Math teachers and coaches Neil Jaggernath and Ian Mook have always been a valuable part of the Masters community. As they get ready to return to the Hackley school for the 2026-2027 school year, where they once attended, Masters honors not only what they have brought to the community, but what they have brought to each other. 

Hackley alumni Jaggernauth and Mook have known each other since they attended. However, Masters is what brought them closer together in recent years. 

Jaggernauth shared that Mook’s mother helped him receive a job at Hackley when he had just recently graduated college, and from then on he was close with the family, but didn’t know Mook super personally. 

Jaggernauth said, “When I graduated from Hackley, then graduated from college and came back to work at Hackley, I got to know his mom, who was the head of the Communications Department.” More personally, he began house-sitting for the Mook family to take care of their dog, Mackey, who he had become close with, while they were away in the summer.

Jaggernauth said that he not only had a work relationship with Mook’s mother, but he also worked with Mook’s older brother at the alumni office at Hackley.

“And I worked with Ian [Mook] because I would help out with the boys’ varsity soccer team. And so I coached him a little bit there.” He said, referring to when Mook was still in high school.

For the next leg of their journey, Mook and Jaggernauth are returning to Hackley together, a surprise neither of them expected. Mook said, “There was really only one job posted and since we are friends, it was an important and healthy thing for us to talk openly about the prospect that we were both applying for the same job and only one of us was going to get it.” 

He continued, “It was a pretty wonderful surprise when we were both made offers and both given positions there.” 

Jaggernauth agreed, saying, “We do so many things that are similar and so having him as a level of support and his friendship has been super important.” 

As they move on, Mook and Jaggernauth make note of the experiences Masters has brought them. Jaggernauth said that the decision to leave Masters was not an easy one, as he values the academic and athletic environment on campus, though returning to Hackley is exciting.

Mook said, “we both had great experiences there and it feels like a homecoming for me, and I know for [Jaggernauth] as well.”

Emily Mirkin ‘28 is a student in Mook’s honors algebra II and trigonometry class. 

Reflecting on how her class environment has been affected by Mook, she said, “He speaks with such enthusiasm, it’s hard not to be excited with him.”

She later commented on his friendship with Jaggernauth, saying, “They kinda act like kids our age sometimes when you see them together and I just think that’s really nice.”