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Boy's basketball here at Perry Lecompton High School has changed for the better in the last four years, thanks to one of the student body's favorite coaches and teachers.

After graduating from Abilene High School with four years of basketball under his belt, Jeff Dickson enrolled in Kansas State University . “Unfortunately I was not quite big enough to crack that line-up,” he said about college basketball. “But I had mad skills, still do.”

Teaching had always been one of Dickson's main goals. “I started out in Radio and TV but really wanted to coach and help young people,” stated Dickson. “So I gravitated to education.” Once he had changed majors, he focused more on being a journalism teacher.

Even though he changed his major, Dickson still did quite a bit of radio broadcasting. He was a sports director at a local Manhattan radio station all through his college career.

Once he graduated from KSU, Dickson was hired as a teacher and assistant basketball coach at Topeka High School . He was there for three years before he moved to Topeka West High School . While he was there, Dickson taught Yearbook, Newspaper, Beginning Journalism and Photography. He was also the assistant coach for three years.

He applied for the head coaching position at Wichita North High School and was soon hired. Dickson was also hired as the Television and Video Production, Junior English, and Broadcasting teacher. He had only been there for a year when he and his wife, Stephanie, found out that they had a family member severely ill and needed to move back to the Topeka area.

This is when Dickson applied for the open position here at PLHS. He and his wife were soon hired, she as the head volleyball coach and he the head basketball coach. He would also become the sophomore English, Mythology, Literature through Film teacher and one of the Journalism teachers.

His first year at PLHS was a tough but decent change for the basketball program as the team only won five of the 21 games they played. Dickson's second year coaching went a little better as the team had its first winning season in 19 years, going 12-9.

Going into his third year, Dickson had high hopes for the team, knowing that he would be returning quite a few athletes. He had every right to be excited as the team finished 19-3. This past season started off a little rough, but the team ended up with a final record of 12-10.

Trying to juggle coaching and his five classes, Web Journalism and Multi-media Design, which he created just this year, Journalism, Mythology and Literature Thru Film, sounds like no easy task, but for Dickson it's rather enjoyable. “I really like all my classes. I have a good time teaching all of them,” he stated. “They all have their positives about them.”