In more than two decades of covering high school athletics, you learn a thing or two about coaches.
When it comes to quotes, some coaches are pretty honest about themselves and the team they coach. If the team is not playing well, they’ll say so — to a degree at least.
Some coaches hate having to work with the local newspaper. While I have not had that experience (for the most part) in Barrow County, I’ll always remember one coach who simply hated the press. He didn’t care if the story praised him to the moon, he had no use for newspapers and even less use for the local sports reporter. It became a mission of mine to make this coach at least respect me, even if he never read anything I wrote about him or his team.
Eventually, I wore him down through being consistent in how I dealt with him. If his team won, I was there to talk to him. If his team lost, I was there. In the long run, he knew he couldn’t avoid me and he finally relented — to some degree at least. I never kidded myself into thinking I was the coach’s friend and I certainly never received a Christmas card from him, but I would like to think some level of respect was earned on my part.
One of my favorite coaches to work with and get quotes from is Apalachee High School’s Mike Cavey, who guides the school’s softball and baseball programs. Cavey is a coach who “tells it like it is” and he really doesn’t care if everyone likes what he says or not. That level of openness is refreshing as many coaches are very cautious about what they say.
Cavey never singles out a player for criticism, but if the team doesn’t do well, he’s say so. (Cavey is also quick to criticize his coaching.) Likewise, if the team is doing well, Cavey will point that out and tell you how proud he is of his players.
Recently as the Lady Wildcat softball team was going through preseason drills, Cavey pondered on having to make roster cuts before the season started. In his usual honest nature, Cavey pointed out he hated cutting players who had worked hard and wanted to be a part of the program. “That’s a part of coaching that sucks,” Cavey told me matter-of-factly.
From time to time, Cavey has informed me one of his teams “stunk it up,” but he quickly forgets about that game as soon as the next one arrives. