After having coached tennis, taught in the leadership department, and took on health classes, Coach Randy Ballenger added another course to his roster: culinary. 

“This is my first year teaching culinary arts and I love it,” Ballenger said. “I like seeing the kids try something new outside of their comfort zone and being able to see the results and get the understanding that it’s just food.”

The introduction to culinary arts class is the first culinary course and focuses on making foods from scratch. This year, they have made homemade pie doughs and pasta. The class teaches not only how to cook, but the students  research the history of the food, where the food comes from and why they’re making it. 

“I do like to cook, but I’ve actually learned a lot more myself while doing this,” Ballenger said. “It’s been a joy and refreshing to learn something new. I kind of like how the class is a little chaotic, it’s fun to have a bunch of people doing different things at different times. All of the chaos builds something and I love seeing their expression of being like ‘wow we just did that’.’”

Lesson planning consists of brainstorming the recipes, but also being able to demonstrate it for the students. In addition, the culinary teachers research their dishes prior to introducing them to the students. Next year, Ballenger plans to use new recipes to add something new. 

“Advanced culinary [class]  cooks more difficult dishes but they also cook more in general, we’re just kind of learning the introduction part of it,” Ballenger said. “This class helps you prepare for the future because if you want to save money later on, you can cook for yourself.”

In his 19 years at Cedar Park, Ballenger has coached PE and tennis, and taught Professional Communications, or Prof Comm, health, maps and PALs. PALs is a program that allows juniors and seniors to go to the middle school and surrounding elementary schools to mentor students who choose to be in the program. These students are assigned two kids that they pull out of class to do activities or talk to them.

“My favorite class I’ve taught is PALs because I think it was the most rewarding for both the students and the kids that they work with,” Ballenger said. “Our PALs program has really hit the ground running. I think the program has done an amazing job establishing that culture at that young age and seeing students want to be in the pals program and want to help out is amazing and a lot of it is that awesome dude next door to me, [Mr. Lippe].”

Ballenger attended Hardin-Simmons University and majored in Kinesiology. In addition, Ballenger was a tennis athlete from childhood  all the way through college.

“I didn’t always want to be a teacher,” Ballenger said. “I envisioned myself being a doctor, physician or pediatrician, but I tell my students all the time that I’ve always had a passion and a love for kids and I’ve always had a passion for sports. I realized [I wanted to teach] after my college tennis coach told me I should pick up coaching. I started teaching for a little bit and then I fell in love with it.”

Ballenger’s experience with tennis extends far back and he could have gone to school with a tennis scholarship, but said he fell in love with Hardin-Simmons. He played in national tournaments and won championships at this university.

“My favorite wins were my team wins,” Ballenger said. “I love success individually but being surrounded by my teammates whenever we won as a team was so much more rewarding. The best advice I’ve gotten was ‘don’t let your mouth do the talking but let your actions, playing and racket do the talking’ meaning you leave it all on the court and don’t think too much about it.”

Outside of school, Ballenger said he enjoys playing fantasy football, goinging on hikes and exploring trails and snow skiing. He says that they’re all passions of his and he enjoys being outdoors. When in school, Ballenger also learns and says that teaching professional communications has taught him how to be genuine with his students and build relationships with them.

“The culture [at Cedar Park] is unique,” Ballenger said.  “I’ve talked to some family members to try to explain it, but it’s just a different place, and just incredible. At the foundation, everyone has always been supportive, encouraging and helpful. There’s not that much pressure, and if there is, it’s healthy pressure.”