49ers Honor Tam High Teacher

By storming to a 10-3 record and a certain playoff bid this season, the San Francisco 49ers have won over legions of Bay Area football fans, from rejuvenated old-timers to newbies hopping on the bandwagon.

You can add Mill Valley resident and math teacher Rebecca Henn to the latter group. Henn received the Heroes in the Classroom award from the 49ers last week, an honor that came with a slew of tokens of appreciation, not the least of which is a pair of tickets to tonight’s much-hyped Monday Night Football battle between the 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Henn also gets to go on the field at Caldestick Park before the game and her image will be shown on the Jumbotron to the 69,000 people in attendance.

“I had absolutely no idea,” said a shocked Henn about receiving the award. “I have to admit that I’m not a football fan. But I know they’ve been having a good season, and I’m a fan now.”

Henn is one of 16 Heroes in the Classroom recipients, as the 49ers and partner Symetra Financial dole out a pair of awards for each of their eight home games. In addition to the game tickets, the honor also comes with an official 49ers football signed by star running back Frank Gore, a personalized 49ers jersey, a plaque, a $250 gift card to Office Max for classroom supplies and, perhaps most importantly, a $1,000 donation to Tam High itself.

“We did know much about this program but it’s pretty great,” Tam High Principal Tom Drescher said as school staffers filed into an empty classroom, joining a number of execs from the 49ers, Symetra and Wells Fargo, along with a pair of 49er cheerleaders, for the secret ceremony last week.

Henn was nominated by junior Rex Chinchilla, who she taught last year in advanced algebra and has again this year in pre-calculus.

“He apparently enters lots of contests, including this one,” Henn said with a laugh.

Henn, who has four sons, including current Tam students Andrew, a senior, and Chris, a junior, started at Tam as a teacher’s aide in 2005 and became a teacher in 2008.

“When I got the job – that felt like an award unto itself,” she said.

When Henn and her husband Robert, a attorney, take their seats at tonight’s game, they’ll be hoping they sit next to someone with vast football knowledge – enough to make sure they know what’s going on throughout.

“We’re all clueless,” Henn said.