JHS softball coach resigns

Last spring under head coach Bill Gibson, the Jacksonville High softball squad won 18 games and turned in a respectable 9-5 record in Central State Eight play. With key players set to return for 2008 and more young talent on the way, Gibson could see the light of even better times to come.

But, he says, he has taken the program as far as he can.

“Honestly, when I took the job, I talked to my wife and told her we’d take three to five years and see how it’s going,” said Gibson. “Understanding where the program needs to go, I knew I’d need to do even more, and I just didn’t know if I could do that when I already felt (extremely busy) doing what we were doing.”

On Wednesday night, Gibson officially stepped down as Jacksonville High’s softball coach after 10 years with the program — the last four as head coach. The District 117 School Board received and unanimously accepted Gibson’s resignation, as well as that of Rachel Dean, who coached one season of JHS girls’ track and field in 2007.

Gibson said he’d spent the past several months privately mulling the decision over and discussing it with his wife, who gave birth to the couple’s third child last winter. As much as he loved coaching and appreciated his players and their parents, he didn’t feel like he could continue.

“You want to be a good parent and a good teacher and a good coach,” said Gibson. “But there comes a point in time when it can be difficult to do all three. Last spring, coming home from games and practices and things, I went a whole week at times without seeing my six-week-old daughter. I’d be getting home at 6 or 7 p.m. and I’d see dads out in their yards, playing with their kids.”

Gibson and his wife both are teachers in the district. Gibson teaches accounting I and II, as well as economics and consumer education, at the high school.

Gibson’s assistant last spring, Mandy Evans, will remain with the team in at least the same capacity she had last year. He said he hopes that, whoever the next coach is, he or she won’t mind if Gibson wants to help the team out a few times a week.

“I still want to help. I still want to be around, providing that it’s OK with whoever the new coach is,” Gibson said. “I don’t want to disappear. I have left them with a decent team and some decent players who are ready to get better.”