Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/706827
Living the legacy It is fair to say that no one has experienced the Linfield community in quite the same way as Middle School Principal Bret Underwood. As a high school student here in the 1980's, Bret studied hard, played baseball, and enjoyed close relationships with his peers and teachers, a formative experience that has influenced his life to this day. "In a lot of ways it was the same as it is right now, the same community - the same family relationships," he remembers. "My freshman locker was below the ASB president's, and he treated me all year like a friend. I mean, we didn't go out and do things, but I never had that feeling like books were going to get dropped on my head or that something weird was going to happen. I look back and think how bizarre that was because I was a freshman, surrounded by seniors, but I think the school was really intentional about everyone being in the mix together." Bret also laughs as he thinks back to his first baseball season. "One day two of the seniors left after practice to go to an Angels game and invited me to go with them. Where does that happen? Two senior guys invite a little punk freshman kid to go to a game with them? I doubt they hardly remember the experience now, but it made such a huge impact on me. I remember sitting in a pickup truck between these two guys that I looked up to, thinking I don't even know what's happening here!"