De La Salle Collegiate alumni from the 1980s may have encountered a familiar name in a front page Detroit Free Press article in early July about girls’ flag football teams at local high schools. 

The Birmingham Groves team was prominently featured, along with its coach, Geoff Wickersham, Class of 1986, a Social Studies teacher at the school since 1997. 

Wickersham, who played some football in high school, has coached the Groves powder puff team since 2002; his flag football team, the school’s first, put up a 4-0 record, and also played a game at Ford Field. -https://www.detroitlions.com/football-education/girls-flag-football-clinic 

“This league will explode in 2025,” Wickersham said. “The NFL has been encouraging these leagues for the last few years.” He says the league will likely expand to 24 teams. 

This fall, the Groves team will play two additional games: an opponent from the Lions’ League as part of the Prep Kickoff Classic Weekend at Wayne State University (August 30 at 12:30 p.m.) and a seven-minute exhibition game at halftime when the Lions play Tampa Bay (September 15).

While Wickersham is enthusiastic about his flag football team, he is passionate about teaching. 

He recently spent a week at George Washington’s home, Mt. Vernon, as part of a workshop run by the George Washington Teacher Institute. He described his week-long experience as “fantastic” as he learned about the lives of the enslaved on the plantation and the “complicated legacy” Washington left us. 

After a short break, he headed to Howard University for a four-day Advanced Placement (AP) summer institute on teaching the new AP African American Studies course. 

Wickerasham spent the last week of July at Groves as part of their summer AP program, which encourages first-time AP students to learn more about expectations.

“Since I teach AP U.S. History, I am part of this effort, as my course is the first introduction to AP classes that kids have,” he said. “This week helps students understand what is expected of them.” 

Wickersham is no stranger to summers spent learning more about his subject area and also spending time with students. 

In 2023, he and a selected student spent time at George Washington University (GWU), studying the life of a soldier buried in Normandy. Their subject was a Lieutenant from Birmingham, MI, who enlisted in 1942, and participated in bombing runs before and after D-Day. He was shot down in July 1944, and killed by German ground forces. He was interred at the Normandy Cemetery in 1945. 

View the PowerPoint presentation the student and Wickersham prepared

“It was like taking a grad level course on World War II,” he said. 

Following the research time at GWU, the two flew to France for a week, and learned more about the D-Day battlefields. 

“The week culminates with 15 students reading a eulogy at the gravesite of their soldier,” Wickersham said. “This is a powerful and incredible experience.” 

He added, “We got extremely lucky because we were able to find living relatives near Lansing, Michigan. Our soldier had a younger sister and a brother-in-law who is still alive. One of the great-nephews is an Army reserve captain and already had a European trip planned. He was at the gravesite when the student gave the eulogy, and he spoke about how his great-uncle served as an example of service to the country.” 

Although he earned a bachelor’s in English Education at Michigan State University (1990), and later masters’ degrees in English Education (1997), Wickersham began teaching social studies in 1993 at Western International High School. 

He picked up master’s degrees in American History and Government through a program at Ashland University in Ohio in 2020, funded by a fellowship from the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, a group that promotes education for teachers in constitutional principles. 

Wickersham has also been recognized for his outstanding teaching, with a 2003 award from the Michigan Council of History Education as the Secondary History Teacher of the Year. 

Wickersham and his wife Helayne live in Huntington Woods.