Every day for 31 years, Renee Verge has filled in her daybook. Last week, she filled it in for the final time as the local teacher and coach at Peacock Collegiate called it a career after over three decades of teaching in Moose Jaw.

"It's been a real emotional journey, I honestly don't know why I've kept all my daybooks, I'm one of those teachers that writes in it every day, I sleep better knowing my daybook is filled in, but to have those to reflect back on, it's a really neat experience, I'm seeing names of parents of kids that I teach now," Verge told DiscoverMooseJaw.com last week.

Verge started her teaching career with one year at a school in Sturgeon Lake. She made the move to Moose Jaw for her second year, spending 11 years at Riverview Collegiate before finishing with 19 years at Peacock.

Peacock's Renee Verge. (Submitted photo)

Over her 30 years in the community, Verge has become an integral part of the high school sports scene, helping organize and run many events, while also coaching basketball, cross-country and track, leading Peacock's senior girls basketball team to a run of three straight provincial championships.

"One thing that stands out about Renee is her passion for multi-sports and for fitness and she's really built a culture of being engaged in athletics, being active as a person and that's something that she's really instilled in everyone that she's worked with and we know that's going to live on," said Peacock principal Dustin Swanson.

"It's a model of what athletics are supposed to be in schools, we want students engaged meaningfully and we want them active and she just embodies all of that and that's a big part of Peacock pride and we're confident that it will carry on."

Verge added that she initially wasn’t excited about being transferred to Peacock, but she embraced the opportunity and it turned out to be a great move.

"I remember being devastated when they told me that I was going to be transferred from Riverview to Peacock, but the opportunities that were afforded to me at Peacock; there were more kids here, there were more teams here; that's when I really flourished as a teacher and coach, it really opened up more doors for me," said Verge.

During her teaching career, Verge won the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence, as well as just last year being awarded the SHSAA Merit Award, along with husband, and fellow Peacock teacher, Blake Buettner.

"Sometimes your highlight of teaching and your highlight of coaching are kind of different, one of my favourite moments ever is when a kid says thank you and that they really got what I was teaching there, as a teacher, it doesn't get better than that," she said.

Through all the city, regional and provincial championship wins as a coach, Verge said the moment that stands out for her was her first regional championship win with the Toilers.

"I just remembered crying," she said. "That was such a pivotal moment for me as a coach to get those kids going to that next level and then we flourished at that next level, we haven't stopped flourishing, so those little steppingstones and being a part of the culture and tradition."

While committing a lot of her time to her teaching and coaching career, Verge also had two children follow her into the hallways of Peacock with daughter Tye and son Sawyer graduating from the school in recent years.

"My first year there, Tye, my mom, dad and I were all in the same building, we were together all the time, which for some kids would be a nightmare but for me, it was always cool," said Sawyer, who now plays football with the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

"It was always cool getting to spend time with her, I was around her all the time and it just strengthened our relationship… She did a lot for me personally and a lot of students at Peacock."

Tye, who played basketball under her mom at Peacock and moved onto a track and cross-country career at the University of Saskatchewan, added, "She always our mom first and she always treated us like she was our mom first rather than our teacher," she said. "It was really special for Sawyer and I to grow up in an environment where our role model at home was also our role model in the classroom and at school and as our coach."

While Verge will be stepping away from teaching full-time, she plans to remain involved with high school sports, organizing the city's Cross-Country and Senior Girls Basketball tournaments.