Alex Zimmerman graduated from Du Quoin in 2020. This fall, he comes back as a teacher.

He's 24. His former high school math teachers — Ms. McKinney and Ms. Winter — are still in the building and will become colleagues. The middle school teacher whose room will be next to his is Darren Hicks. He still reflexively thinks of him as Mr. Hicks.

"That's just Mr. Hicks to me, you know what I mean?"

That's the particular texture of coming home — when the title switches from student to colleague, but the instinct hasn't quite caught up yet. Zimmerman will also be working under Mrs. Woodsides, who was his high school teacher. "She'll be my boss now," he said. "We had such a good relationship in school. I'm excited to get to work with her."

This fall, he takes over the fifth- through eighth-grade advanced math position, stepping into a role once held by Mrs. Fitch. It's an unusual assignment: the same students stay with him for four consecutive years.

He's thought about what that means.

"I know whenever I went through, they only did that for ELA with Ms. Templeton," he said. "Some of the memories I had in her class were some of my favorite I've ever had — just because you're able to have those four years and you really build a family that way."

He plans to build that same thing.

The road to Du Quoin Middle School ran through several stops first. After high school, Zimmerman attended Lewis and Clark Community College in Alton — where he also played baseball — before transferring to McKendree University to continue both his collegiate career and his education degree. Field placements took him to Breeze and then to O'Fallon, which felt substantial compared to Southern Illinois small-town life.

What he found in both places was familiar. "Schools, no matter where you're at — everyone has each other's back. It's tight-knit." It confirmed what he already loved about teaching.

Last year, he taught fifth and sixth-grade math at Johnson City. He loved it. But Du Quoin opened.

"I knew all along I wanted to get back to my hometown," he said. "I was just so excited that this early in my teaching career, there was an opportunity to come back."

He's honest about what being early in his career means. "I know I'm still young and I have plenty of room to grow as a teacher," he said. "Getting to learn from them and lean on them — I'm excited about that."

His teaching philosophy on math starts with one conviction: numbers are already everywhere in students' lives. Sports statistics. Restaurant tips. Making change. Estimating a budget. He designs lessons around scenarios his students can place themselves inside — not equations for equations' sake, but math that does something.

"With me being a sports guy, I'm really into stats," he said. "You name it, in some way, fashion, or form, numbers are going to be involved."

The sports background runs deep. His father owns a hitting facility in Du Quoin and practices as a chiropractor in town. His mother is a court reporter. Zimmerman spent years giving hitting lessons at the facility, which is where he first discovered he genuinely enjoyed being around kids — and first started thinking that teaching might be the thing.

He has two older brothers, one in Pinckneyville and one in Arizona. His younger brother Max is a junior this year — a senior next — still finishing out his time on the student side of things.

When Zimmerman talks about Du Quoin, he doesn't reach for abstractions.

"The fairgrounds are awesome," he said. "Having the fair out there and the Christmas lights — it's just something you really can't find hardly anywhere."

He's also clear-eyed about what he owes the place. His advice to his sixth-grade self?

"Just keep following your path. Give everything you have to everything. I go all out. I don't ever do anything just partially."

He reflects on every session when it's over — what worked, what didn't, where to improve. That habit came from sports. It's staying with him in the classroom.

A student who loved Du Quoin's math teachers enough to become one. A former athlete who thinks in statistics. A 24-year-old who already knows what he wants his classroom to feel like.

Mr. Zimmerman is home.