Anthony Fears, assistant principal and athletic director at Independence High School, is a new face on campus this year. This is his first year and says that he has felt extremely welcomed. Fears loves to interact with the students here at Independence HIgh School.
Fears was initially anxious to work at Independence and become an athletic director. After four years of working at Glendale High School, he was entering a position he had never had before. Fears states that he likes this position more than doing “a lot of paperwork”. Even though he still has to do paperwork, he enjoys his position because it allows him more freedom to be out interacting with staff and students. He handles funding with sports and helps whenever coaches need it. He finds anyway possible to be helpful to everyone on campus. Fierce says “this job is where I get to be around people” which is what sets this experience apart from his last position.
Fears did not originally want to work as a school principal. He grew up wanting to play in the NFL or become a police officer. Instead, his career path took a turn and he ended up as a dean first. He says, “the dean role was always about discipline so you get a lot of negative things”. His interactions with students were mostly when there were issues and when he had to inflict discipline. He did get to help and see improvement in kids which was the positive side of that position. He enjoyed attending sports games at Glendale. He says the boy volleyball game was “the most fun I had at a game”. He has always loved working with sports and kids and this new position allows him to do just that.
Fears is a father and has worked in the education system for some time. He was a special education teacher. Through those experiences, he has learned a lot of life lessons. His biggest piece of advice is to “not rush in life”. He learned through his education, teaching, and dad experiences that time is of the essence. He has tried to rush life many times when he was younger only causing more steps back. He did attend college because of so many life obstacles he was in and out trying to finish. He says that he “had kids young was working”. This was him moving through life fast which caused him to struggle to chase his career.
Fears advise that everyone should try to be open minded and listen. He wishes he would have because while he was trying to get everything he wanted right away, he ended up behind. He pushes students to be better than he was and tries to prevent them from having to learn the hard way. He is a bright light on Independence campus and will continue to be.
