Go into any one of the high school’s commons after lunch, where the thicket of student voices blending into one another makes it almost impossible to hear the person sitting next to you unless you use a microphone, and yell “Mr. Sage” at the top of your lungs.

As you scan over the silenced crowd, you may notice a range of emotions dotting the faces of those staring back at you: a cringe at memories of late-night cramming for AP physics tests, happiness at recollections of the jokes he cracked during class, or even joy at flashbacks of him avidly cheering on the ASD volleyball teams during MESAC tournaments.

While no two high school students will have had the same experiences with Mr. Sage, we can all agree that he’s had a positive impact on the ASD community, and things wouldn’t be the same without him around.

This year marks Mr. Kevin Sage’s 22nd consecutive year working at ASD. In August 1996, he moved to Qatar from Alberta, Canada, with his wife, former ASD HS teacher Ms. Janice Sage, and began working at ASD — then known as the American International School, or AIS — that same year.

For Mr. Sage, the transition was tough. “The school I taught at in Alberta before coming to ASD was state-of-the art and very well equipped, so I was quite taken back by the school campus.

“The elementary school was a series of port-a-cabins, the math wing was a villa annex, and there were no fields, gymnasiums, theater, cafeteria, etc. There were approximately 385 students total.”

Despite the constantly changing and developing campus, Mr. Sage reports that ASD’s high school students have, throughout the years, stayed just as “respectful, energetic, and motivated” as when he first arrived.

Although Mr. Sage has an expansive range of contributions to the ASD community under his belt, he’s best known for being the AP Physics teacher, the volleyball coach, and the senior advisor who’s responsible for organizing the annual senior graduation ceremony down to the finest detail.

“We have had some very good teams and very good players in the program over the years,” he stated. “I also enjoy reading the diploma names and watching the seniors walk across the stage to get their diplomas.”

Due to being such a prominent figure in the ASD community for so long, Mr. Sage has no shortage of entertaining stories relating to the student body over the years.

“When the MS/HS campus was being constructed,” Mr. Sage recounts in one instance, “the area that is now the track and soccer field was a dirt parking lot. During one heavy rain, the parking lot became essentially a mud pit.

“I remember one Grade 12 student panicking because he had taken his father’s Mercedes to school without permission and now it was stuck in the mud. He pushed it out, and he became covered in mud. When he tried to come back into the school to clean up, they wouldn’t let him in because he was so dirty. He ended up driving his father’s brand new car home covered in mud inside and out.”

In another instance, he recalls that “during one fire/evacuation drill, as a few hundred students were slowly walking on the field to their check-in areas, the sprinkler system started up, soaking many of students — there was nowhere to go but into the water!”

Some of Mr. Sage’s recollections, however, center around emotionally powerful moments where students were able to overcome major obstacles. “One of our seniors was injured in a quad accident and spent all of high school in a wheelchair,” Mr. Sage starts. “At the first dance at his senior prom, he was able to get out of his wheelchair, with help, and dance with his girlfriend. There weren’t too many dry eyes in the room for that.”

Mr. Sage does plan to move back to Canada with his family eventually, ending his more than two-decade-long streak as one of the longest-serving members of the ASD community. “Before coming to ASD, I wish I’d known that they would never let me leave!” he says.

All jokes aside, Mr. Sage would like to remind his students that he’s proud of them and all that they’ve managed to achieve throughout their time at ASD. “However,” he says, “ I wish more of my students knew that I’m being serious when I recommend that they go into plumbing as a career!”