Coaches relish chance to instruct their children

MURFREESBORO – Blackman football coach David Watson sat at his desk in his office late last week.

Son Avery, donning a Blackman football T-shirt sat in front of him making small talk. Daughter Anna Grace relaxed on a couch, skimming through a clothing catalog.

The Blaze football team's workout was over. The team was gone for the day.

Football is big in this family's life these days. David Watson is about to begin his first season at the Blaze's head coach. Anna Grace is entering her third year as a team manager. And Avery is an upcoming freshman football player.

Wife Joy Watson is visible in the stands on a Friday night with daughters Kelsey, Jessica and Emma.

It's a time in his life David Watson wouldn't trade for anything — a chance to spend more time with his family, coaching them and allowing them to see him mold other young men.

"It's not so much about being his coach," Watson said of Avery. "I get to be his parent and see him up close and also see Anna Grace up close during football. "It really means that much to me."

Coaches are expected to spend hours away from their families during the season, often being with the children they coach more than their own children. But there are often exceptions when coaches get the opportunity to coach their sons and daughters — at least for a few short years.

And for those coaches, that opportunity is not taken likely.

"It's just a huge blessing to be able to do it," MTCS coach Lawrence Goodwyn said. "As a coach and a teacher, there is not a lot of extra time. To be able to be with my kids every day in the sports they play is quite frankly a blessing. I'm just pretty blessed."

Goodwyn coaches his son, Thomas Goodwyn, in tennis. His daughter, Katy Goodwyn, is a soccer player for him at the Murfreesboro private school.

"You know, it's fun to go through this with them," Lawrence Goodwyn said. "It's nice to see them work on something like a sport and see them achieve a level of success."

Making sacrifices

MTSU football coach Rick Stockstill admittedly regrets having missed a big portion of his two children's extracurricular activities as they grew up.

As a college coach, between the season and going out recruiting there left little time to go attend events.

"You miss so much in this profession," Stockstill said. "As a father, I've always said the best gift you can give your children is your time. At times I haven't because of this profession."

Still, he'd often find time to pop in to a volleyball match to watch daughter Emily. And if he did miss son Brent's high school football games he kept close tabs with messages from wife Sara Stockstill.

The past two seasons Rick Stockstill has had Brent Stockstill at MTSU. He will be a redshirt freshman quarterback competing with Austin Grammer in the fall for the starting position.

"This is something right now I truly cherish," the MTSU coach said. "I just like the opportunity to see him and just ask, 'How's your day going?'

"It's little things like that I missed when he was a kid growing up."

Time goes quickly

Oakland baseball coach Mack Hawks spent the past eight years coaching his sons. First, Ryan came through the Patriots program. And Will followed the year after Ryan graduated and went to Birmingham-Southern.

And now Will too is gone — a 2015 graduate with plans to go to Cumberland University and play baseball.

"It will be different," the Oakland baseball coach said. "When you are used to seeing them every day at school and then during workouts, and now they are gone. That will definitely be different."

Former Riverdale basketball coach Kevin Woodson knows the feeling. He coached son Brad four years at Riverdale. He's had the chance the past month to spend extra time doing workouts together as the younger Woodson prepares to be a walk-on at Tennessee for coach Rick Barnes.

"I will just miss that every day interaction you have when you are coaching your son," the former coach said. "We'd spend a couple of hours together every day in practice. Then, we'd often come in for extra shooting on the weekend. Those are the things you miss — spending that extra time together."

But it goes deeper than that.

Coaches have the opportunity to mold young men and women into adults through practices, games and just being a role model to athletes they coach.

"My coaches were father figures to me where I didn't have a strong father figure," David Watson said. "My former coach (David) Alsup was a math teacher. I'm a math teacher. He was a football coach. Now, I'm a football coach.

"The lessons he taught me at 15 were the same things I'm trying to teach right now. I've passed those on to my kids."

Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.