A coach, a mentor, a friend . . .

Janie Upchurch Gibson

Clinton County News Associate Editor/Office Manager

Former Lady Bulldog Statistician

Coach, Mrs. Lois Haddix, passed away last week at age 83 in Berea, her actual hometown. Thankfully for all of us who knew and loved her, she made a stop in Clinton County and called it home for many years as well.

I thought I knew a lot about basketball in my middle school years. My dad had started me out as all good Kentuckians do…watching the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Listening to the play by play from Cawood Ledford on the radio while watching the game on TV.

Then I got to my teenage years…a junior in high school, 1974. Clinton County was adding a girls basketball team to the curriculum and I met Mrs. Haddix. My basketball education was just beginning.

Mrs. Haddix became the Lady Bulldogs’ coach. It would put her in the Clinton County history books as the first girls’ coach when girls’ basketball was brought back to Clinton County High School from a long absence. It would put her in my book of favorite people.

I wasn’t coordinated enough to actually play the game for her (or anybody else for that matter), but, oh my, how I loved it! I wanted to be a part of the excitement that was beginning. The closest I could get would be to keep the books for them and I’m pretty sure I begged Mrs. Haddix to give me a chance and she did.

She always did.

She taught me how to use a shot chart, do a running score, take notes along the margins about the defense and offense of our opponents, all the things she would need to study in the coming months of basketball season.

Because I never wanted to disappoint her, I tried to always do everything she asked in the way she wanted it done. As it turned out, the only thing I couldn’t control for her, and she couldn’t harness in me, was my temper when I thought the referees were giving the team a raw deal.

During a game at home around Christmas time, Mrs. Haddix came in with a gift for me. I was totally surprised and excited that she had picked out something especially for me! When I opened it, I looked at her stunned. “In case the refs get out of hand,” she said and smiled that big, whole-face grin.

She gifted me a squirt gun.

Basketball was a big part of our relationship, but it is not the only thing or the best thing we shared.

When I think of Mrs. Haddix, the memories all make me smile because, of all the times we shared together, we always laughed. Laughed hard and long and until your eyes were tearing up and you were sore in your sides.

Now, 40+ years later, when her daughter Lora and I get together, we laugh. It’s a trait Mrs. Haddix passed down to us and I cherish it.

She was a person you wanted to be around because you knew it would be fun. She was always the definition of fun to me. Tough times be damned…there was always something to laugh about.

She taught me more than just zones…she taught me things I have tried to used my whole life. How to be respectful, how to be fair to people, how to be devoted and supportive.

Most people can look back and remember someone who was special to them as kids, a mentor, a person not related by blood, who went above and beyond to encourage them.

Mrs. Haddix was mine and I will miss her.