Waynesboro looks for coaches as time runs out

The start of the school year is quickly approaching and vacancies still remain in the athletic department at Waynesboro High School.
After the retirements of long-time track and cross country coach Ed Driskill and baseball coach Jim Critzer, the Little Giants’ administration is still conducting a search for replacements.
Waynesboro Activities Director Mel Morris said that Julie Stevens, a physical education teacher at Kate Collins Middle School, would take the helm of the cross country program. Stevens fills the most immediate need, with practice beginning in August, but the juggernaut of indoor and outdoor track still looms.
“We just don’t have a lot of people that have any experience in coaching indoor track,” Morris said. “It’s a different beast anyway. They call it indoor track but we don’t have any indoor tracks. There is one at VMI we can run on, but most of our training and practicing is outside in the wintertime.”
At most area schools the indoor track coach also coaches the outdoor track program, but the commitment to practice and meets lasts almost all year. The indoor season begins in November and overlaps the start of outdoor in March.
“I don’t know if we can do that or not,” Morris said. “That is a big commitment.”
Waynesboro principle Tim Teachey, entering his first year as principal of the school, knows the time commitment and strains that teachers take on when they coach a team in addition to fulfilling classroom duties. Teachey has coached during all three sports seasons, including the boys basketball team, from 1994 to 2002.
“When I first started, I helped with girls basketball [in the fall] and went right into the boys [winter] and then went into baseball [spring]. Especially bringing in new teachers who don’t have all the resources, the responsibly of trying to keep ahead with planning is hard. I struggled if it was a Tuesday night and I was going to Broadway [for a game] and I have 85 papers to grade and a lesson at 8:45 [a.m.] and that made me go, ‘gosh, I need a break’.”
The varsity baseball position will be the easiest for the Little Giants to fill, with current school system employees and assistant coaches already inquiring about the job. Morris predicts that the new skipper will be selected soon.
“I expect to have that done before school starts,” he said.