Home again
A well-traveled football coach, West Side grad Lee III has been hired as AD for Gary Community Schools
Robert Lee III, the new athletic director for Gary Community Schools Corp., wants to talk about his father. Robert Lee Jr. still lives in Gary.
“Let me tell you about this dude,“Lee III said. “I’ve never been able to outdo my dad.
“He has a sixth-grade education. He worked in the mill for 33 years. He owned a plumbing supply that was the only minority-owned (plumbing supply) business in the Midwest. And he owns part of a strip mall on Grant Street (that houses) several businesses. He’s 82, and he uses a walker. But he still goes over there and cleans the lot.”
Lee Jr.’s work example and boundless optimism will be the guideposts for Lee III as he tackles the challenge of reviving Gary Community Schools sports programs. Lee III starts July 1. The job pays $85,000.
When I started in 1997, Gary Community Schools had five high schools.
Only West Side is left.
The school system has been crippled by financial issues and the infiltration of charter schools. According to a report by the Indiana Department of Education, only 36% of the eligible students in the city are in the Gary Community Schools system.
Lee III is well-traveled and well-connected to the city.
He graduated from West Side in 1984. He played football and competed in the shot put in track and field at West Side.
Lee III thought he was on his way to football stardom after starting as a lineman on West Side’s varsity team during his freshman year. He dislocated his knee in his sophomore season, an injury so severe that he missed all of his junior season.
Lee III was invited to Illinois State to try out for the football team. He played two seasons before he figured out it wasn’t going to work.
“I was working twice as hard as everyone else just to keep up,” he said.
This is where Lee III’s life took a turn he wasn’t expecting.
His father told him he could not return home. Lee III had to continue his education because that was “all he wanted me to do,” he said.
Lee III decided to finish at IUPUI, partially because it was a school that didn’t have a football program.
He locked himself in his apartment and earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial supervision.
Lee III’s first job out of college was at Campbell Soup in Corona, California.
He earned a master’s degree in business management at National University. In his spare time, he started coaching football as an assistant at Centennial High School in Corona.
Lee III has been on the football coaching carousel ever since, coaching at Butler, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio, Valparaiso and Earlham.
He left Earlham after the 2018 season. He has worked for Ivy Tech as an academic adviser for the past year.
“I made up for what I couldn’t do through coaching,” he said. “That’s where I developed a passion for kids.”
Lee III has two immediate goals for Gary student-athletes.
He wants to keep them in Gary, and he wants to be able to consistently host athletic events.
West Side competes more on the road in every sport because of its failing facilities.
“I want the Gary community to come to the high school for athletic events,” he said. “I want this to be a safe environment and a place that everyone can be proud of.”
Lee III said returning home to finish out the back end of his career was something he always had in the back of his mind.
“I always saw myself as a coach,” he said. “I thought it would be cool to get back to Gary. When this opportunity presented itself, I pursued it. God’s plan for me was not as a coach but as an administrator.”