HDSP Coach Penny Thiels is making a difference

Penny Thiels has had two careers with CDCR, first as an office technician 30 years ago and more recently as a recreation coach.

Thiels started what she calls her “first stint” working for the department as an office technician in 1996 at California Correctional Center (CCC) in Susanville. Nowadays, you can find her at High Desert State Prison (HDSP) as a recreation coach, helping make a difference. She left her first job to pursue her teaching credentials.

With those credentials in hand, she taught in the community at local schools but decided to return to CDCR as a teacher at CCC in August 2014.

“Shortly after teaching in a classroom setting (at CCC), the recreation coaching position opened. I applied for it and was hired into that position,” she recalls. “Most of my teaching career was spent in a special education and opportunity school, so I figured teaching at the prison wouldn’t be much different.”

She said teaching inside a prison is very similar to teaching in the community.

“Helping the incarcerated individuals work toward their GED wasn’t any different than teaching outside the walls,” she said.

Coaching is rewarding career

“After only one year as the recreation coach, I became the physical fitness training (PFT) coach at CCC. This meant training the incarcerated individuals to get them ready for (conservation camps with) CAL FIRE,” she explains.

She said it was meaningful, allowing her to make a difference in their rehabilitation journeys.

After CCC’s closure, Thiels transferred to High Desert State Prison as the recreation coach.

“I coordinate tournaments, order and issue recreation supplies, teach an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) fitness group three days per week, and bring outside groups into the institution to play different sports or motivate them with positive words,” Thiels explained.

Q&A with Penny Thiels, recreation coach, HDSP

Inside CDCR caught up with Thiels to talk about her career, life, and what she’s up to at High Desert.

What was your career prior to joining the department?

I started out as an intern in the special education program at Chico State University. While working on my credential, I worked as a full-time special education teacher for Lassen County Office of Education. I was initially hired to teach at Westwood High School as the special ed teacher and coached girls’ junior high basketball. After Westwood, I transferred to Shaffer School which was much closer to home. Eventually, I took a position in Portola to teach opportunity school for five years. I also completed my single-subject physical education credential. Later I worked in Portola and Herlong.

I was even able to coach girl’s junior varsity basketball at Lassen High School for one season. After I took my job at CCC, I continued to drive to Herlong and coach my volleyball team for another four years, so I could get my freshman (athletes) through to their senior year. At one point, I was filling in at Lassen College as their athletic trainer on a contracted basis. Most recently, I was coaching the junior high girls’ volleyball team at Janesville School.

How do you balance your work and home life?

As you can see, I stay very busy, so I had to figure out how to make everything work. I am married to an amazing husband and have two amazing sons. While I was teaching and working on my credential, I still had two young children and a husband to care for which wasn’t easy. My husband was a huge help and we both shared the duties of caring for our boys.

My husband worked corrections and had a crazy schedule, but we still managed to make sure our family needs were met. This meant that we didn’t see each other much because we had to work opposite of each other. (On the plus side), the boys always had a parent to take care of them. We both coached them in youth sports, and I was on the youth football and little league boards, so we were busy. Balancing all these things wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. Now that my boys are grown, it is much easier to balance work and home life.

What hobbies do you enjoy?

My hobbies include fishing, camping, coaching, going to sporting events and playing corn hole. I also enjoy playing games with Ellie, my 4-year-old granddaughter.

How would you describe a typical day at work?

My day starts with a dozen mini meetings on my way back to my office. Everyone has a question regarding what programs or tournaments are happening for the month. They also let me know what recreation equipment they need. Once I make it to my office, I check emails.

As a coach, I am responsible for coordinating tournaments, special events, and ordering equipment. I am also responsible for helping create gym schedules, so everyone gets their time in the gym. This means I need to work with the gym correctional officer on basically six yards to ensure programs are running properly.

Three days each week, I am squeezing in time to run fitness groups for our ADA population on two different yards. Each of these are two hours in length.

Another one of my duties is to put in work orders if equipment or facilities need to be fixed and follow-up to make sure things are getting done.

One of my most coveted positions as a coach is being a part of the Coaches Leadership Council. There is always something needing to be done to help our fellow coaches be successful.

What are some of your current projects?

I am working on expanding the ADA Fitness group to two days on A Yard and improving the presentation of the class. The fitness group gives the ADA population an opportunity to create their own community and improve their mobility at the same time.

Another project of mine has been to develop the love of playing pickleball across the entire institution. Warden Rob St. Andre wanted to complete the facelifts for our gyms as part of our California Model grant.

One of the tasks involved finding a good blueprint of pickleball courts and the basketball lines. This allows the population to play both sports inside the gym.

Also, we acquired paint so each yard could paint a mural in the middle circle of the gyms.

I am working on having professional pickleball players come to our institution and give a clinic. We have had a huge number of the population playing pickleball every day. As an example, the B Yard population has structured a pickleball league with 60 players signed up as of now.

It is very hard to get outside groups to come to Susanville, so I am improvising and using our local groups, such as our community college, to come instead.

None of these things would be possible without the help of my administration, the Office of Correctional Education and custody staff. It truly takes a team to make things happen and I appreciate every one of them.

Story by Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor
Office of Public and Employee Communications

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