The End of an Era

Last Friday, we had a retirement party at my school. Coach Stacy retired. He has worked as a PE Coach at my school for 30 + years. I believe he came to Westwood in 1976. I can only imagine the changes he has seen in education over those years. I count it an extreme pleasure to have gotten to share my professional life with him, because he's been a part of my personal life forever. Coach Stacy sang at my parent's wedding, my oldest sister was the flower girl in his wedding, I went to school with his daughter and son, his wife taught us piano lessons (well, attempted to teach me!) and Coach sang at my mother's funeral. He has been a family friend forever I guess.

Here is the really amazing thing about Coach Stacy – after 35 years in education, there is nothing bad anyone could say about him. This is a man who did his job, without fussing or complaining for 35 years. Even when things were thrown at him, which probably seemed ridiculous, like a word wall in PE, he just did it. Having to have a Lesson Essential Question and Unit Essential Questions and vocabulary words for PE? Sounds crazy, right? But he did it. When we first began using computers for attendance and lesson plans, he struggled, but he kept on until he got it. At his retirement party, we discovered that he had several sources of "tech help" as he would say, "Do you have a minute? Can you show me something on this computer?" I thought it was just me but apparently not. No matter what new principals and new district mandates came through, he always just kept on doing his job. I have NEVER heard him fuss, or complain. I wish I could say the same about myself.

Coach Stacy very seldom had discipline problems – he just made kids do pushups. I've heard students say a lot of stuff about a lot of teachers, but I've never heard kids say mean things about Coach. They talked about how he made them work, but that was it. I think that's pretty impressive. Coach Stacy loves God, his family and teaching. I can't even imagine how many kids he's impacted over 35 years in education. I've had parent conferences with Coach, where the student's parents say, "Coach Stacy, you probably don't remember me, but. . ." I also can't imagine the impact he's had on the faculty and staff of our school over all those years.

When I get to the end of my career and look back, I just hope I've been half as successful as he has been. Our school has a hole that won't be filled in anytime soon. Someone else may take his position, but no one will ever take his place.