Why Coach Forever

I loved sports all my life. I wanted to play football real bad. I played one year of J.V. in the 8th grade. Could not wait for practice to start the next year. I went out and I tried real hard, however I would come home every day crying because my feet hurt so bad. At this point I need to go back in time to when I was just four years old. At this time my mother was told that I had a brief bout with Polio. It damaged the ligaments in my legs. I had pain daily from then on. My Mother taught me how to deal with pain at that early age and to walk through the pain. Every day normal activities were OK, but when I started the football practices they became more than I could cope with. Mother took me to a special Doctor in Charleston. He broke my heart, said no more football and put me in a pair of grandfather shoes. I wore them about a month and discarded them. I went to the coach and asked if I could work with the team as a manager (water boy, gofer) and he said yes. Thus, I was around the game which I loved. I went to college on a work scholarship as the manager of the basketball team. I did this for two years but the hours were so long and the road trips took their toll on my grades. I gave it up and went to work in the lunchroom. My senior year was better, I got a job as intramural official. I need to mention here that my major was in Physical Education. I graduated and got a job in the Charleston area teaching Physical Education and coaching JV football and varsity track. I was in hog heaven. After three years I moved up to assistant coach at the varsity level. The next year I moved to Beaufort SC., taught Physical Education and was assistant coach for the varsity football and track teams. I did this for four more years. In the mean time I had enrolled in graduate school to get my master's degree in secondary principal ship. At this time I left coaching for an assistant Principal's job in a middle school. I did this for three years, found that I really was not suited for this task and switched to being a driver education instructor. I really enjoyed this new job, I was made for it, I have the patience of JOB. I have always been called "Coach". When I went to work for the Parks, there were three of us there named Jimmy, the Manager said what can we call you? One of my former students worked there in the store and she chimes in "call him coach, we all do." My first name in the Park Ranger business is Coach. Therefore the title "Coach Forever"