OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
push out some of the negative comments that often come with dedicated football fans. When it comes to dealing with criticism of their coaching spouses, Linda and Donna have learned to take it over time. But it’s still hard, they said. “Where I sit, I’m surrounded by people I know won’t be doing that,” Linda said. “But I still hear it sometimes, and I might clinch my fists.” Donna said after having her husband as head coach and her sons as quarterbacks on his team, she’s heard the worst. Her sons, Dustin and Devon, are still on the field with their dad, now as assistant coaches. “I’ve been there, done that,” she said of the criticism she heard while her sons played for their dad. “I’ve faced the worst. I really just try to get very involved with the game and let all that go. “I try to focus on the good, and that’s the kids, coaches, everybody out there working and doing the best they can.” After all, it’s the kids, the players, that they’re there for anyway, Linda and Donna said. Both said they’re not just coaches’ wives. They’re team mothers. Linda invites players to her house on Wednesday evenings for fellowship. She and Buddy are deeply involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “We have enough Bibles
for all the players,” she said. “For some of them, this is their church. I think this time strengthens them. It brings us closer as a team and Christian friends. “We’re at Vestavia because God called us to be here. This is our home. This is our life; we’re serving students at Vestavia.” Since moving to Homewood, Donna said, she’s had the opportunity to get to know the players. She looks forward to riding to away games on the bus with them, something her husband has always insisted on. Whether it’s making sandwiches for players or taking pictures for scrapbooks, she said it’s been her joy and Doug’s to work with so many young men throughout the state, and now in Homewood. Doug kicked his career off as an assistant coach in Lanette and then made three other moves, with his last stop in Russellville before taking the lead at Homewood. Each move has been a calling, said Donna. “Each move we made, God called us to do it,” she said. “They’ve been hard, and some I haven’t wanted to leave, but there’s been good reason for leaving.” In Homewood, it was to be closer to their aging parents in Sylacauga, and also, Donna added, to get her two young grandchildren into what she considers a great school system.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2011 • 9
LIFE In addition to being the head coach’s wife, Donna is also a teacher. This year, she’s teaching algebraic connections and algebra II with trigonometry at Homewood High School. “Homewood is a great system,” she said. “They do it right here, and the city sees the importance of the school system. I’m really hoping my grandchildren will be Homewood graduates.”
Linda also has a background in education. She tutors from their Vestavia home, which is less than a mile from the high school. She said it’s been fun to see some of her students’ children enrolled in the school system. Linda thinks she and her husband were meant to spend their lives in Vestavia, and one of the best things about it is Fridays in
the fall, of course. “There is just something magical about it,” she said. “Every Friday night is a story, and something is going to happen. It may be absolutely wonderful and you win, or maybe it’s a loss, and that’s hard. “Either way, you can’t stay there long, because next week you could always win. Football is really a lesson in life.” ❖
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