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Teacher of the Year Jay Sykes is surrounded by members of the Goochland Middle School Band.

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After being named Goochland Public Schools Teacher of the Year, one might think Jay Sykes would want to take a break and rest on his laurels for a bit.

No way.

Sykes, Goochland Middle School band teacher, was recently in his office hard at work organizing fall activities for the Goochland High School Marching Band.

This fall Sykes will take over direction of the high school band from long-time director Kent Gall, in addition to his duties at GMS.

Sykes, 32, was honored at the June 10 Goochland School Board meeting along with the Teacher of the Year winners from the other four schools: Amanda Tickle from Byrd Elementary, Zoe Parrish from Goochland Elementary, Elizabeth Ferguson from Randolph Elementary and Allison Brook from Goochland High School.

Sykes grew up in Henrico County and graduated from Tucker High School, before earning his bachelor’s degree in music from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001.

Not being a “core” subject teacher and because of the high quality of the county’s teachers, Sykes said when he got a call to come to the school board meeting, he was not thinking about going away a winner.

“I was so surprised to get it for the school,” he said. “It was fantastic.”

A teacher at GMS for the last eight years, Sykes has also taught teen living and life skills and health and physical education.

He’s also a volunteer firefighter at Company 2 in Crozier, where he was captain for two years.

In 2006 and 2007 he served as Camp Director for the Fire Camp where he was a counselor from 2002-2005.

He plays in a rock band called “Sajak” (he’s the drummer) and is a percussionist in a wind ensemble called Commonwealth Winds.

At GMS his students have won numerous awards.

Under his direction, the GMS bands have earned excellent ratings at the District Band Festival from 2001-2006 and several of the bands have received significant achievements, including the GMS 7th grade band earning superior ratings at District 3 State Band Festival in 2007 and the 7th and 8th grade combined band earning superior ratings in 2008 at the District 3 State Band Festival.

But this past year, the bands reached even greater heights, as the 6th grade band earned first place, rating of superior, and was named Grand Champion middle school/high school instrumental ensemble at the Showcase Music Festival.

The GMS Combined Band earned first place and a superior rating at the same event, which was followed by the GMS Combined 7th and 8th Grade Band receiving straight superior ratings at this year’s District 3 State Band Festival.

A high point of his career so far was the Veterans’ Day Concert he put together last fall.

“It was the first one we ever did of that magnitude,” said Sykes. The band played a medley of the service hymns and Sykes said even while conducting he would peek back and watch as the veterans would stand as their branch’s hymn was played.

“It was very moving,” he said. “The kids played well.”

Sykes included a slide show that ran during the assembly, and recalled how one of his clarinetists always teared up when they played it in practice.

“It’s nice for the kids to take pride in the military,” he said.

Sykes is still recovering from a bout of major surgery, which put him out of action for several weeks and said his students’ reaction to his illness was gratifying.

“They didn’t have to come to see me in the hospital,” he said.

But they did and that got Sykes to musing on being a teacher and what it all means.

“You go into teaching to have an impact on the kids – and then the kids end up having an impact on you.”

Sykes now moves on to regional level Teacher of the Year competition with hopes of advancing to the state level.

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