Michelle Weathers has plans to be at Soddy-Daisy on Saturday. Husband Wendell’s Ooltewah team is competing in the Trojans’ wrestling tournament.
“If I want to see him, I go to the matches,” she said. “The first few years it was hard to accept. In the summer he’s there all the time; then school starts and then wrestling begins.”
The wives of wrestling coaches carry that jack-of-all-trades mentality, especially once the season begins. They rearrange their schedules, eat late suppers in order to dine with the coach/husbands; they sometimes stop on the way to a meet to pick up Subway sandwiches — or something else semi-healthy — so the husband doesn’t go hungry. The chauffeur, they listen, they support. They often tackle tasks that their spouse would gladly take care of in other times of the year.
“The wives that have been with coaches for a while — not the newlyweds but those who’ve been married five, 10, 15 years — have seen the good and the bad,” East Ridge coach Brad Jackson said. “And if they’ve been together that long, there’s a lot of special love there because they endure so much.”
They hold together all that is near and dear.
“When we got married it started out that Michelle came to the matches for me, and then she really fell in love with it as she got to know it,” Weathers said. “Then she started to know the kids and the rules. Now I think she comes as much for the sport as for me. I don’t pressure her to come, but I’m so used to her being there.”
Coaches’ wives deal with school, practice schedules, family issues in addition to household dues that might fall by the wayside during the season.
“There are things that summer or AAU coaches don’t have to deal with. We do what we do for the love of the sport, the kids, the community and the school. It takes a lot of time away from the family. A coach’s wife is special because she takes over things in the home like when your children miss you. My wife keeps our home a loving place,” Jackson said of his wife, Shelly.
She agrees that life is busy between their children, her job as a teacher and Brad’s career as a teacher and coach.
“It’s a busy life. It’s hard to keep up when you have kids that also are involved with sports. Sometimes our daughter is still in her basketball uniform when we go to his meet. I don’t resent what he does and I don’t resent sitting in the stands because he’s helping kids. I’d rather him be involved in the community and school rather than sitting at home watching TV,” she said. “We always somehow manage to work it out. There’s give and take.”
Compared to Shelly Jackson and Michelle Weathers, Jeannie Henry, wife of Soddy-Daisy coach Steve Henry is a veteran.
“We have done it for so long,” she said. “I did it before the girls came along,” she said.
She and the twins — 12-year-old Kelsey and Kaley — pick and choose the meets they want to see. The girls are runners and soccer players.
“We think athletics are a great way to consume family time,” Jeannie said. “Too, I have met so many people through wrestling. The kids have friends they have made through wrestling. We celebrated New Year’s with wrestling families. It’s hardly a fraternity, but we speak the same language.”
But during wrestling season Jeannie’s husband is consumed.
“When he’s at home he’s on the phone or the computer, but he has always balanced things pretty well,” she said. “He doesn’t sweat the small things and he handles the pressure pretty well most of the time, although sometimes during the season he’s a little quicker to lose his patience.”
Earlier this week Henry decided to put new fixtures on all the household sinks. Maybe his mind was on wrestling, but for whatever reason he forgot to turn off the cutoff valves under the sinks when he turned the water back on outside.
There was water in a lot of the carpets and the house was cold because Henry had fans going to help dry the carpets. And Jeannie took it in stride.
Such is life for a coach’s wife.
“During the season I’m worthless around the house. It was tough on Michelle at first but she has accepted it and she is a very strong supporter of me and the program,” Weathers said.
“When things aren’t going well I can talk to Shelly and she usually makes me feel better,” Jackson said. “I think our wives put up with a lot. Even when they’re not there they try to be a part. They endure so much from the standpoint of success on and off the mat. They enjoy the good times with us, and they’re there with us in the bad times.”