Darrell Boedeker never felt comfortable as a Pirate. How could he, having been a Yellow Jacket?

“From the time I was a second-grader, all I wanted to be was a Cleburne Yellow Jacket,” he said.

The new Smith Middle School assistant principal captained the 1989 Cleburne High football team and was voted most bashful in his 1990 graduating class.

He excelled socially and in the classroom.

During a teaching stint at Crowley, he became certified as an administrator and accepted an assistant principal’s post at Granbury High School.

He was a Pirate for four years. He thought there would be a fifth.

His departure early this month was swift and sure — and slightly painful.

“It’s like when the shoe comes down and all the little roaches are running off,” he said with a chuckle. “I was the roach that got away.”

The scenario in Granbury ISD included a new superintendent determined to bring in new personnel, including a high school principal to replace a popular homegrown educator.

Boedeker was caught in the crossfire.

“The new superintendent had a lot of ideas,” Boedeker said. “I think the school board probably put a lot of those ideas in his head. Things were rocking along pretty well until this summer when Granbury High got nailed [rated unacceptable by TEA] for a low completion rate. That brought the whole district down to unacceptable. Heads just started rolling. The superintendent brought in the new principal and told us straight up, ‘There’s four [assistant principals.] The principal can do whatever she wants with you.’”

The nightmare continued into the first week of August.

“I came to work Aug. 4 with no plans of being anywhere but Granbury,” Boedeker said. “The new principal came in with her new people. They had a meeting to do planning for the year. I had expected to meet with the principal that day to get things rolling. I didn’t. Lunch time came around. I had lunch and went back to my office. By 2 p.m., I’d had no contact with the new principal. I thought, ‘This is not good.’

“That afternoon, I heard about the [Smith] assistant principal’s job in Cleburne. I went down to the principal’s office at Granbury High and met the new people. They looked at me like, ‘What else do you need?’ I saw the handwriting on the wall.”

His day got better soon thereafter.

“I submitted my application at 3,” he said. “I had an interview set by 5 that afternoon. I interviewed the next day and knew by Friday I was going to be in Cleburne. I got out while the getting was good. One assistant principal was reassigned to teach ninth-grade biology. Another was reassigned to a different campus. The other was reassigned to TAKS prep science. He was a math teacher. I was a science teacher. They had my fate laid out for me.”

Boedeker said he was initially bothered by the turn of events at Granbury.

“I had a lot of emotional commitment to Granbury,” he said. “I did my job 100 percent. I lost my job through no wrongdoing of my own. I loved working with the staff there. I loved the kids. I was kind of hurt. But I realized it was God’s way of getting me out of there. I was content in Granbury, but it wasn’t meant for me to be there anymore. Everything worked out perfectly for me to be here.”

Boedeker has had no contact with the middle-school age group since he was a middle schooler himself in the ’80s.

“I taught nine years at Crowley High School and was assistant principal at Granbury High for four years,” he said. “I’m having to change my mindset on what’s important and what’s not important. In high school, kids get away with more minor things. [At middle school] that’s something they address and stay on — dress code, walking down the hall, every small thing. But I’m so glad to be here because of the system that’s in place.

“Working into this system is my big goal right now. I want to be a part of what’s going on.”

His duties cover the waterfront.

“Every day, I get something new” from Principal Bill Allen, Boedeker said. “I’ve taken over his old job. He’s been bringing me along. I’m not a new assistant principal, but being in a new system and in a new building, I’m kind of green. Mr. Allen has been a good mentor. He hasn’t thrown me to the wolves. I have a lot more duty before and after school. At Granbury High, we had more assistant principals, so the duties could be spread around more. Here, it’s me and Mrs. [Janet] Helmcamp. Mr. Allen is really good about doing duty with us.”

Boedeker and Allen were acquainted in high school. Allen was a standout in basketball in the ’80s.

“He was two years ahead of me,” Boedeker said. “He was one of the seniors who didn’t pick on me when I was a sophomore. Bill was a standup guy. He knew what to do and how to do it. He did things right and had a great reputation. He was the kind of guy you wouldn’t mind your kid growing up to be like.”

Boedeker was physically different in high school.

“I had more hair and less weight,” he said.

Personally, he‘s changed little.

“Academically, some teachers liked me and some not so much. I made straight A’s. I could have worked a little harder on some behavioral issues. Those are the kinds of people who turn out to be assistant principals. Kids can’t put anything over on them. I’ve been down that block.”

As a Yellow Jacket footballer, he said, he learned he could do virtually anything he set his mind to doing.

“Don’t let anything distract you from your goals,” he said.

There weren’t many tougher 175-pound centers than Boedeker, as the Brownwood Lions discovered in 1989.

“In the first quarter, there was a big pileup, and I caught a heel right under the chin,” he remembered. “It split my chin open. [Team physician Robert] Shaw butterflied it up. I went back in the game. I never missed a play. About the third quarter, I was playing defensive end, and Brownwood ran the sweep at me. I went to meet the lead blocker, and when I did, my finger caught on his helmet snap. It cut the finger to the bone. You could peel the skin back and see bone.

“I wasn’t coming out of the game. The official had to pull me out. He said, ‘Coach, this guy’s got too much blood on him.’ Dr. Shaw bandaged me up, and I got back in. The last few plays of the game, we were getting beat. I was on the sideline next to [head coach Jerry] Cunningham. I said, ‘Please, coach, let me go back in. This is Brownwood. I’ll never get to do this again.’ He let me play the last couple of snaps on defense. I appreciated that.”

Boedeker’s present emotions run the gamut.

“I’m excited and nervous,” he said. “I’m excited about seeing all the old faces I know around town. I’m also nervous because I’ve got some big shoes to fill. My sister-in-law, Mary Boedeker, is assistant principal now at Adams. She was a teacher here at Cleburne Middle School before the middle schools split.

“Everybody here who worked with her remembers how professional she was and knows what an outstanding assistant principal she is now. I’m in a big shadow. But I’m looking forward to it. I believe I can hold my own.”