Kerry Davidson has been teaching English to Valley students for 18 years. After working with all different grades, this year her classes primarily consist of sophomores. 

Davidson’s days are ones of hall duty, planning, teaching and CLT’s, where the English department aims to develop course content. According to Davidson, there isn’t quite an average workday.

“No two days are the same, which is the fun thing about teaching,” Davidson said. “You never know what the kids are going to ask or do.”

To some, however, she isn’t just a teacher or colleague—she’s a coach. Her coaching career has lasted over 20 years, originally commencing when she helped coach girls soccer at Loudoun County High School. Davidson’s love of soccer stems from her childhood, which led her to continue playing throughout high school and college. 

Up until a few years ago when she injured her knee, she even played recreationally in co-ed sports leagues in Loudoun County. 

“I still watch professional games, and it’s something that I learned a lot of valuable life lessons from, and made a lot of lifelong friends from,” Davidson said. The sport taught her the importance of friendship, loyalty and strength, as well as how to, “win with dignity, lose with humility and not let the winning and losing dictate everything.”

Davidson believes that through thoughtful planning and creating a cohesive team environment, she has learned that commitment, hard work and loyalty all pay off.

“It sounds like a lot of cliché things,” she said. “But those really are the takeaways I’ve had from it, and I still get out of it, even just from a coaching angle.”

Davidson also has tried to pass on the love and enjoyment of soccer to her kids as well, though she says that they’ve gone their own ways. She goes to all her kids’ events, whether it’s horseback riding, a Woodgrove game where her daughter cheers or supporting her son who’s on a competitive shooting team.

During her retirement, Davidson plans on her family being in the picture. Ideally, she’d return to her roots back in North Carolina, where some of her family still resides today. When she visits the coast in the warmer months, she is often accompanied by her extended family.

“I can’t envision retiring down there without having it be someplace where our kids will come back to and bring their kids,” Davidson said. “I don’t want to call it a compound, but it would need to be a pretty good sized house (with) three or four bedrooms for our immediate family.” 

Despite this bustling year-round schedule, Davidson doesn’t keep an extensive organizer, as she’s good at keeping it either on her phone or in her head, and that she tends to focus on planning and correspondence, too. 

“It just takes a lot of late nights, communication, coordinating,” said Davidson. “I’ve had a lot of friends who don’t have as many kids or any kids saying, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’”

Prioritizing is something she says she has to do, which at times has its impacts. 

“Sometimes that means those essays don’t always get done as quick of a turnaround as you’d like. Sometimes that means you don’t get to go to an event for one of your kids. You’ve got to divide and conquer,” Davidson said. “It’s a give and take.”