MR. BONINO

Mr. Bonino (Jerry) was a gym teacher at Washington. He was also the football coach.

Bonino was the football coach for the Washington teams that won three consecutive state titles. I believe the years were 1980, 1981 and 1982.

Overall, I never had much of a problem with the guy. I never found him to be overly friendly. But I didn't find him to be an asshole either.

I had Bonino during freshman year. I think he was the only gym teacher I had all year. About the only two incidents I can recall are him telling Jason Radant that he needed to take a shower because he stunk, and grabbing Todd Zinn when he was getting mouthy. Read each of their respective entries for the details on those incidents.

During freshman year, Mark Schreiber and I used to refer to him as "BONERino." Of course we never called him that to his face.

In my sophomore year, I saw Bonino lounging by the pool at a hotel in Appleton. He was with a woman - who I assume was his wife. I didn't acknowledge him. I don't think he noticed me.

During my junior year, I had Mr. Bonino for some of my gym classes. The year was broken down into six different six-week courses. I know I had him for archery in the fall, and softball in the spring. I also had him for gymnastics sometime in the winter.

During gymnastics, Bonino would often refer to Richard Wheeler as "wheels." We mocked that term to no end. I also recall that class of 1988's Kevin Vanderlinden mooned Bonino while his back was turned one day. Why? Who knows.

For the last six weeks, we had softball. I enjoyed softball. But Richard didn't. So we decided to rip up our gym clothes and not participate. After two days of sitting on the bench, Bonino exploded on us, and dragged us up to Mr. Wood's office. Wood yelled at us too. Bonino said he'd give us an "F" for softball. We didn't care. We still passed the semester. So we got a study hall for the last six weeks instead of gym.

See my entry on Mr. Wood for another story involving Mr. Bonino.

Fellow graduate Paula Jonas recently mentioned that she once saw Mr. Bonino naked. Short of being crude, I can't imagine how she managed to do that. But I'd love to know the details.

I have not run into Bonino since high school. I think he retired maybe 5-10 years ago. I'm sure he still lives in the Two Rivers area. Below is a picture from 2003 (I believe). He's second from the left. Incidentally, the guy on the far left is another Washington teacher, Mr. Wegner.



UPDATE - 10/26/06 - Keeping with Paula Jonas' naked theme, I received an E-mail this week from one of my readers. This is what the reader said.

"I ran into a father of a classmate from 1991..he said he hung out with Bonino and 1 time in GB they went out to a bar and lost him...he was found walking in traffic with his penis hanging out...I was laughing my ass off"

Good stuff. I have to wonder whether or not Bonino is an exhibitionist.