Coaches are teachers of life lessons

I found out a long time ago that the people who coach and influence the children of the world also mould the athletes as much in arena of sports as by the teachers do in their classroom. This community has many people who coach that I would consider great life teachers.
Take for example, Wayne Welton over at Chelsea. This man has been such a great coach and mentor over the years to literally thousands of students. He will be missed by the Chelsea Community and by other coaches and athletic directors in the area. Good luck, Wayne and have a great retirement you deserve it!
There have been other great ones that I have had the honor to work with. Take for example Mike Colletta at Belleville. He was a great coach, mentor and administrator as well. Sid Wright at Lincoln had many years of success at Lincoln and was one of the leaders at that school.
I have had the pleasure to work with some great ones over the years and they all seem to have one thing in common it is more about the kids than it is about their own personal gain. Some of the best coaches I have covered have proven to be great people not only as coaches but in many regards as friends.
Just recently, I had the pleasure to meet and talk with Wes Gall over at Manchester. He is definitely one of those people who I would be in that category as a great administrator, coach and teacher. The man knows his stuff and from what I have seen over at Manchester High School these coaches for the winter and spring sports are awesome. They know how to coach and they are all very good at getting the information for the paper.
One of my favorite cities to cover is Belleville. I have known most of these coaches for years and many of them seem almost like friends or relatives. I look forward every year to covering Belleville baseball, track, football, softball and of course basketball.
But it isn't just those sports almost all of them are very easy to get in touch with and make the sport seem more about the kids than the records.
Track is big around here and Torin Moore at Ypsilanti, Derek Gonzales at Lincoln and even Karen Cook at Willow Run all do excellent jobs with their programs and are a pleasure to work with.
This time of year is fun because it is a big rush to the end of the school year. I remember cover such teams as Flat Rock (baseball), Gabriel Richard (softball) and my personal favorite Cabrini (softball) which won a couple of state titles under coach Debbie Norman.
In fact, one of my favorite athletes to cover of all time was Amanda Chidester who starred in three sports but now she is a star of the University of Michigan softball team. Who knows maybe more stars like her will be made.