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Late 'Coach Pete' left enduring legacy in Highlands High School community

Virgil Peterson was teacher, coach at SAISD school for 30 years.
Former Highlands teacher and coach Virgil Peterson, center, with high school football broadcast partners Mark Kusenberger, left, and Craig Estabrook, did color commentary for local games for 14 years. (Photo courtesy of Donna Barker)

Whether it was in the classroom, in the field house or anywhere else on the Highlands High School campus, Virgil Peterson had an unbridled passion for teaching and mentoring students during an exemplary career as an educator.

Affectionately called “Coach Pete” by students and teachers alike, Peterson taught history at Highlands for 30 years before retiring in 1995.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Peterson died May 11 after a long illness. He was 78. A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m., Saturday, June 2, at MacArthur Park Lutheran Church, 2903 Nacogdoches Road, 78207.

An Edison High School graduate, Peterson earned his bachelor’s degree at Trinity in 1961. He worked at Alamo National Bank before starting his tenure at Highlands in 1965.

To say Peterson loved what he did for a living falls short of describing the depth of his commitment to his profession and the Highlands community.

Peterson handled a variety of assignments in the Highlands athletic department, including coaching the golf team, serving as an assistant coach on the 1968 baseball squad that won state in 1968 and coaching sub-varsity basketball. He even kept stats for the varsity football, basketball and baseball teams.

But Peterson was, first and foremost, a teacher. He taught history throughout his long tenure at Highlands.

“He was a teacher to the core,” said longtime friend Jan Archer, a former teacher who was on the Highlands faculty with Peterson for 22 years. “Teaching was like a calling to him. He led by example.

“You hear a lot about student-athletes, and the focus is always on the athletes part of it. Well, he (Peterson) was a teacher-coach. And the teacher was the focus. He was very much a part of the faculty. He was always there for students if they needed extra help.”

Credit: Custom
Virgil Peterson was an assistant baseball coach under Tom Henslee at Highlands in 1968, when the Owls won the Class 4A state championship. (Courtesy photos)

Peterson had such a strong bond with Highlands that he established a scholarship fund with money from his inheritance after his parents died in the late 1980s. Peterson, a lifelong bachelor, was an only child.

“His true legacy, of course, is what he did for all of his students,” Archer said. “But after his parents died, he inherited some stock. His father had worked for Sears for years. He inherited, if I remember correctly, about $80,000 in stock. He used all of that money in scholarships for Highlands students. That is his true legacy right there.”

One of Peterson’s players during his stint as coach of the sophomore basketball team was Wayne Dickey, who went on to a stellar coaching career at Sam Houston High School. Dickey, 65, recalled when he met Peterson for the first time while trying to fill his class schedule before his sophomore year (1967-68).

“Back then, they had what they called ‘Run for your classes,’” Dickey said. “You had to have teachers sign you into their class. Highlands was huge and here I was running for classes. I had my schedule about made up, but my last class was a Spanish class and I couldn’t get it at the period that I needed it. I sat down and was totally frustrated, thinking I’ve got to go through this all over again.

Then Peterson happened to come by.

“I didn’t know Virgil from a hole in the ground,” Dickey said. “He stopped and he looked at me and said, ‘It’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, it is.’ He asked me what my problem was and I told him I needed this Spanish class fourth period instead of sixth period, because sixth period was basketball.

“So, he said, ‘Oh, you’re an athlete?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. I’m a basketball player.’ Then he said, ‘Come with me.’ He took me down to the Spanish teacher and asked her, ‘Do you think you could slip him into your fourth-period class?’ Apparently, Virgil had it over all the teachers at Highlands because she said, ‘Fine, Coach, no problem. Mr. Dickey you’re in fourth period.’ Virgil didn’t have to help me at all, but he went out of his way to help me.”

Dickey played only five games on the sophomore team before getting moved up to the varsity, but he was around Peterson long enough to appreciate his coaching.

“We won all five games and I was really impressed with the way he coached,” Dickey said. “He knew what he was talking about. But the manner in which he approached everybody wasn’t getting in your face or hollering. He was very calm.

“He would explain the situation and then if you messed up again, he just went back and explained the situation again. I really liked his style. He always had a smile on his face. He was always positive. Something could happen that was very bad, but he had a way of turning things into the positive."

A year later, Dickey was in one of Peterson’s U.S. History classes.

