I AM A
STEWARD NEWS
STEWARD:
BRUCE SECREST
With his booming laugh and his enthusiasm for all things blue and gold, Director of Athletics Bruce Secrest is a dominating force on Steward’ s campus. His history goes back 14 years with the school— after 20 years of coaching at Commonwealth Christian School, Mr. Secrest first came to Steward as a mathematics teacher and basketball coach before starting the school’ s baseball program in 2003. Read more about how he plans to continue growing Steward Athletics:
ALUMNI: Thank you for choosing Mr. Secrest to be your featured faculty or staff member in this edition!
What is your favorite aspect of being director of athletics?
The thing I love most is getting to be involved in the lives of so many young people, many of whom I wouldn’ t have been involved with otherwise. Now I really get to oversee more teams and focus on growing each of our student-athletes as part of our overall program— I really enjoy getting our teams where they need to be and helping students find success in athletics.
What was it like founding Steward’ s baseball program?
It’ s a really neat story— when I came to Steward, Brad Hendrick’ 05 and Cameron Scales’ 08( who had previously attended Commonwealth Christian) followed me here to play baseball. From there, I met the Wauford family, and Jonathan Wauford’ 07 and J. T. Wauford’ 09
( pictured) became interested in playing baseball. Before I knew it, I had about 10 boys who were interested, which is more than I thought I would get. That first year, we had a tough season, but we ended up playing in the state tournament, and the program just took off from there. I’ m so grateful for that first group of young men for sticking with me because they truly laid the groundwork for what was to come.
What are your personal goals and your plans for the future of Steward Athletics?
Just as I want to enhance our program, I want to grow every year as a coach. I want to learn and improve because I feel that when coaches stop growing, our children will stop growing as well. In that vein, I want to provide a means for all of our coaches to grow each year and give them whatever support they need. If we all move forward together, our kids will do the same.
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