By JOSEPH KELLARD
Since he was a tyke, Koller, a senior at Oceanside High School, attended the Brookwood Camps run by Ken Fiedler, father of Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler. Among those dividends are both the Citi Bank Scholar Athlete-News 12 Long Island and the Nassau Scholar-Athlete Long Island Newsday awards for 2002, which Koller earned for his all-around achievements in scholarship, athletics, leadership and school service.
"It's nice to be recognized for all the good things you do, and having people come up to me and say they saw me on TV," Koller said. "But I feel that there's other kids in the school who should be recognized as well for doing a tremendous job on and off the field."
Koller has played soccer since he was old enough to run and kick. In addition to his most recent awards, his dedication to his favorite sport paid off when he earned All County honors in Class A while leading the OHS varsity team to the second round of the playoffs last fall. He was named the Exceptional Senior of the Long Island Soccer League in 2002.
"You have to be very disciplined to play this sport and have a lot of endurance, because you are basically running around for 90 minutes straight," he said. "Being involved with soccer also helps me manage my time. So it disciplines you as well."
To earn the Citi Bank-Channel 12 and Newsday awards, athletes like Koller must excel in three sports. His passion for basketball has led to his being named captain of the varsity team this year. And while he originally joined track to "basically keep myself in shape," he said, he nevertheless earned Scholar-Athlete and a Division Championship with last year's 4x400 relay unit -- and he will be captain of the track team this spring.
Scholastically, Koller earned a combined SAT score of 1340, maintains of GPA of 93 unweighted and 98 weighted, and is ranked 23rd among 398 graduating seniors. He's taking four Advanced Placement courses -- economics, calculus, government and English -- and Italian 5 Honors, a college-credited course. Among the campuses he has his eyes on for next September are Dartmouth, Brandeis, Indiana, Binghamton and Albany, and he already has plans to major in business or law and minor in liberal arts.
Unlike students who complain that they see no reason to learn about past events, Koller particularly enjoys social studies and grasps the fact that history teaches invaluable lessons. "We can learn from past presidents or dictators," he said. "I like learning from their mistakes to help us change the future."
Among the community activities in which Koller is involved is Interact, a division of the Oceanside/Island Park Rotary Club, which performs various services throughout the communities. And since cancer has afflicted several of his family members, he supports the charity "Shoot for the Cure," in which prospective basketball players donate $1 per free-throw, the proceeds of which go to breast cancer research through Long Island's 1 in 9 Foundation. Last year, Koller raised $700 selling carnations at the event.
He's also proud of his involvement in Natural Helpers, a peer help group at OHS in which he is trained to assist fellow students with their problems that they may be unlikely to share with adults.
The path that led Koller to such work was paved by his parents, Fred and Bette. "My parents are my role models, having achieved a great deal of success," he said. "My father is the principal at the alternative high school in Oceanside, and he's helped so many kids there. My mother works in special education and computers in Flushing. Every day they come home with a different story about how they've helped students. A lot of kids who were left for dead, they've helped go on to college."
Among the many teachers Koller credits with greatly impacting him is Margaret Milch, a math teacher at OHS, who helped him with the transition from middle school to high school and who taught him to study on his own and work hard. "She really changed my life, as well," he said.
Moreover, he credits the entire Fiedler clan, which he calls his second family, with helping him "a great deal to mature as a person. They've had a huge impact on my life."
Asked to comment on one of her model students, OHS Principal Dorie Ciulla said, "Jesse is truly a scholar-athlete who has worked very hard his four years here. I really see him as a true leader on and off the field."
