Dan Keeler, the new captain of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, called up his football coaches from his days at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High earlier this week, along with his English teacher, to give them a salute for the impact they made on a teenager now in charge of one of the Navy’s most powerful ships.
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Capt. Dan Keeler recognizes his Sherman Oaks Notre Dame teaches and coaches during a changing of command ceremony for the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The speech by Keeler on Wednesday in Coronado at a changing of the command ceremony offered the real reason coaches coach and teachers teach — to make a difference in a student’s life.
“I learned more about hard work, grit, determination and how to handle pain, honestly, from this group,” he said.
He recalled when Notre Dame coach Kevin Rooney gave him a recommendation letter for the Naval Academy:
“Coach Rooney, when you handed me the letter, you said, ‘I think you’re going to be good at this,’ and you were right.”
Keeler added, “There were plenty of championships, but I don’t think that’s how these people measure success. I was a very mediocre backup quarterback and defensive back. If I was playing in a football game, we were winning by a lot.
“Those metrics of winning and losing weren’t the only things that mattered. They were important. These educators took all the time to get the best out of their students and I was one of them. They saw something in me and chose to make a positive impact, and I am forever grateful.”
