Kathleen Sneed Petka
Kathleen Sneed Petka has been teaching Visual Art at Walton High School since the fall of 2004. She graduated from Walton in 1999 and was a member of the varsity volleyball team that won the first state championship in 1998. Kathleen coached the Walton Junior Varsity team in 2005 and is in her ninth year of coaching Walton Gymnastics. Last year, Kathleen coached our Junior Varsity Developmental group along with her sister Bonny Silvestrov, who helped Walton win three state championships.
Mrs. Petka has a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Art Education from the University of Georgia, and from the University of West Georgia, she has a Masters of Education in Art Education and an Educational Specialist degree in Instructional Technology. Kathleen teaches the Visual Art Comprehensive classes through the AP Studio Art Classes. She has been an AP reader for the past two years in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, Kathleen is a member of NAEA, GAEA, and PAGE. She was nominated to receive a full-tuition scholarship to the SCAD Educator Essentials Conference this summer in Savannah, GA. She enjoys every aspect of art, spending time with family and friends, sports, traveling, cooking, baking, eating, and running. She has completed one full marathon and three half-marathons. She won Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb’s the Fan of the Week on the Today Show’s fourth hour in July and will be traveling to Colorado in October.
Matt Staruch
Matt is a 2000 Walton graduate; he has been teaching and coaching baseball at Walton since 2006. This is his first time coaching volleyball for the Raiders and he is very excited about working with such a successful program that plays hard and plays the game with honor, integrity, and discipline. He has been a fan of the program for years and is enthusiastic about learning to love the game on a different level.
Matt was an assistant coach for the 2007 and 2008 varsity baseball teams that finished first and second in the state respectively. He has been blessed to have worked with dozens of collegiate and professional baseball players in his short career. He is quite honored to have been asked to work with such outstanding young female athletes in another exciting sport.
Matt graduated from the University of Georgia with both an undergraduate and Master’s degree in social science education. He graduated with a Specialist Degree in Teaching and Learning from Georgia State.
Matt is the Social Studies Department Chair and teaches AP Human Geography, AP Microeconomics, and Ethnic Studies.
Linda Lager
Linda is a graduate of Walton High School and a former member of the Lady Raider volleyball program. She was a Setter for Walton and still holds a couple of state records at that position. She was part of two of the State Championship teams and went on to play at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, AL where she was turned into a libero. Upon graduation in 2007, Linda earned her Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a minor in Studio Art.
Linda has been coaching for the Walton Volleyball program since 2008. In her time as a coach with Walton her teams have won the county tournament several times and even had an undefeated season. She has coached the JV team for the last few seasons and has also coached the Royals in the past. This season, Linda will be coaching the JV team with Kathleen Sneed Petka and Matt Staruch. She is also the middle school coordinator and the head coach for the Royals middle school team. Walton has seen lots of success in the past few years and Linda is looking forward to continuing to watch the program grow.
Some interesting facts about Linda: she was born in Stockholm, Sweden and lived there until she was almost 6. Swedish was her first language and she is still fluent. She played several sports while growing up, including some unusual ones - like fencing! She has a younger sister, Malin, who also played for Walton as an Outside Hitter. Linda is enrolled at Kennesaw State University in pursuit of a second degree in Exercise Science before she will then apply to continue her education by pursuing a doctorate in Physical Therapy.
