Former student-athletes have given back by serving in coaching capacities
There is much to be said about loyalty and giving back to the community.
I discovered another example of that on Monday when I traveled to North Union to take pictures of the volleyball program.
One of the assistant coaches for the Lady Cats is North Union graduate Bre Nauman, who had been a volleyball and basketball standout several years ago.
It just seems like yesterday that Nauman was playing sports for NU. She’s graduated from college and is currently doing her student-teaching at Marion Pleasant.
Nauman’s presence with the Lady Cats volleyball team got me to thinking just how many of the student-athletes I’ve covered for the past 40 years have returned either to their alma maters or nearby schools to coach and possibly teach.
The actual list is probably longer than what I can actually remember and I’m sure I’ll get in trouble because I will have left out somebody.
I’ll start off with the athletes who at one time or another came back to their school as head coaches. Some are still in those positions and others are not.
The Marysville list includes Morgan Cotter, football; Kenny Chaffin, boys basketball; Jennifer Segner, softball (now the co-head coach with Chris Shirer), Shawn Andrews, wrestling; Nate Andrews, girls soccer; and John Carder, baseball.
The Fairbanks list features the likes of Amy Sines (softball and volleyball); Lori Phelps, girls basketball; and Justin George, boys basketball.
Turning north up Route 4 and there is Dawn Draper (softball and volleyball) and Don Wasserbeck (wrestling).
Let’s swing over to the southwest and the mother-daugher duo of Shari Dixon (softball and volleyball) and Addie Dixon (softball). There is also Jason Malone (boys and girls basketball) and John Millice (boys basketball and golf).
Finally, a trip to Jonathan Alder includes Brett Glass (football) and Rod Bentley (boys basketball).
A handful of former student-athletes I have covered are either serving or have served as head coaches at other local schools.
Patrick Cotter (Marysville) is the head football coach at Fairbanks and Garrett Andrews (Marysville) leads North Union’s wrestling program.
Liz Carder, John’s sister, previously was the head volleyball coach at Triad, while former MHS football player Payton Printz was the long-time grid boss at Triad. He’s now the head coach at Southeastern High School.
Kim Headings (Fairbanks) briefly served as the head volleyball coach at Jonathan Alder.
There are several guys who played local sports before I arrived at the Journal-Tribune and who went on to become head coaches at local schools.
Larry Fox was the long-time softball coach at his alma mater, Marysville. The late Dan Stillings did the same for his school, Fairbanks.
Marysville’s John Merriman guided tennis programs at both Fairbanks and MHS.
Another Fairbanks grad, Tony Caldwell, was the head softball coach at Jon Alder for many years.
Mark Geer was Fairbanks’ head football coach for a while.
The list of former local student-athletes who have served as assistant coaches in various sports either at their alma maters or other local schools is much too long to mention.
What they all have in common, either as a head coach or an assistant, is or was a willingness to give back to their school in particular or the Union County area in general.
They learned many of life’s lessons and values from their own high school coaches and are or were willing to return the favor to future generations.
Every one of our former student-athletes who came back to coach in our area deserves a great deal of our gratitude.
Let’s hope that some of today’s local athletes will take up that mantle sometime down the road.