Deer Creek High School

He's a drama teacher at Dell City High School, where he has led the program for nine years, directing productions, coordinating events at the Performing Arts Center, and leading a program known for its rigor, creativity, and heart.

Originally from Deer Creek High School, he went on to a BFA ed in theater and communication education at UCO, on to a master's in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in theater pedagogy.

He taught theater, speech, and debate in Enid and Yukon before finding his home at Del City.

His philosophy is simple.

We call it the elephant in the room.

How did you get started in theater? It was,

in a weird way, I was put into beginning drama in 2002 at Deer Creek High School.

And I took the class because at the middle school we didn't have it.

So for the past 22 years, I've been a band director in Oklahoma, but I've been in the public school system.

So I spent about nine years at Putnam City High School, and then, uh, most of my time at Deer Creek High School.

I was there for 12 years.

And then, uh, I took a, a brief detour into arts administration, and I was the general manager for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

Yeah.

Um, Tyler was a four-time class president and valedictorian of his graduating class at Deer Creek High, and he made such an impact there that Deer Creek High named its football stadium in honor of Tyler.

I wanna say there were some Navy football players who went out for that dedication.

Yes.