The Community Chat
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Assistant Principal, Athletic Director and Football Head Coach Michael Blackburn talks with a referee at a Stratford football game last fall. Richard R. Barron
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Coaching sports Coaching life
STRATFORD — Everyone has heard the saying “There is no ‘I’ in team.” Not everyone, though, has based their career upon that simple but powerful phrase. Coach Michael Blackburn of Stratford High School built a 14-year legacy of leadership with teamwork always his main focus.
“Teamwork is important. Whatever you do in life you end up having to work with people,” Blackburn said. “The responsibility you have to your teammates and the dedication and hard work that it takes are all good lessons that athletics can teach.”
Knowing all his life he could play with numbers, Blackburn started at East Central University majoring in accounting. Something more inspiring kept creeping its way into his mind until he finally realized he had a greater calling than crunching numbers alone.
“I started out majoring in accounting, but after three years I switched. I decided I really didn’t want to sit in an office all day; I wanted to coach and teach. I ended up with a HPER major and a math minor,” he said. “Some of the teachers and coaches I had made me want to be as positive an influence as I could be for kids.”
Blackburn taught a year at Sulphur, but his hometown of Stratford was calling his name. “I have grown up here and lived here all my life. This is home. I enjoy it here, and I like the people here.”
After 14 years of teaching and coaching, Blackburn accepted the positions of assistant principal and athletic director this year. As athletic director, he is also head coach of the football and boys and girls track teams. This is his fifth year as head coach and seventh year as the track head coach, and he has just begun to understand how important athletics is for students.
“Sports teach you a lot of life lessons,” Blackburn said. “I think it is, if not as important, almost as important as academics because it teaches you a lot of things like cooperation, teamwork and responsibility.”
Blackburn feels at a smaller school teamwork is made easier by the close relationships formed by the more intimate setting.
“At a small school you have fewer students, so you get to know everybody. Students can get more one-on-one help if they need it,” he said. “As far as raising my own children, I would much rather have them in a smaller school than a larger school. Sometimes I think at a larger school you can kind of get lost in the shuffle.”
Entering into education, Blackburn was motivated by his desire to help the children of the future. “Seeing a kid accomplish things and building relationships with them is a very rewarding part of my job. It is definitely not dull; there is something new every day with them,” he said.
Even though he still interacts with students a lot with sports, Blackburn does miss teaching. “I enjoy math. I taught junior high math, seventh and eighth grade. They keep things interesting. They are in a whole different world,” he said, “I enjoy working with numbers, and because it is a hands-on subject, I think it is more fun to teach.”
Blackburn realizes that after 14 years he is doing exactly what he should be doing. “I feel like this is where God wants me to be,” he said.
Stratford
Community Facts
• The average commute time for Stratford workers is 32 minutes, compared with 26 minutes nationwide.
• Nine percent of Stratford residents age 25 and older have a bachelors or advanced college degree.
• The school board meets the first Monday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Board of Education-Administration Building.
• Median rent in Stratford, at the time of the 2000 Census, was $220. Monthly homeowner costs, for people with mortgages, were $459.
• Eight percent of Stratford residents report German ancestry, and 12 percent report Irish.
• According to the United States Census Bureau, Stratford’s population is 1, 474.
• Stratford Peach Festival is July 21, 2007.
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Proud to be Cherokee
STRATFORD — Most people are proud of their heritage. They embrace their roots by listening to family stories and sharing these tales when they grow older. Many, however, do fight to be recognized by their ancestors.
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Coaching sports Coaching life
STRATFORD — Everyone has heard the saying “There is no ‘I’ in team.” Not everyone, though, has based their career upon that simple but powerful phrase. Coach Michael Blackburn of Stratford High School built a 14-year legacy of leadership with teamwork always his main focus.
“Teamwork is important. Whatever you do in life you end up having to work with people,” Blackburn said. “The responsibility you have to your teammates and the dedication and hard work that it takes are all good lessons that athletics can teach.”
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Pickard, a pure country boy from Davis, made an important decision when he was 17-years-old while standing waste deep in a oil. “I realized I could be like my father, who had no more when he finished than he did when he started, or I could do something to raise money for college,” he said.
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Art at the Heart
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More than medicine
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The Adventures of Panama Jones
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For Panama Jones, aka Winston Rice, of Clarita, tackling the restoration of his hometown has been his most imperative adventure yet, but before he would embark on his Clarita mission, Winston had a few more adventures he had to live through first.
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Preserving memory lane
STRATFORD — With Stratford’s 100th birthday just around the corner, taking the time to learn a bit of the town’s history is appropriate. Birthdays are a time of celebration and remembrance. The day should be spent reminiscing about the past and dreaming of the future.
One important piece of Stratford’s history, that would have been lost if it had not been for one Stratford resident, is the Ozark Trail.
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He’s the Mann
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Bank deposited more than money
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Though the restoration project for the old bank is far from finished, the group is proud of the work they have accomplished and plan to share it with the community on April 14.
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