Teacher/coach at NKHS heads for active duty

Matt Dolci’s last day as a teacher at New Kent High School was Nov. 29, but it was a day both he and his students will not soon forget.

Dolci, a geometry/algebra instructor and JV volleyball coach, is a corporal in the Marine Corps Reserves and has been called to active duty for service in Iraq.

His departure in the middle of the school year evoked a gamut of emotions as students dropped by to wish him well.

Members of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes group held a brief ceremony in the school cafeteria to present Dolci with a U.S. flag that has flown over the school along with a card signed by students and a large banner emblazoned with messages of good luck.

“Most of the kids have been pretty emotional, and this is having a profound effect on some of the kids,” Dolci said following the FCA presentation.

“I hate to leave them,” he said. “This is one of the bad parts about leaving. I love the kids. They mean the world to me.

“The support they’ve shown and the support the faculty has shown has been outstanding,” he said. “It’s been wonderful.”

Another bad part is leaving his family behind. His wife is expecting the couple’s second child in late April, about two weeks after he is scheduled for deployment overseas.

In the interim, he will be stationed at Camp Pendleton in California for training.

Dolci, 24, is a College of William & Mary graduate who enlisted in the reserves five-and-a-half years ago. His upcoming deployment marks his second stint in Iraq. In 2005, he spent seven months from March to October in Iraq. His daughter, Celia, was only six months old when he left.

Dolci functions as crew chief aboard an amphibious assault vehicle, but this time out he believes his work will be more of the infantry variety.

His seven-month deployment overseas should be completed sometime late next year.

He has spent his entire, although brief, teaching career at New Kent High School. This year marks his second at the school, and he expects to return.

“I anticipate coming back to teach here in January 2009,” he said.