An Enjoyable Place to Be
Lance Durflinger '88
When asked for his favorite memories and teachers from his time at Cardinal CSD, Lance Durflinger made it clear that he couldn’t possibly choose.
“I just love the teachers, the kids that I went to school with, everything,” Durflinger says. “I enjoyed the whole time I had with all my fellow classmates and all the teachers. I just loved everybody.”
Durflinger, a farmer and truck driver, attended Cardinal from 3rd grade to his graduation in 1988. Though he doesn’t have much to compare it to, he wouldn’t have wanted to attend school anywhere else.
“At Cardinal, you get smaller classes, and the teacher pays attention to you, and you get treated fairly,” Durflinger explains. “They don’t treat you by your last name. They treat you as a student.”
A large part of Durflinger’s time at Cardinal revolved around playing sports. It was there on the field with his coaches that he learned valuable life lessons.
“My coaches taught me how to be respectful and treat people how you want to be treated — my teachers were the same way,” Durflinger says. “They helped me through it all.”
Today, when he’s not helping his dad out on their farm or driving a semi-truck for Dr. Pepper, Durflinger can still be found on a Cardinal sports field coaching youth sports. It’s important to him to teach the next generation the same lessons his Cardinal coaches passed on to him, like prepping for the real world.
“The biggest thing for kids these days, in my opinion, is they need someone to teach them how to be respectful, kind, and love each other,” Durflinger shares. “Don’t treat no one any different because we’re all no better than anyone else and should be treated the same. We’re all the same kind of people.”
His own children, two boys, are also Cardinal Comets. His son Trenton is a fellow Cardinal graduate and his youngest, Drake, is at Cardinal Middle School in 8th grade. Durflinger’s school memories, watching his children attend Cardinal, and coaching young kids there, makes Cardinal all the more special to him.
“It’s just an enjoyable place to be for me,” he says. “It made me the person I am now. They taught me the right way.”
