Falcon Flashback: Mrs. Spinelli & Ms. Bennett

On this special edition of Falcon Flashback, the Talon talks to one of the most famous families in the Christian Brothers community.

The Talon took CB Assistant Athletic Director Ms. Jill Bennett and religious studies instructor Ms. Mary Ann Spinelli on a little stroll down memory lane, when Ms. Spinelli was a janitor and Ms. Bennett was the first to be picked to play basketball ahead of the boys.

Sports were always fun for Ms. Bennett, with basketball being her favorite.

“I used to eat sleep and drink basketball,” she says.

All through her life she still loved basketball, becoming the first Christian Brothers girls basketball coach when the school went co-ed in 1990. Ms. Bennett would like nothing more then to be out on the court and with her players coaching, but now she says “I want to simplify and create more time to be a Grandma.”

For Ms. Bennett it’s truly all about her family, recalling that being on the boat became some of the best family time. Their favorite thing to do out on the water was water ski.

“I was raised on water and snow skiing” Ms. Bennett says, saying that her daughter is quite talented on the water as well.

“Miss Spinelli is a darn good skier,” she says.

Aside from being a great water skier, Ms. Spinelli is a great teacher as well. She had her mind set on teaching almost her whole life, switching from elementary to high school after interning for elementary kids.

“The kids would run around the room and just wouldn’t stop,” so thankfully she changed her mind and became a high school teacher, which is a huge step up  from her first job as a janitor for her uncle’s business.

“It made me learn responsibility,” she said of her work as a custodian. “It taught me a life skill of understanding responsiblity.”

When in high school she was always busy playing sports and studying hard. She went to Sac State to become a teacher, now we have this wonderful family working and making CB a better place to be.