St. Louis High School welcomes many new staff members starting the new year fresh. One of the new staff members is Andrew Wawersik! Mr. Wawersik is SLHS’ newest physical education teacher. 

Mr. Wawersik taught in the past, as he worked at Harrison the previous year. Before his teaching career, Mr. Wawersik worked at a print company and a landscaping company while he was in college. He expressed, “I love the mid michigan area. I grew up not too far from St. Louis, so I was very excited to come here.” 

For Mr. Wawersik, teaching has always run in his family. When he was in school, he had an amazing P.E. teacher, and he wanted to bring that great experience to kids. Mr. Wawersik wanted to make kids excited to be in the gym and motivate students. He explained, “What I love is motivating students and seeing their faces light up when they do something they thought they couldn’t do before.”

Mr. Wawersik loves everything about fitness. He expressed, “For me it’s a lifestyle.  I love how the fitness community is accepting of everyone.” He’s the most excited about bringing SLHS a powerlifting club! He said that there really isn’t anything he’s not looking forward to because even though there are ups and downs in the school, he believes that it will be a great year! 

However, sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated, so how does he do it? Well, Mr. Wawersik wants to see the best out of all his students and to see them be proud at the fact of how strong they truly are. He wants to inspire students to live healthy active lifestyles. 

What’s really interesting about the Shark’s new P.E. the teacher is that he started powerlifting about six and a half years ago. He joined USA Powerlifting about five years ago as well. He has competed in 14 competitions with his next one being in Nov. 5. During his career, he won five Michigan state titles and currently holds six Michigan state records. Not only has he earned his titles and records, Mr. Wawersik also won Michigan’s deadlifter of the year in 2021! 

Mikayla Haag expressed, “I actually really like having Mr. Wawersik as our weight lifting teacher. He’s very good at explaining how to use equipment and he motivates us all to try our best.” 

SLHS is happy to welcome Mr. Wawersik and is looking forward to the future with him and his classes.