“Most history teachers in those days would just talk and you’d take notes,” Dickey said. “Virgil was different. He would talk but then he’d ask us questions. He wanted to know our opinion about things. When you’re 15, 16 years old and you’ve got an adult that wants to listen to you, that was pretty rare. He really got us involved.”

Peterson turned out to be a major influence in Dickey’s decision to pursue a career as a teacher and coach.

“I had thought about doing that, but he kind of sold me on it,” Dickey said. “Virgil cared about you so much as a person. It wasn’t in his contract, but he just cared about kids so much. A lot of the stuff he did in coaching, he didn’t get paid for. He did it on his own time. I don’t think I’ve ever met a single person who’s had a bad thing to say about Virgil. He was just a unique type of person.”

Brian Clancy, an assistant athletic director for the San Antonio ISD, knew Peterson as a teacher and coach as a student at Highlands, where he played on the football and golf teams. He graduated from Highlands in 1981.

“Coach Pete always was able to establish a great rapport with all the students in his class,” said Clancy, 51. “He was an amazing teacher. I mean, he built great relationships that lasted a long time. He’s one of the reasons I went into coaching.”

North East ISD athletic director Karen Funk, 60, was a coach at Highlands from 1981 to the spring of 1986.

“He was an inspiration to anybody who was ever in his class,” Funk said. “He made a difference in a lot of lives.”

Archer was on the Highlands faculty for 35 years before retiring in 2008. She started her tenure as an English teacher before moving to the History Department in the mid-1980s.

“I taught history right down the hall from him,” Archer said.

Archer recalled that Peterson was one of the most respected and admired members of the faculty by teachers and students alike.

“If Coach Pete said it or did it, it was OK,” Archer said. “He had the respect, as far as I know, of every faculty member. He was always fair. He always looked at both sides of an issue before he made a decision. He might have disagreed with you, but there was never any hollering or screaming, or calling anybody names. He was a conciliator. He tried to bring all sides together to come to a decision that everybody could deal with, accept.”

In time, Archer came to think of Peterson as a brother. She and her husband, Ralph Fritz, helped care for Peterson when his health started to decline the last couple of years. Archer plans to deliver a eulogy to him at the memorial service.

“I’m not sure if I can get through it, but I hope to,” Archer said.

One of Peterson’s oldest friends was John Kemmerzehl, who started teaching at Highlands in 1966 and was the Owls’ boys basketball coach for 21 seasons (1970-91).

“He was probably one of the finest men I’ve known,” Kemmerzehl, 86, said. “He was a straight-up arrow in everything that he did. There was no gray area in everything he did. It was either black or it was white. He was an excellent history teacher. He had a way of getting very close to kids. He was one of the nicest people to meet for the first time because you felt like he was genuinely interested in you.”

Former Highlands football coach Paul Martin, 80, remembered Peterson as an invaluable member of the school’s faculty and a selfless friend.

“Virgil was an angel to me back then,” said Martin, who led the Owls’ football program for 20 seasons (1969-88). “He did so many things for us. My job would have been 40 percent tougher if we hadn’t had Virgil. Although he didn’t do any coaching in football, he was so important because he was a great statistician. He loved kids. He was really good at it (teaching).”

Art Gonzales, who is also a former Highlands boys basketball coach, described Peterson as a “great man” and a “great humanitarian.” Gonzales, 68, coached at Highlands for 13 years before resigning in 2004 to become an assistant athletic director with the SAISD.

“Fantastic coach, a brilliant teacher,” Gonzales said. “The list goes on and on. He was just an outstanding individual. He was a person you would gravitate to because of his kindness. He was a very smart person, too. You just loved to have him as a friend.”

Peterson stayed close to sports long after he retired, working as a color commentator for local radio broadcasts of high school football games for 14 years. His broadcast partner was Mark Kusenberger.

“He was a very devout man, and that’s the first thing I want people to know about him,” Kusenberger said. “We went to the same church (MacArthur Park Lutheran Church) together and he was actually my choir director. That’s how I got to know him well. We went to a few Spurs games together. Once I got a broadcasting job, I thought Roger would do very well at this.

“We tried him out and he was a natural. He put in the work and was excellent at that. Of course, he had the magnificent voice that was perfect for radio. We had an interesting dynamic because we had several years where he was in the leadership role (as a choir director), and then we got to broadcasting and I was in the leadership role.”

Kusenberger, 53, estimated that he and Peterson broadcast about 200 high school football games together.

“Virgil enjoyed broadcasting football and, of course, that was a blast,” Kusenberger said.

Peterson’s infectious enthusiasm made it so.

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