![Erin Whittaker '93]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1677094740/midpencom/ge2chnwbl7duruvoos1t/ErinWhittaker.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1677094740/midpencom/ge2chnwbl7duruvoos1t/ErinWhittaker.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1677094740/midpencom/ge2chnwbl7duruvoos1t/ErinWhittaker.png","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1677094740/midpencom/ge2chnwbl7duruvoos1t/ErinWhittaker.png","width":904}])
I appreciate that Mid-Pen allowed me to learn the way I needed to learn.
Erin Whittaker ’93
“There are more freshmen on the basketball team today than there were in my freshman class,” said Erin Whittaker ’93 with a laugh.
Having just coached the 2022 boys varsity basketball team to the Central Coast Section (CCS) Division V Championship Tournament for the third time in five years, Erin reflected on how much Mid-Pen has changed since he was a student nearly 30 years ago.
“Mid-Pen wasn’t the school it is today,” recalled Erin, who started high school at Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A) in Menlo Park before transferring to Mid-Pen in the fall of his freshman year. “We didn’t get kids who started at Mid-Pen as freshmen; like me, they were always transfers. When I arrived, I was the only freshman in the school for a good month until another girl transferred in. Then there were two of us.” By comparison, Mid-Pen will welcome 37 members of the Class of 2025, who will begin the school year in August as 9th graders.
In the early 90s, Mid-Pen had a reputation for working successfully with students who struggled or were expelled from other schools. “I wasn’t the typical Mid-Pen kid back then,” he remembered. “I just wanted to play sports, and I didn’t get into trouble. But a lot of kids I went to school with had gotten into trouble, and Mid-Pen was the last stop for them. For them, Mid- Pen was really their salvation.”
When Erin arrived, Mid-Pen only had one interscholastic team: soccer. Athletic Director Kurt Lange had been hired only a few months before and, at the time, was the PE teacher. By the spring of 1990, however, Erin had joined the school’s first baseball team. The following year, he played on three teams. “We had a very good baseball team,” he said, “but we were awful as a basketball team. I don’t think we won a game—but we won the league in baseball my junior year.”
Erin appreciated that Mid-Pen let him play sports throughout high school, something he might not have been able to do at a larger school. He recalled going out for football his freshman year at M-A and being cut from the team. He also played basketball and baseball but doubts he would have made the starting lineup in either sport had he stayed at M-A, which was exceptionally strong in basketball at the time. “Maybe in my senior year I would have been able to play baseball,” he mused. “But I might not have ever gotten there because I might not have been allowed to play.”
Mid-Pen also allowed Erin to learn in his own way. Diagnosed with ADHD in his 30s, Erin said he now realizes that many of his classmates were probably also struggling with undiagnosed learning disabilities. “Back then, schools didn’t understand learning difficulties as much. I appreciate that Mid-Pen allowed me to learn the way I needed to learn. Mid-Pen just let me be me and figure stuff out.”
After graduating from Mid-Pen, Erin attended San Jose State. “I had a similar reaction to San Jose State as to M-A,” he said, “and felt I needed a smaller school.” He enrolled in De Anza College, eventually returning to San Jose State, where he received his degree in Radio/TV/ Film with a minor in Drama Directing.
Erin had always dreamed of a career in sports broadcasting.The month after his high school graduation, he began an internship at KRON4 in San Francisco. He worked all through college and eventually became a producer for “Sports Final,” the station’s weekly Sunday night sports roundup.
He left the network in 2005 to start his own production company, focusing on reality-based sports, travel, and food shows, including a pilot for the NFL network. He now lives in Monte Sereno, Calif., with his wife, Shannen, and their two children, Emma, 4, and Noah, 6 months. “Now I am just back to trying to figure out what to do next,” he said. “That’s what gave me the time to coach basketball.”
Erin credits Kurt with giving him both the opportunity to play sports as a student and to coach basketball as an adult. He was browsing the school’s website five years ago and noticed that Kurt was the coach for nearly every sport. He sent an email asking if Kurt needed help. “I just walked in and said hi to him,” Erin said, “and he immediately asked if I wanted to be his assistant basketball coach. It took no more than two seconds.”
Soon, Erin took over as head coach. This year, he was named Honor Coach of the Year by the Private School Athletic League.
"Erin has a deep love for basketball and a strong tie to Mid-Pen," said Kurt. "He is well respected by our student- athletes and has shown much growth during his time at Mid-Pen. He is not afraid to take risks with strategies or using different combinations of players in games."
Kurt said Erin does not give up on his players; if he sees someone struggling, he will often take him out of the game, provide advice, and put him back in after he has had a chance to settle down. "This system has built trust between Erin and his players."
Despite the team’s success, Erin says that he is still learning how to coach and relies on Kurt for advice. Mid- Pen’s no-cut policy and low-key approach to athletics, which Erin benefitted from as a student, still suit him.
“I am not a yeller, and at Mid-Pen you really can’t be,” he observed. “I see some of the coaches on other teams, they’re yelling all the time, and I think, 'Why are you yelling at a 15-year-old?’ Mid-Pen kids just wouldn’t accept that. You need to take it seriously for the kids, but you also need to remember that it’s high school."