Mr. B's Immense Impact
Joseph Ceccarelli Co-Editor
On August 9th, the unfortunate news of Mr. Charles “Chuck” Ballingall’s passing shook the Damien community. Mr. Ballingall served Damien High School for thirty-six years; he gave his heart and soul to the school by coaching the debate team and shaping the lives of numerous Damien students. “The Voice of the Spartans” greatly affected school programs and the lives of his students with his kind personality and affinity towards the Damien community. The Spartan family is eternally grateful for Mr. Ballingall’s unwavering love and support through the last thirty-six years.
In his heartfelt, emotional speech at Mr. Ballingall’s Memorial mass, Mr. Coray recalled how much he admired Mr. Ballingall’s excellent conversational skills and outgoing personality. Due to Mr. Ballingall having an approachable, extroverted personality, he was very active around campus. For a few brief years, he coached the water polo team with his best friend, Mr. Coray. Numerous other extracurricular programs at Damien High School have been greatly improved by Mr. Ballingall, most specifically, the Damien Debate Team. After majoring in Speech and Debate at the University of Redlands, Mr. Ballingall began teaching at Damien.
In addition to teaching classes such as AP Human Geography, AP Economics, and AP United States History, he coached both the Debate and Mock Trial teams. The two teams were successful during his tenure, with the prestigious Debate Team attaining national recognition for their strong speech and debate skills masterfully taught to them by Mr. Ballingall. He was also a large proponent of the spiritual aspect of Damien. Mr. Ballingall always attended at least one Kairos retreat every year, helping students understand their faith more while maintaining a light-hearted atmosphere.
When the news of Mr. Ballingall’s passing was revealed on Damien High School’s social media accounts, several dozen students, alumni, and parents posted messages of condolences and expressed gratitude for how much of an impact the successful debate coach had on their lives. The messages all had one similar characteristic; they thanked Mr. Ballingall for being an exemplary role model who influenced his students in a positive way. In fact, his influence was so profound that hundreds of members of the Damien community attended his memorial service on Tuesday, August 15th. At the memorial service, Mr. Ballingall’s brother spoke about the strong sense of brotherhood on the Damien campus. He stated that he was touched by how many Spartans attended the mass, not because they were obligated to, but because a multitude of current and former Damien students wanted to honor the life and career of a great man who devoted nearly forty years of his life towards teaching students how to grow academically and spiritually. In the same speech, William Ballingall even admitted he knew little about the strength of camaraderie that Damien students exemplified, but after setting foot on the campus on August 15th, he knew a great amount about the sense of kinship that his brother helped build for thirty-six years. Mr. Ballingall may be gone, but his legendary significance to the Damien community will never be forgotten.