08/26/2026
Our second Teacher Feature was released this week. Please check out the Sacred Heart Story of Mike Marek - Student, Teacher, Coach, and Athletic Director.
Mike Marek: Seeing Who They Could Become
For Mike Marek, it might be easier to ask what part of Sacred Heart hasn't been part of his life.
He was born in a house that once stood where Miss Wilson's office is located today. He grew up across the alley from the sisters who staffed Sacred Heart's schools, attended Sacred Heart from first through twelfth grade, and then returned to spend 43 years teaching and coaching generations of students. His memories stretch from the old school buildings and classrooms filled with religious sisters to the devastation of the Flood of 1997, the temporary school on Highway 2, and finally the joy of walking into the new Sacred Heart building in 1999.
Mike was even part of the first first-grade class in the new elementary school built in 1958—82 first graders taught by just two sisters.
"Now that's dedicated teaching!" he recalled.
Decades later, Mike would understand that dedication from the other side of the classroom.
When the Flood of 1997 destroyed Sacred Heart's school buildings and whispers grew louder that the school might close permanently, Mike remembers a community determined not to let that happen. Sacred Heart found a temporary home, families and supporters committed themselves to rebuilding, and two years later a new school stood as what Mike describes as a visible reminder of God's faithfulness.
Those two years brought Scripture vividly to life for him. Mike joked that he came to understand "a little about the Israelites' journey through the desert."
But Sacred Heart made it through the desert.
Mike remembers the beautiful Mass and celebration surrounding the opening of the new building in 1999 and the overwhelming sense that God had cared for the school throughout its journey. Then he received another gift: the opportunity to teach within those new walls for another 22 years.
Throughout his career, Mike taught alongside educators he deeply admired, including religious sisters whose unwavering dedication had shaped Sacred Heart for generations. He coached countless athletes and watched them learn lessons extending far beyond wins and losses. For Mike, being part of a team taught young people how to work together, sacrifice for others, and eventually become leaders of perhaps the most important teams they would ever have—their own families.
But whether he was standing in a classroom or on the sidelines, Mike's philosophy remained remarkably consistent.
He didn't want to focus only on who a student was at that particular moment in his or her life.
He wanted to see who that student could become.
Mike believed his responsibility as a teacher was to help young people move from where they were toward the person God had created them to be. Sometimes that meant pushing students beyond low confidence, complacency, or the limits they had placed upon themselves.
It wasn't always comfortable.
"It didn't feel good to either of us at the time," Mike admitted.
But then came the moments every teacher treasures:
The transformation. The realization.
The student who had been absolutely convinced, I can't do this, suddenly discovering:
I can.
Mike calls it the "AHA moment—the NOW I GET IT moment."
Those were among the most satisfying moments of his teaching career, especially when a young person reached a height he or she had once believed was impossible.
That philosophy also explains why Mike believes teaching can have such an extraordinary impact on the world. Teachers work with young people at a formative moment in their lives. They can challenge them, encourage them, and help them discover gifts they do not yet recognize in themselves.
But at Sacred Heart, Mike believes there is another essential piece.
God.
Mike believes education sometimes focuses too heavily on helping young people achieve their plans for their lives. Certainly, students need goals, ambition, and dreams. But he believes true fulfillment comes when those dreams are united with something greater: God's plan for them.
"When their plan matches God's plan," Mike reflected, "true happiness is the result."
That, for Mike, is what makes Catholic education different.
Sacred Heart does not simply teach children about God. It gives them opportunities to develop a relationship with God—a relationship that can help them recognize their gifts, understand their purpose, and ultimately become the people they were created to be.
Answering the call to teach at Sacred Heart, however, came with very real sacrifice.
Before returning to Sacred Heart, Mike had been teaching in Australia. When he accepted his position back at Sacred Heart, his salary dropped to less than half of what he had been earning.
For a time, that was difficult.
Mike remembers comparing himself with other educators, particularly those teaching in public schools, and feeling discouraged by the difference in compensation. As he and Julie married and began raising a family, those financial realities became even more significant. Julie also worked at Sacred Heart, both for a time as a teacher, and for many years as the Music Director for Sacred Heart Parish.
And over the years, Mike witnessed something especially painful.
He watched great teachers leave Sacred Heart because financially, they simply could not afford to stay.
Eventually, Mike said, something changed in his own heart. He stopped comparing.
Instead of concentrating on what others had and what his family did not, he began focusing on gratitude—the blessings of his marriage to Julie – Mike insisted that no description of his life would be complete without noting her constant support and key role in all their successes – his family, his relationship with the Sacred Heart Church and School community, and the opportunity to spend his life serving God through young people.
"The blessings began piling up," he reflected, "as we continued to serve the Lord rather than ourselves."
Mike's gratitude for his vocation does not erase the financial sacrifice required of Catholic school teachers. If anything, his story helps us understand why supporting those teachers matters so deeply.
For 43 years, Mike Marek was able to remain at Sacred Heart. Think for a moment about what that means.
Forty-three years of students.
Forty-three years of athletes.
Forty-three years of encouragement, challenges, victories,
disappointments, conversations, prayers, and "AHA moments."
Forty-three years of seeing young people not simply for who they were—but for who they could become.
The Dick Fontaine Endowment for Teacher Salaries has been established so that Sacred Heart can better support the men and women who accept this extraordinary calling. Its purpose is simple but tremendously important: to strengthen teacher compensation so that outstanding Catholic educators can build careers at Sacred Heart, support their families, and remain long enough to shape generations of students.
Because when an exceptional teacher stays, the impact compounds.
A student becomes a graduate. A graduate becomes a parent. An athlete becomes a coach.
A young person who once doubted himself becomes someone who helps another person recognize her own potential.
And the lessons planted in one classroom continue bearing fruit decades later.
Mike believes every human being ultimately seeks happiness. Our Faith teaches us that the deepest form of that happiness is found when we understand who God created us to be and have the courage to follow His will for our lives.
For more than four decades, Mike Marek helped Sacred Heart students move a little closer to discovering exactly that.
The Dick Fontaine Endowment gives all of us an opportunity to ensure that the next great Sacred Heart teacher can do the same.
Great teachers don't simply teach lessons. They shape lives.
