A native of Denver, Colo., Sean Peistrup had no plans to become a teacher. Instead, he wanted to be a pilot and perhaps coach youth soccer. After graduating from Arvada High School, where his primary focus had been on his 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, he started coaching youth soccer for teams and clubs around Colorado while working odd jobs such as a dealer at a casino, a computer operations data entry and troubleshooter and a case manager at a mental health center.
“Sean comes to ACA with a lot of experience as an educator and athletics director in addition to real world experience,” ACA Principal Mike Lorenz said. “He will do an amazing job of teaching our Compass courses as well as U.S. History.”
By 1997, Peistrup was coaching middle school soccer in Vermont when a casual interaction with a student changed the direction of his life.
“I was working as a high school custodian and had a conversation with a student about an essay he was struggling with,” Peistrup said. “After about 10 minutes of making suggestions and explaining my understanding of essays, the student told me ‘You have taught me more in 10 minutes than my teacher has taught me all year. You should be a teacher.’
“The next day I was looking into nearby colleges to begin the journey of becoming a high school social studies teacher.”
He landed at Lyndon State College in Vermont where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science in 2002 with a History Concentration and a minor in International Studies. While at Lyndon State he was awarded the President’s Scholarship in 1999 and the Dr. Alford Toborg Scholarship in 2001. That minor led to an eight-day trip to study in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2003.
Since completing his degree, Peistrup has completed 13 LTC courses through the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, attended the NFHS/NIAAA AD Conference twice, was the first recipient of the VPA/VSADA National Athletic Director Conference scholarship, completed the NIAAA Leadership Training Program and received teaching certification in Colorado to go with his certifications in New Hampshire and Vermont.
His teaching stops have included in Concord, Vermont, where he taught Social Studies and served as Athletic Director for two years. From there he took over as AD at Woodstock Union High in Vermont, a position he held for three years.
He stepped away from teaching in 2012, returning to Colorado where he became the state manager for the National Flag Football League, growing participation from seven locations and 1,800 participants to 18 locations and 6,100 participants in just two years. During his time back in Colorado he became a driver for multiple delivery services as well as a rail operator and a coach driver. He also became a driving instructor for the largest driving school in the state.
Peistrup moved to Myrtle Beach in 2023 with his wife, Monique, a native of Colebrook, NH. His daughter, Shannon, is a TMS Technician for a mental health center in Colorado and his son, Nathan, is a contract pilot and runs a video editing business in Colorado.
Peistrup is a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and Stephen King, action and comedy movies and almost any kind of music except country. At one point in the mid-1990s he was ranked as high as No. 26 in the world playing Air Hockey.
“One quote that really hits home for me, which was more of a movie quote than what was said in real life, was Herb Brooks telling the Olympic Hockey Team in 1980, ‘Great moments are born from great opportunity.’ I sincerely feel this is the case with joining the ACA Armada. This great moment of being hired on this amazing school could be the birth of a great opportunity for me,” Peistrup said.
“The most rewarding thing about teaching and coaching is witnessing the end result of a lesson or drill and seeing the student/athlete succeed in it.”
