More to high school coaches than a whistle
In her nearly 12 years as a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, Lynn Kelly-McClish worked with animals as varied as a skunk and whale.
No matter the size of the Kelly-McClish treated them all care of a toddler.
“You spend so much time with them, and you teach them,” she said. “[It’s like] when a kid learns how to walk for the first time. It’s just so exciting. That’s the energy I felt with the animals.”
Kelly-McClish, who no longer works at SeaWorld, is in her fifth year as the boys and girls swimming coach at Freedom High in Orlando, where she teaches marine science.
She took an unconventional route to coaching high school athletes. While some coaches emerged from the private sector, they traditionally entered the education field early and came out of the classroom, or they were former athletes.
Some coaches took a more circuitous path.
“My IT background doesn’t go away,” said Mike Malatesta, who is in his 18th year as the athletic director at his alma mater, Bishop Moore. “We just got new scorers’ tables and we’re trying to put together the presentation for the advertisers. You don’t ever forget the stuff that you do.”
Malatesta used to work as a computer programmer and software developer. In the late 1990s, the principal at Bishop Moore needed a computer teacher — and fast.
School started in three days. Malatesta got the job.
“I thoroughly enjoyed developing, problem-solving and training in the aspect of computers,” Malatesta said.
It’s not just technology. Some coaches started off in the medical field. Others were entrepreneurs or business owners. Some even make a mean seafood chowder.
“Yeah, I’m a pretty good cook,” said Foundation Academy football coach Brad Lord, who started out in the food industry. “I cooked a lot — from seafood to Italian food. You name it. I cooked it.”
Originally from Boston, Lord was a college linebacker in the Northeast but struggled with his studies. He didn’t know what to do after he stopped playing, so he moved to Florida and helped a friend open a restaurant.
Later on, an international food company hired him as a marketing associate. creature, with the
Lord never lost his desire to coach. “I was mad I never tried in college,” said Lord, 60. “I wasted my time. I played football. Didn’t do well in school. Was just barely eligible, and when I went back to UCF at 40 years old, when I matured and wasn’t an idiot, I got straight A’s.”
DeLand athletic director Lance Jenkins is a former football coach, but also has worked in orthopedic sales, which required him to be in the operating room during surgeries. Jenkins estimated he has seen thousands of operations, trauma procedures and joint replacements included.
After those experiences, he never looked at third-and-long the same.
“It’s getting home after a surgery at 7 at night, getting the call as you’re walking up the driveway,” Jenkins said. “‘Hey, I need your trauma kit or your distal femur kit or whatever kit here at this hospital at this time in about an hour. I’m just getting ready to start a surgery.’ Now you’re back in the [operating room] until 1 or 2 at night. “It’s an absolute grind.” Broadcasting wasn’t hardly
Tim Swore.
The first-year football coach at Faith Christian spent two decades in the field, moving around various Midwestern markets.
Swore worked with former Orlando sportscaster Pat Clarke in Iowa. He was involved with pre- and postgame shows for Notre Dame football in South Bend, Ind. He covered the Detroit Red Wings’ Stanley Cup teams in 1997 and ’98. He recently reconnected with former Fighting Irish coach Lou Holtz, a Central Florida resident.
Holtz was a broadcaster’s dream. “We could fill our Tuesday sportscast,” Swore said. “We just called it ‘Tuesdays with Lou.’ That was his weekly press conference. The other team was always so much better, and Notre Dame somehow was going to find a way to stay competitive as long as they could. He was always ‘poorboying’ it. He was the ultimate motivator.”
Swore came to Faith Christian after starting a football program at a small school in Grand Rapids, Mich.
He has not regretted switching careers. “Broadcasting was fun, but in some ways, it was all about me,” Swore said. “I wanted to climb to a top-10 market. I made it. It was about looking good, working a story, which is all fine, but I don’t think I was directly impacting lives that I am through coaching.” that for