Will Roundy: teacher by day, climber at dusk

William Roundy, the one and only Latin teacher this year at ARHS, spends a lot of his time out of school staying active and fit. He runs, weightlifts, and does yoga; however, one of his favorite ways to stay fit is rock climbing. Because rock climbing is also my favorite hobby, I was excited to speak with him about his passion for it, as well.

Roundy began working at ARHS around 2018 after spending some time teaching at ARMS. Roundy entered college unsure of what he wanted to do but ended up majoring in both Classical languages and history. After he graduated he worked for Google but the environment of sitting in an office and staring at a computer for eight hours straight didn’t bode well for him. He applied to UMass to study Latin teaching and has lived in Amherst ever since. 

Teaching in a subject with a smaller enrollment allows Roundy to connect with his students, as he’ll have mostly the same kids every year that they take Latin. He really loves his job and enjoys teaching.

In college, Roundy was invited by a friend to go rock climbing, and he ended up really enjoying it. Before he knew it, he was going roughly once a week during his senior year. Now, Roundy climbs at Central Rock Gym Hadley twice a week, where he has been a member since 2013. 

Over the years he has become an advanced climber in the discipline of bouldering, climbing shorter routes without a rope.  “I will get more than half of V7s, a third of V8s, and I’ve done three V9 climbs,” he said. To put it in perspective, the most difficult grade that the climbing gym will put up is V10, which only a pretty small number of people will complete. 

Something that makes this even more impressive is that Roundy hasn’t had any coaching over the years and hasn’t done much if any climbing-focused training. 

Roundy doesn’t only climb to stay fit, he also loves the social aspect of it. He has a dozen or so friends that he’ll see at the gym and talk to, and he’ll talk to students as well if he sees them around.

“The culture at CRG Hadley is very good. My friends are supportive, strangers are supportive, I can interrupt a coach in the middle of their job to ask a question and they’ll be nice,” said Roundy.

Roundy has found a healthy balance between his career and all of his various forms of exercise. “I use [rock] climbing to stay happy and healthy,” he said.