A New School and a New Head Coach

We have some news to share for those of you that haven't heard yet. Both of our jobs are going to be quite different next year and we are excited to see what God will teach us through these new experiences.

I (Tara) got a new job at a new school for next year. I decided it would be the best for me to stay in the same school system so that I would still be tenured. There is another Jefferson County School about 10-15 minutes from our house called Gresham Elementary. I applied for a transfer, had an interview with the principal, and got a job offer all within about a month. I will be a Title I teacher, which is what I did my first year at Oak Grove. I will be a resource teacher who helps struggling students in targeted grade levels. I will probably be working with 2nd and 3rd grade or 3rd and 4th grade. While I'm very sad to leave my current school because I LOVE it and the people I work with, I'm also very excited about the challenges of a new job. God has made it very evident that this is where I need to be since it all worked out so perfectly and quickly.

For those that don't know, the Head Cross Country and Track Coach at Samford, Coach McWaters, was suspended back in the beginning of March and later let go. Samford is entering into a new conference next year and they said they wanted to go in a "different direction." We are VERY close with Coach McWaters and his wife because he was our coach at Samford and Chad's boss for the last 6 years. They will be missed very much, but we hope to still see them often.

Because of this, Chad has been the Interim Head Coach for the last few months and has been very busy! I have been helping out as much as I can and going to the meets on the weekends to help him out. He also had 2 former athletes helping out with the sprinters, which was wonderful. It has been very challenging, but we have grown closer through it all.

Earlier this week Samford hired a new Head Coach for next year and are currently in the process of hiring another assistant coach. So, if everything goes as planned there should be one head coach and three assistant coaches next year. This will be a huge help and hopefully will take some of the load off of Chad! Chad and Lauren Blankenship (the other assistant coach for next year who just graduated from Samford) will be in charge of the distance runners.

Chad's job will be very different next year, especially at first as he will be learning how to work with 3 different people. We are excited to see some of the good changes that will be made, but it will be sad to have some of our traditions change that have been around for the last 13 years. Please pray for Chad as he goes through some major transitions in his job next year.