these little letters to ourselves to read in the future.
“ And so after pictures, they started handing the letters out— and one of the lines that I wrote, back in 8th grade, was me saying how I just want to make people happy. It was kind of just a full-circle moment, realizing that that ' s what we’ ve actually been doing here— that it’ s where I ' ve always wanted to really go.”
With encouragement from principal Taylor and a small $ 500 startup fund, Chiriaco launched the Theatre program back in 2024. He has athletics in his background: Students still tend to call him“ Coach C” in a nod to his past days as a football coach. But from his own experience as a onetime high school kid, he knows there’ s a ton of hidden potential— and, more importantly, unexplored interest— in every generation of students, if only they’ re offered the chance to cultivate it.
“ I loved theatre when I was a kid,” says Chiriaco, giving a big shoutout to Jason Miller— his former Southside High School Theatre teacher in Etowah County whom he credits for the early inspiration.“ Typically, with every school, you ' ve got your students who are athletic, so they fit in with the athletes. You ' ve got your students who are academic. You ' ve got your students who might be more band-driven.“ But even within all that, there’ s always typically a pocket of people out there who still like theatre. Even in a smaller school like West, you can usually find it; you just have to present it to them and work your tail off to give them something worth having. Once you give it to them and they can trust you, then they ' ll do anything for you. That’ s when it really belongs to them— when they take it and they just run with it.” LL
Photos by West Limestone High School
Limestone LIFE // Summer 2026 31