‘THE HEART OF OUR SCHOOL’
Friends, colleagues remember the unstoppable spirit of late L’Anse Creuse teacher-coach Lisa Downey
Lisa Downey seemed destined for a career in teaching and coaching before she was out of grade school.
“They were always playing games,” Darlene (McCloskey) Kolpasky said of the Downey family, her Roseville neighbors. “Her dad was a big sports guy.”
The Downey backyard was the scene of football and other games; when it rained, the kids played in the basement, said Kolpasky, a classmate of Lisa’s from elementary school through graduation from Bishop Gallagher High.
After high school, Kolpasky remembered, Downey worked in a bank.
“She didn’t like it,” the Troy resident said.
Banking’s loss was a gain for young students and athletes.
Downey went on to distinguished L’Anse Creuse High School teaching and coaching careers that were cut short Wednesday when the 60-yearold died of a swiftly spreading
cancer.
Kolpasky was emotional when talking about her friend Thursday.
“You think you’ll always have time to get together again, and you don’t,” she said. “A flood of memories come back.”
Teri Benavides, a colleague in the social studies department at
L’Anse Creuse, said Downey’s death was a “gut punch.”
“It’s devastating to the staff here,” she said. “She really is the heart of our school.”
“There are a lot of people struggling,” added Don Roda, a L’Anse Creuse teacher and coach.
The Downey and McCloskey families carpooled to take the youngsters to grade school.
Kolpasky has vivid memories of laughter and good times, and she cherishes the day a couple years ago when she and Downey reconnected.
“Lisa’s spirit was unstoppable,” Kolpasky said. “She was from a great family and a loving home.
“I can hear her voice. She had an energy that doesn’t come around very often.”
Even as a youth, Downey had a knack for teaching, Kolpasky said.
“I wasn’t the athlete that Lisa and her brother were, but she always encouraged me,” Kolpasky said. “It was no surprise that she helped young athletes reach their potential. She was the same with everybody. She would engage with people. She was always connecting.”
Downey’s softball teams won more than 400 games and eight Macomb Area Conference division championships. She posted more than 200 victories as the basketball coach at Chippewa Valley and L’Anse Creuse.
Downey was inducted into the Macomb County Coaches Hall of Fame in 2021.