Next year, instead of memorizing new students’ names, students will be memorizing coach Nick Wood’s. Business technology teacher and girl’s basketball coach, Wood, is leaving this August for the American International School of Muscat in the country of Oman.

The school district approved Wood for a two-year teaching leave of absence.

The English speaking school in Oman follows a typical US schedule. It has winter, spring and Thanksgiving breaks.

“We have an opportunity to come back over the holiday break, because we have three weeks for that, and during the summers we’ll be back for sure as well,” said Wood, who will be teaching physical education at the new school.

Engineering teacher Charlie Lauts said she’s very happy for him and his family, but she is sad to see him go.

“All the growth he’s gotten in our computer science program over the last few years has been tremendous, and I just hope that the expectations stay just as high when he’s not here, and the kids get all the quality learning like they would from Mr. Wood,” Lauts said.

Wood said he would like to thank the administration for the opportunity to come back to Lawrence to teach and coach when the contract is up.

“My wife and I have always been interested in the idea of traveling and teaching internationally, and so we would kind of look at different opportunities that are out there. We kind of put our name in the hat to just see,” Wood said. “I was reaching out to schools and schools reaching out to us, and they [the American International School of Muscat] kinda found us and recruited us a little bit.”

Besides Oman, Wood had the opportunity to teach in other locations like Thailand, Venezuela and Dubai.

“We settled on going to the school in Oman because we felt like it was the right fit for our family…We’re really excited about it, nervous at the same time,” Wood said.

In two years, when he and his family return, the district may place Wood at any of the schools in the district.

Junior Marissa Pope said she has been playing basketball for him for several years. Wood invited Pope to play after watching her eighth grade tryouts, and she has been playing for him since.

“We even joked about Skyping [Wood] my senior night, so he would be there,” Pope said. “He helped us through a lot and he stuck it out even through all the bad criticism. He helped me make my game better, he’s helped me become more of a leader and even as a person, he’s helped because he’s built up my confidence in a lot of different ways.”

Every year teachers and students come and go, but coach Wood will definitely be missed.

He leaves the students with this message, “To the students of LHS: Embrace each day and make the best of it. Find a passion, care for others, get up if you get knocked down and find a way to improve yourself each day. If you can do that you are probably heading in the right direction. Also, it doesn’t hurt to locate yourself as close as possible to a Taco John’s and Pizza Shuttle. They can get you through some trying times.”