He has heart. You can tell there is nothing superficial about
him, he is right out there and he has a lot of passion for physical
education and sharing what he has done with his life with the
kids,” Barker said. “He greets every kid each day with a high five
and says their name and if you go to Windsor High School and ask
kids about Mr. Whitney, they’ll all have stories about him, how he
was an inspiration to them in a certain way.”
Windsor High School sophomore Cynthia Arata was a student of
Whitney’s when she was in sixth grade and she said she has been
able to maintain a friendship with him because he is easy to talk
to.
“I think Mr. Whitney is so young minded and open to everything
and it makes it easy to talk to him because he doesn’t pass
judgment on you. He is a really openhearted guy. He is passionate
about life and he takes every day to do something good, and he is
easy going,” she said.
Arata had the entire girls varsity basketball team attend one of
Whitney’s book signings in December. Whitney said Barker had set up
the book signing for him and Arata had the basketball team lined up
to greet him as he arrived.
Barker said Whitney is active in the community and has triumphed
over obstacles to accomplish a lot
“He has run marathons, he has played varsity tennis at the
college level, he coaches . . . he has traveled to Europe multiple
times, traveled to South America. He lives up in Healdsburg and
regularly rides his bike to and from school, which is about 10-15
miles a day,” he said.
Whitney has two book readings coming up in Healdsburg. On Feb. 5
he will be reading at the Center Literary Café at the Senior Center
at 7 p.m. and on Feb. 25 he will read from his new book at the
Palette Art Café at 8 p.m. He is currently selling his book for $22
out of the back of his car. For more information about Whitney log
onto his website at www.xerxeswhitney.com.
