Let's Build Upon This Foundation

Hang around a newspaper long enough, and you will get plenty of chances to write comings and goings stories. As time moves on, so do people. That’s just the nature of things.

When I first started hearing rumblings earlier this week that Terrell ISD Athletic Director Chris Gilbert had been offered a head coaching job in Lancaster, I’ll admit I was a bit stunned.

After all, just a week prior, I had been sitting in the stands at the TISD Athletic Complex with Coach Gilbert, excitedly discussing the 2011 football season’s prospects.



At the time, he seemed like a coach more interested in setting up his spring football workout schedule than someone mulling over career options.

And that’s because he truly was.

In his time here in Terrell, Coach Gilbert has come to think of local student-athletes as an extension of his family. On more than one occasion, he and I have spoken about how much he truly cares for not only their success on the field, but in life.

So as I sat in Coach Gilbert’s office this last Tuesday afternoon, the man across the desk from me was not someone jumping for joy over his decision to accept a post in Lancaster. It was someone who was mentally exhausted after struggling to make a tough decision as to which family he needed to put first.

In the end, I can’t fault Coach Gilbert for his decision. He made it because it was the right one for himself, his wife and his daughter. I hope everyone else in the Terrell community understands that, too.

Instead, I hope we can all remember the heart-and-soul effort he has put into getting the Terrell Tiger program back on track.  I hope those who head up the search efforts for Coach Gilbert’s replacement use his body of work as a blueprint for the next hire.

The good news is that Terrell ISD leaders seem to agree.

“As we move forward, we want to continue that same level of success with our athletic program,” Terrell ISD superintendent Kelly Rodgers told me. “We enter into this search for a new head coach and athletic director with very high expectations.”

As we say so long to Coach Gilbert, let’s build upon the foundation he has started.

Let’s continue to move this program forward.

And when that Lancaster-Terrell football game rolls around next fall, let’s have a Tiger team on the field that reminds Coach Gilbert just exactly what he left behind in Terrell.

Go Tigers.