You walk into the first day of math class and sit down, preparing yourself for a nice long nap because this class will be the death of you, as usual. You sneak a peek at the board and see that your first assignment is to…draw your best version of a Batmobile?

The teacher walks up to the podium and introduces himself as Mr. Kremer or Batman, either name is fine. You soon realize that this math class will be unlike any you have previously known — maybe it won’t be so bad after all.

This is Jake Kremer’s first year as a geometry and algebra teacher at SMCHS. He grew up in Orange County, attending Servite and graduating from University of California, Irvine. Once he recognized his gift in math, Kremer decided to put his talent — and his humor — to good use.

“It’s been rewarding [working at SMCHS] and I’ve had a lot of fun,” he said. “Lots of long nights reading particular students’ answers and laughing at them for a very long time. I feel like as the year has gone on, the material of the subject has gotten more difficult and it has required more and more sass to counterbalance that difficulty.”

Kremer’s witty remarks and hilarious attitude seem to effortlessly blend into his lessons. Even as a newcomer, he has gained many loyal students who have created unique yet hysterical nicknames for their favorite geometry teacher.

“There’s ‘Jake the Snake’, ‘Krispy Kremer’, ‘Mr. Kray Kray’, ‘J. Kremes’, ‘Captain Sassy Pants’ and my favorite one: ‘Leader of the Sass Squad’,” Kremer said.

But Kremer is also known for his distinguishable personality outside the classroom. As an assistant coach for the boys’ varsity soccer team, Kremer also brings his unique attitude to many of the soccer practices and games.

“I feel that coaching gives me the enjoyment of yelling at students outside of the classroom as well as inside,” he said.

Surrounded by many veterans at SMCHS, Kremer, 25, uses his age as an advantage to communicate with his students.

“I feel like my age has allowed me to be on the level of sass of my students,” he said. “I’ve been able to adapt to their level of sass and outwit them with my pop culture knowledge.”

Kremer continues to make his students laugh with his random comments on tests or quizzes like “cool beans” or “radical”.

“I’ll be in a bad mood but then I’ll think of the ‘ball is life’ comment I got on my 10.3 quiz and I’ll just burst into laughter,” said sophomore Emma Kearns. “It’s that powerful.”

But although Kremer has been here for nearly a year and seems to have made quite an impact on his students, many still mistaken the pronunciation of his last name as “Kreh-mer” rather than “Kray-mer”.

“I feel hurt inside that they just can’t remember my name after I said it multiple times,” he said. “Sometimes I cry about it on the way home while I listen to some sad music like Celine Dion.”

Kremer’s ease at making random jokes and snarky remarks seems to be an attribute he was born with, as he was also a class clown at school and often entertained his family.

“I once got my family kicked out of a Burger King when I was a toddler,” he said. “I stood on a table, took off my shirt, threw a slice of pickle in the air, yelled ‘Cowabunga’ and it somehow landed in some lady’s drink and spilled all over her. Then we got kicked out.”

But this type of bravery and courage is not one that is universal in Kremer’s life. As for his experience in any other subjects beyond math, soccer and humor, Kremer does not feel so confident.

“My biggest fear is grammar, it’s the worst thing ever,” he said. “Grammar, writing, reading, all those combinations. I’m terrible at it — it makes me cry and that’s why I teach math. It inspires fear, pain, suffering and all good things in the world.

Kremer has made high school math class much more manageable — not to mention his additional lessons on how to out-sass every situation. Thanks Krispy Kremer, it’s been a sass-tacular year.