Assistant Principal Kevin Theonnes is a face every student at Dimond can recognize. His booming voice fills the hallways daily instructing students to get to class. Theonnes has been at Dimond High School for the past five years. Prior to his position at Dimond, he worked in rural Alaska, at Service High School as a technology coordinator and spent four years at West High School. Theonnes is a Seattle native and grew up in the Seattle area. As a child he was a year-round soccer player into middle school, then changed his sport to basketball, which he also played year round. “I was a smart kid, but I slipped through the cracks because people didn’t pay attention,” Theonnes said, referring to his absences from class during high school. Throughout high school, Theonnes was a star basketball player. He played college basketball at Alaska Pacific University where he met his future wife, and eventually graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a degree in accounting. He was asked about what made him want to become an administrator. Theonnes is a classic example of seeing something you want, and going out and getting it. “My first year teaching in rural Alaska, it was a class of eighth graders, and the walls were paper thin. Next door, there was a teacher that had been teaching at the school for about 16 or 17 years. His kids were just yelling and cussing at him, and he wasn’t doing anything about it. I go next door, and tell him that he should do something about these kids. He told me that it wasn’t my job to tell him what to do, and because I was his peer, he was right. So I went and got the job that told him what to do. I went and became a principal.” Since those times, Theonnes has done his fair share of work at Dimond. When asked about his favorite aspect of working at Dimond, he couldn’t choose just one. “It’s a mixture of things,” he said. “and it’s not just one person, it’s everyone working together.” He listed the Dimond community, alumni, faculty and the building itself. Theonnes also praised the school, mentioning the harmony things work in here. “I’m here to help students succeed, and not make the same mistakes as I did,” Theonnes said. “And it’s not just me, but everyone in the building wants (students) to be successful.” In his future, Theonnes would like to become a principal of his own, hoping to one day be given the opportunity to run Dimond. “I want to see if I can do it. Like when a high school coach moves up to college, and a college coach moves onto the pros. I want to see how well I can do it.” As involved as Theonnes is at Dimond, his main interest is his family, and in particular his daughter. “I’m gonna move wherever my daughter and grandchildren are. I grew up rarely seeing my grandparents and I’m not going to let that be the case with my grandchildren.” Suddenly, that scary voice does not seem so scary anymore.