Walking in the shadow of a legacy as a child it can be difficult to step out, find the light and create a legacy of your own, but that is what Justin Cartwright has sought to do.
His father, the late Riley Cartwright, was highly respected and well known in the Parsons community for having a positive impact on hundreds youth and adults alike through his years as a teacher, coach and pastor.
What Justin has learned as he creates his own legacy, is that his father’s legacy, and the legacy of others’, lives on, not just in a community, but through him, and he builds upon them.
“I didn't want to be a teacher to begin with, because my dad’s shoes are so large and so iconic and I didn’t want to be compared to him. My dad forged his own path. I didn’t want to be seen where if I didn’t do things the way he did, or reach the level of success he did, that I wouldn’t be considered a successful coach or educator,” Justin said.
There is often a lot of talk during professional development sessions about how teachers’ children in general are impacted because their parents spend so much time at school lesson planning, grading, mentoring other children, etc.
“If you are also coaching an activity or a sport, you've also got practice, you’ve got games, you’ve got tournaments. You spend so much time away from your family, and what people don’t always see is that a lot of teachers’ kids kind of get the second version of their parents, because students get the first version, the one that’s dialed into the profession, dialed into the sport or activity,” he said. “Whenever we get home, we’re tired, we’re exhausted. We’ve poured out everything we can, so sometimes the kids get the leftovers, if you will. That can be difficult. With dad being a coach of football, basketball and track, he was gone a lot. My mom, before she passed away, we spent a lot of time together because dad wasn’t around and she was. I’m not saying my dad and I had a bad relationship. It’s not that at all. There are just a lot of times we didn't see each other because he had games or tournaments.”
Justin could see everything his dad meant to others, and he respected that, but it also concerned him as a youth that people would think he was being shown some kind of favoritism were he to participate in anything his father was involved in at school, so he avoided activities like sports.
“ I didn’t want people to think the only reason I did things was because of him. I always wanted to be given things because I earned it, because I was good at it and because I deserved it. That's why I did things he wasn’t necessarily involved in, because I wanted to establish who I was apart from him,” Justin said. “The thing is, we can make our own path and our own definitions for things.”
Justin graduated from Parsons High School in 2004, and went to Clark Atlanta University for a year. That’s a HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in Georgia near Morehouse College and Selma College.
“They call that the Atlanta University Center. A movie had come out, “Drumline.’’ It featured Clark Atlanta. That’s what inspired me to go there. I loved it. However, CAU is a private school, so it is very expensive. I didn’t want to go too steep into student loan debt, so I made the wise decision to come home and finish school here,” he said.
He finished up at Pittsburg State University. He was a communication major.
“Broadcasting was my emphasis. …I didn’t get in the anchoring too deep, but I loved being behind the scenes, so that is what I mostly focused on,” he said.
While attending college he worked at Walmart 4 ½ years, which caused him to momentarily consider moving into some type of retail management position.
Ultimately, he said, “ I decided retail is not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I admire those who still do it, but as I moved up at Walmart, I saw how big business runs and how it really is. … That was a pivotal moment. Do I continue with a company I don’t agree with? Is it about money? Am I comfortable making money from a place where my beliefs don’t align with the organization?”
The answer was ‘No”, so he ended up making a decision to move on.
“I really wanted to go into broadcasting, either news or sports, but sadly when I graduated (in 2009), it was the downturn of the economy. The job market was really, really tough, tougher than it already was,” he said.
He made the decision to move to Dallas, Texas where his sister lived, in hopes of greater job prospects but also still being close to family.
“I lived in the downtown Dallas area for four years, from 2009 to 2014. Jobs didn’t come easy. We were still coming through the economic recovery, and I was competing for jobs in a market where there were a lot more experienced people than me. I couldn’t get my foot in the door the way other people could,” he said. “I worked for Hertz rental car company. Again, unless you want to be a branch owner, that is not a career you go into.”
As he examined his life and how things were unfolding, he faced the fact that while he loved the big city, it is not where he really wanted to live. It was not his dream and it was benefitting him to live there.
He decided to move back to Parsons in 2014 and started working for Tri-County Special Education at Guthridge, while he considered possible career moves. On the side, he also helped coach the tennis team with Jane Posch and eventually started helping Mr. Ed Workman with the debate and forensic team, too.
“I did forensics and debate in high school, so it was kind of like I was back in my element. Lisa Leiker was my coach back then and just knowing the impact she had on my life, and all the experiences we had that I cherished still to this day, it was a no-brainer for me to get back into the activity,” he said. “Then the head coach, debate and forensic job came open at Coffeyville in 2017. I took that and I have been here ever since.”
While the job focus was basically oral communication, he was still going to have to return to college.
“It was really tough at first. You can become a teacher as a graduate student. Some call it Transition to Teaching, some call it the Restricted License program. This was before COVID and before a lot of teachers left the profession. The Regents were telling me I needed a bunch of extra hours to become a teacher. They said I need to go back to college and take 30 odd hours of undergrad before they would let me get into the graduate program. That was not possible because those classes were on campus, during the week, in person. Virtual classes weren't a thing yet,” he said.
