Jerry Long II is a security guard and a football coach. He has been coaching, joining Atherton in 2023. Atherton is his first school system job.
Jerry is Atherton’s football defense coordinator. He started playing football in college, and was inspired by his coaches to continue his involvement in the sport.
“I had a lot of good coaches throughout my career and I always wanted to give back the same way they gave to me. It’s been my life for as long as I can remember,” Jerry said.
At Atherton, his role is to handle the game planning defensively, and do the defensive play calling. Beforehand, he studies and creates strategies to stop the opponents’ key players, and implements decisions during the actual games to carry out those strategies. Jerry likes witnessing the growth of his players.
“Watching the young men mature and grow is my favorite part of coaching by far for sure,” said Jerry.
Jerry became a security guard at Atherton with the ultimate goal of eventually becoming head coach. His job involves connecting with the students, and ensuring everything runs smoothly.
“I make sure people are in the right place at the right time. Also, I build relationships with students and understand them so I can help them when the time arises,” Jerry said.
Jerry compares his favorite part of security guarding to his favorite part of coaching, in the way of interacting with students.
“The students make it easy. I’ve met a lot of interesting, very smart, and inquisitive young students. Having a chance to meet the future leaders of America; you don’t often get a chance to do that,” said Jerry.
Jerry’s favorite part of working at Atherton overall is learning from the younger generation.
“A favorite part is learning young people, understanding young people, and rationalizing with young people. Even though I’m 10-15 years removed from you guys, it’s the world that’s changed in high school. Seeing some of the challenges you go through that I never would face; it’s a compliment to see you guys proceed and accomplish the things you accomplish,” Jerry said.
After school, he is the announcer for the basketball games. In his free time, Jerry enjoys sports, gardening, being outside, and spending time with his family. His favorite hobby is going to live sporting events, due to its uniqueness.
“It’s the adrenaline and energy you can’t replicate anywhere else,” Jerry said.
While working at Atherton, Jerry has learned from his students to better empathize with others.
“A valuable lesson I’ve been taught while coaching and being around students is understanding that we’ve gotta love and be kind around people. They taught me empathy towards other people, since you never know what people are going through. I just want to be a positive light on someone. I’ve truly been taught empathy since working with kids. All you can do is try to be nice and give someone a smile,” said Jerry.
If Jerry were to tell his students anything, it would be to be positive and persevere.
“Being negative never helped anyone ever or got anybody anywhere. You should want to be positive and be a shining light. Also, it’s never as bad as it seems. Life is full of ups and downs. Just because you’re down doesn’t mean you won’t get up. That’s probably something I wish I would’ve thought of when I was younger,” Jerry said.
