Bravo Rafal
| Gainesville's 18 Most Interesting People - Randy Hollinger |
| Friday, 01 January 2010 00:00 |
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Page 7 of 19
By Molly Bruce Randy Hollinger is a sort of modern Renaissance man—something, he would like likely tell you, was purely by accident. The cross country coach of P.K. Yonge School first got involved in the sport when he attended Buccholz High School. Not because he wanted to, but because he thought he was attending the basketball meeting. “I signed up anyway because my friend did,” Hollinger says. “One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” Hollinger, who has lived in Gainesville since he was 3, ran for the University of Florida on scholarship and has been coaching at P.K. Yonge, a developmental research school, for nine years. He calls the sport “the most natural human sport.” Hollinger may be better known, though, for roaming the halls playing the accordion and the piano with his nose when the mood strikes. You see, Hollinger, 36, is a master of many trades. He teaches the seventh-grade life science class at P.K. Yonge, where he introduces the middle-schoolers to exotic animals like tarantulas, scorpions and bearded dragons. Though the insects and amphibians are convenient in the classroom, Hollinger has had some escapes. Once, a rare 3-foot long salamander escaped its water tank, curled up in the bookshelf and entered “estivation,” a type of hibernation where the animal dries up. A student found the rigid salamander and returned it to its tank where it came back to life two days later. When he’s not running (after amphibians or otherwise), Hollinger teaches music. After failing piano lessons as a kid, Hollinger went on to learn piano on his own. He can now play more than seven instruments, including guitar, banjo and sitar. He self-learned or learned informally from a friend or cousin, and he allows the students a lot of creative freedom in the class. At the end of the year, he puts on a rock concert with bluegrass, rock, punk and blues bands. Once, he filled in at a school dance when the DJ was a no-show. He and his wife have three children, and he says his favorite part about his job is the kids he gets to work with. “They are amazing and remind me every day what I want to be like as an adult: curious, playful, goofy, adventurous, high energy and positive.”
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