Much has been said and written about the virtues of Catholic High School in Little Rock, and the list invariably comes down to brotherhood. In most references, this means the bond students feel that cuts across not only grade levels but generations.
Less is said about how that bond extends to faculty members, be they alums or not, as an element of commonality and fellowship. However, as they are quick to tell you, the bond among fellow teachers is just as strong as that which runs through the student body.
Case in point: the faculty maintain several online groups to encourage and motivate one another, among them a GroupMe called CHS Fitness, which has launched more than one journey toward improved health and wellness.
Just ask Kenny Stephens, a history teacher and assistant football coach who joined the staff in 2023, whose life has been changed thanks to a special peer-to-peer relationship and support throughout the school.
“August of last year, my parents had been on me about losing weight, and they even said they would pay for me to get shots if I wanted them,” he said. “I went to the doctor, and they started talking about the side effects (of weight loss shots). I stopped them, and I said, ‘Look, if this is about exercise and diet, I would much rather do that.’”
At 267 pounds, he took the first steps toward a healthier lifestyle, a journey he thought he would take alone.
That was before Steve Aday, assistant principal and a neighbor of Stephens, entered the picture and upped the ante.
“I saw him walking in the neighborhood all the time. I’d be driving down the street, and I’d see him walking,” Aday said. “We’re talking one day about how I had done the Little Rock Marathon in ‘24, and he says, just kind of off the cuff, ‘You know, I’d have always loved to have done a marathon.’ I just turned to him and I said, “Well, I’ll walk it with you.’”
The partnership began on the first day of school last fall when the two colleagues would meet up and walk the neighborhood, now with the goal of building up miles to allow Stephens to walk the 26.2 miles of the annual marathon, set for March 1.
“It was hard work, diet and exercise, and motivation from the school’s GroupMe, I don’t want to minimize that,” Stephens said. “I mean, it’s competitive too; we would walk, and we just kept building up miles until we could do a half-marathon. That was kind of our training. We would take the exact same picture on the exact same spot every Thursday, sending it to the fitness group.”
It wasn’t long before the student body caught wind of the project and provided their own motivation for Stephens to keep at it.
“(Head of School Steve) Straessle always tells the boys, ‘Don’t be a bystander,’ and that also involves the faculty,” he said. “I realized if I’m going to be at this school, I need to kind of show these kids that I can do this stuff too. All the boys here have been thrilled to see my transformation.”
By the time the marathon arrived, Stephens not only had trained to walk the long race, but his fitness had improved to the point he’d run some 5Ks and 10Ks in advance of it to prepare. Nothing could replicate the stress and strain of the actual race. Even with Aday’s expert coaching walking alongside, Stephens was feeling the strain.
Still, the two colleagues soldiered on, to be joined by Straessle, who would catch up to them in the waning stretch before the finish line.
“Our plan was to finish in seven hours, run a little bit, walk a little bit,” Aday said. “When Mr. Straessle caught us at the end, we’d cross the finish line in seven hours and 10 minutes. A special thing was we’re all wearing Catholic High gear, and the announcer, who’s saying everybody’s names as they cross, goes, ‘We got Steve One, Steve Two, and Kenny representing the Catholic High Rockets.’ That was perfect.”
The moment was especially emotional for Stephens, not only for what he’d gone through but for being greeted at the finish line by his children. Now with his first marathon and 70-plus fewer pounds under his belt, anything seems possible.
“I’m already planning on running the marathon next year, and I think Father Patrick Friend, our chaplain, and Mr. Straessle are going to do it with me,” he said. “I just figured, what the heck, it’s the 25th year (of the marathon), and I want to get that 25th year medal, and then I will probably retire from marathons. My goal was to be below 200 pounds before my 50th birthday; I’ve made that, but I want to get a little bit lower to where a cheeseburger doesn’t put me over.”
For Aday, who graduated from Catholic in 2002, the experience illustrates what’s best about the spirit of the beloved school.
“I always say that Catholic High is just a big family, whether it’s classmates or faculty,” he said. “We’re a tight, close-knit group; we have teachers who did not go here or who have taught other places, and they say they have never experienced the kind of camaraderie that we have on the faculty here. I had several people tell me, ‘I can’t believe that you would go walk a marathon with your coworker.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, hey man, we’re friends.’”