JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2021 21
Who is
Coach Shick?
JESUIT’S NEXT
PRINCIPAL HAS LONG
BEEN KNOWN AROUND
CAMPUS AS ‘SHICK’
Mike Scicchitano ’01 sat in his
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Unbeknownst to his
coworkers, ‘Coach Shick,’ or just
‘Shick,’ was preparing for his interview
to become Jesuit’s next Principal.
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with ideas dating back to his college
days at the University of Florida.
Spread all across his desk, these notes
became important sources of inspira-
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job interview since applying to Jesuit
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All kinds of thoughts and ideas have
surfaced in these notebooks, but in
order to prepare for his interview,
Scicchitano focused on leadership.
He rummaged through his old college
notebooks, his stack of coach-
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compiled in his iPhone.
He sorted all of these bits of information
into an eight-page Word
document.
“I spent hours just trying to
concentrate and organize it all in a
manner that would help clarify a lot of
questions going into the interviews,”
he said. “That was a lot of fun.”
This is Shick. As students pass
through the hallways of Jesuit year
after year, he has been here soaking it
all in, learning, and working to improve
himself and the school.
WHY IS HE SUITED TO BE JESUIT’S
PRINCIPAL?
“It just felt like home.”
These are the words Shick uttered
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visiting Jesuit.
His relationship with the school has
grown ever since he visited for Open
House as an eighth grader, and re-
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For those who have been around Shick
since his high school days, it’s obvious
how much love he has developed for
Jesuit.
Austin Freeman ’02 graduated one
year after Shick and has taught English
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“He truly has a passion for the school,
and there's no other human being that
I have ever met on this planet that can
match his passion for Jesuit,” Freeman
said.
Debra Pacheco was Shick’s Chemistry
teacher during his junior year. She will
be working with him as his Assistant
Principal for Academics next year.
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of the school,” Pacheco said. “He will
make sure that the school moves
according to its mission.”
Freeman said that dating back to his
days in Blue Tide and stemming through
his work as an Ignatian educator, Shick
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qualities.
“I always saw him moving into this
role,” Freeman said. “He's such a natural
leader. People respect him. People look
up to him.”
WHERE DID THE NICKNAME COME
FROM?
It actually stems all the way back to his
high school days.
In his friend group was another Mike,
Michael Linde ’01. In order to avoid the
confusion of two Mike’s in the friend
group, they called the pairing “Linde
and Shick,” from the pronunciation of
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The nickname stuck through high
school and remained when he returned
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“It’s funny, some of the current freshmen
call me ‘Coach Shick,’ and they’ve
never even seen me coach,” he said.
Every time his job title changes, the
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called Shick?
“Personally, I hope he's still Shick,”
Freeman said.
WHAT WAS HE LIKE AS A TEACHER?
Shick said his two main goals as a
teacher were to “make class fun” and
make learning “interpersonal, not
transactional.”
Whether it was playing games like
Review Football before tests or meeting
with students one-on-one, Shick tried
to make sure that the student-teacher
relationship wasn’t motivated only by
earning grades.
Pacheco, who evaluated him many
times as teacher, said Shick embodies
“cura personalis,” or “caring for the
whole person.”
“That was very evident whether you
look at the relationships with the kids
he taught and the kids he coached,” she
said. “We care for the whole student, not
just the academic piece, or whatever we
might be teaching, but we care for them
as people.”
Scicchitano with his
wife, Jenny, daughter
Emmie (12) and son
Weston (7)