Jay Hegi, the Franklin Square-Elmont Herald Person of the Year, 2010

Jay Hegi, an Elmont Memorial High School phys. ed. teacher and the school’s head football coach, was worried about one of his players, Brian Cole, who showed no interest in going to school. So for a year and a half, Hegi picked Cole up every morning at his home and drove him to school.

“He just didn’t enjoy school. He enjoyed hanging out with his peers, but he just wasn’t a school person,” said Hegi, who added that Cole, once in jeopardy of dropping out of high school, is now attending Briarcliffe College.

Brian’s mother, Yvette, is extremely grateful that the coach took such an interest in her son’s education. “He came to my house every morning to pick Brian up to make sure he graduated,” she said. “If it weren’t for the coach, Brian would still be in high school looking stupid. Now he’s in college studying to be a cop.

“This coach definitely goes beyond the call of duty,” Yvette Cole added. “He’s like a father figure. I love that man.”

Over the past few years, Hegi has allowed a student with family problems to stay at his house, helped bail another out of jail by lending him money, paid for presents for his players’ girlfriends and taken the high school’s basketball and football players to sporting events, often dipping into his own pockets so they could experience something they never had before.

“I’ve been very privileged in my life,” said Hegi. “I got a lot out of life and experienced a lot of things. I like other people to experience other things also, something they could cherish for a lifetime.”

Two years ago, the high school administration named Hegi the Teacher of the Year. This year, the Herald is proud to name him its 2010 Person of the Year.

His good deeds have come without much attention or fanfare. “I rather fly under the radar,” said Hegi, who lives in Merrick with his wife, Maria, and twin 8-year-old sons, Matthew and Ryan.

When he was named Teacher of the Year in 2008-09, he said he spent most of the summer agonizing over an acceptance speech, endlessly writing and revising it. “It was a tremendous honor,” he recalled, “but it kind of ruined my summer.”