He eventually found a class online through the University of Phoenix that wouldn’t make him go through extra undergrad level classes. They would let him take the education classes and then do his student teaching. Everything seemed to be lining out.
“Then COVID happens and the world shuts down. I was still a relatively new teacher at that point. I think I was in my second or third year as a teacher. Now, I’m having to learn how to do everything virtually and assign things virtually, and have video conferences meetings with teachers and students, and teach virtually. That was a lot on top of still going to grad school. Then the University of Phoenix wanted me to do 100 hours of observation plus teach at another school, so that became even more difficult,” he said. “Then my dad got sick with cancer.”
“It was a lot, not just the school part and ups and downs of ‘Do I need these extra classes? Do I need extra student teaching? Then when my dad got sick, that was a lot. I had to take a year off from school, because dealing with him and having to take him to the KU Med Center back and forth, and all the other appointments, and take time to care for him when he couldn’t necessarily take care of himself.”
Amid COVID, many older teachers began to leave the profession, and Kansas became so desperate for teachers, they did away with some prior requirements. Justin was able to take his praxis and get into Emporia State’s Transition to Teaching program. He is set to receive his master’s degree in teaching this summer
His debate and forensics program at Field Kindley High School is thriving. During COVID a lot of debate coaches left and students left the activity too, because they didn’t want to compete virtually. Caney and Cherryvale lost their programs.
“We as a region, as a school, built that all back. Each semester I have about 20 kids on my team which is pretty good for a mid-sized school,” he said. “I’ve always felt that between 20 and 40 is the sweet spot.”
His students at Field Kindley love him, and word of that reaches back home to Parsons, a place he is always proud to share he is from.
Although education was not his intended career path, all things considered, Justin is not surprised he landed there.
“We have a legacy of education in our family. Like Parsons, Coffeyville once had an all Black grade school, called Cleveland Grade School. My grandfather was the principal of that school, so there are people here in Coffeyville who knew my grandfather, Russell. Grandma was a principal. Two of my dad’s sisters were also teachers. They were music teachers, so I grew up learning how to talk and sing. So the legacy was already there. It was good to walk into,” he said.
He realized, thinking of how many students he attended school with who are now teachers, it is not just his family’s legacy in education he was influenced by.
Names easily flew off his tongue as he recalled the many teachers who touched his life, and those of his peers, instilling their own legacy within their students.
“Mrs. Redford, Mrs. Rapalino, Mr. Martino. Rob Barcus was my sixth grade teacher. There was Dee Jack, Eddie Kearns, Ted Hill, Mary Collins, Mrs. Leiker, Jane Posch, John Seal. All those individuals poured so much into us. There were so many influential adults. Debbie Shaffer, she was my fifth grade teacher. Charlene Coker, Patty Findley, and Mrs. Newberry, my kindergarten teacher. I have never forgotten them. Mrs. Piper, she helped me become a great reader. …There are just little things like that I have never forgotten,” he said. “They helped create who I am. They all deserve credit for what I’ve become. I’m just so thankful for all of them. We were blessed with the great teachers we had, so I try to give back to my students the way my teachers poured into me and had expectations. They didn’t let us be anything other than great.”
If you look at the north end of the main hallway at PHS, in a glass case for the National Forensics League, Justin still remains number three at PHS in acquisition of all time NFL points, having accumulated 1,850.
“I was number three because I had dreams of becoming an All American, so I tried to be the best I could and win as many tournaments and medals as I could,” he said. “When I started it was a no-brainer to help with debate and forensics and when I started this job over here, again it was a no-brainer. Definitely you find your way back to your passion, somehow. It’s cool how things come full circle.”
“Having a secure family and a secure faith are things that kept me going. You know I grew up in a family where we went to church and we read the Bible and that’s really carried me through, especially in this season now where both my parents are gone. But they had given me so much to draw on and to propel me forward. I was raised well and I was taught well,” he said. “ I’m just so thankful I had that growing up and I’m thankful they instilled the love of God in my heart and I still try to teach with that love and live with that love, especially now when we need it. So many kids don’t have that, don’t have a secure family. So many have broken homes, they have no structure. We weren’t perfect, by any means, but we still had love. We had faith in God and faith in each other and that is more valuable to me than anything. I wouldn’t be here if not for those things. I thank God every day for what I have. I see everyday what these kids don’t have, and see the potential, see their dreams and they just don’t have the support behind it.
To high school students today, Justin suggests they let things happen naturally and don’t be afraid to explore different pathways.
“And don’t live the dreams of other people, because other people will tell you things that fit their agenda, that they want you to do. Whatever it is you are happy with, that you are passionate about, that satisfies your soul, that’s what you should pursue,” he said. “You’ve really got to follow your own heart.”