Mentor, father, coach, teammate, teacher—these are all terms which describe Joseph Loffredo, who is also a Sequoit. A member of the Antioch Community High School class of 1994, Loffredo currently works at ACHS as a social worker, a position he has held for four years. As a part of the ONE|SEQUOIT Project, Loffredo shared his history at ACHS and how the school has influenced his life from his teenage years and on.

“I had Mr. Trout, I had Judson as a coach, Mr. Kamin, Mr. Moxley, Ms. Elver—I had her for physical science. She used to be a science teacher, but she was also art certified,” said Loffredo. Now, he works with many of the teachers he used to learn from. This type of experience is the amazing part of coming back to work in one’s hometown.

Loffredo spoke fondly of his high school days at ACHS.

“The crowd I hung out with—we were pretty good kids. We were involved with everything we could be involved with. Athletes Committed to Excellence—that doesn’t exist anymore, but the concept is still there. P.E. Helpers, Art Aids, anything that we could get involved with, we did! But we lived for sports. To play three sports was the norm, that was just what you did,” said Loffredo.

Loffredo was a multi-sport athlete himself and one of the leaders of the teams. He played football and tennis for three years, wrestling for two, and basketball for one. As an adult, he has also coached Little League lacrosse and football, in addition to wrestling at the junior high and freshman levels. Unfortunately, a back surgery at the beginning of senior year made it impossible for him to continue contact or aggressive sports.

“There was a group called the Breakfast Club. Mr. Kamin ran it. And it was basically a weightlifting club in the morning. So three days a week, for four years—even when I was injured I still went to it—we would be on the weight deck. We would meet there at 5:30 in the morning and work out for an hour, then get cleaned up and go to class. We loved it. It’s funny though, because things that you do in high school mold who you are today. I still work out three days a week,” said Loffredo.

“You guys get P.E. every day, pretty much. What I would do to be able to have an hour a day to just work out and play basketball or lift weights! Ten years from now, you’ll have to pay to go to a heath clinic or try and find the time to get together with you friends to play a basketball game. Enjoy it while you have it,” he said.

Along with his job as a social worker, Loffredo in his four years at ACHS has been involved in the Student Achievement Committee, the PBIS Committee and the Discipline Attendance Committee. He also runs Sequoits Helping Sequoits with fellow teacher Kara Bolton, co-advises National Honor Society and co-advises the brand new Student Ambassador Program. Most of these groups are focused on helping the students and Antioch community through giving back.

“We have a small group of students [from the Ambassador Program] we can put as the face of the school, in leadership roles, some peer mentoring. They’re going to help out with a lot of the things that NHS students do to meet their hours, because I want the NHS students to be out in the community.

Loffredo worked at an electrical-mechanical engineering company after graduating with a major in Sociology from the University of Iowa in 1998.

“I didn’t declare social work as a major because I wanted to be done in four years,” Loffredo said with a smile. However, social services was where his passion truly lay.

He worked at the Allendale Association in Lake Villa, Ill. before working in McHenry County and then Johnsburg District as a social worker for about ten years. In addition to working, Loffredo was also attending graduate school to get a master’s degree in both Social Work and Education Administration and Leadership.

“I work in the department of special education, but every day is something different for me. That’s kind of what I like about my job. I do have a specific case load, but I also work with the other 900 students in the building,” he said.

One of the things Loffredo loves most about ACHS is the people who work hard to improve the lives of students and community members, but who may not always get recognized for it.

“There’s so many people that do a lot of really good things in the building that are kind of behind the scenes. There’s a lot of really good work that goes on here. It’s always nice when you get a chance to put those people in the spotlight a little bit and recognize them. I think Mr. Hubbard does a good job of that. He sends out Friday newsletters to us or memos and he highlights some good things about people, and it’s neat.”

Some things are drastically different from when Loffredo attended ACHS as a student.

“I think the community has changed a lot. It’s a lot more open-minded in embracing changes for the future, which definitely affects the school,” said Loffredo.

However, other aspects of Antioch have remained exactly the same.

“Stuff like the commons, and the security guards, and just the interactions there I see are so identical. And the structure of the school has been remodeled, but the most part, it is the same high school,” he said. Loffredo shared a anecdote about one of the unchanged parts of ACHS: wall artwork he created as a teenager, without permission, is still here.

“We were screwing around like typical senior guys, and we were in the locker room, painting a big Sequoit ‘A’ on the wall with our art supplies that we were supposed to be putting away. We didn’t ask anyone, just started painting the wall. We all signed it, and the trainer loved it. And that is now one of the coach’s office. Carl Richter moved a cabinet in there, and behind the cabinet was this big ‘A.’ And he sees it with the faded signatures on there, and he calls me and he’s like, ‘Is this you? Did you paint this on here?’ I couldn’t believe it. I had totally erased that from my memory. And it’s still there, and it’s just funny. So now in the locker room, there’s this big ‘A’ that I painted when I was in high school,” said Loffredo, chuckling at the memory.

Loffredo also credits his experiences at ACHS for making him the man he is today.

“I think one of the biggest influences of who I am today was having back surgery my senior year. And not making all the best decisions my senior year, because of that—because my whole world changed. What if everything you were a part of was just different? How do you get through that? We didn’t have social workers when I was in high school—you barely knew your guidance counselor. So who supported you? Your coaches did. They were the social workers  and the counselors of the school. So just being a part of that world, having those coaches and resources, good caring adults–that definitely had an influence on me wanting to be a school social worker, helping students get through those difficult times.”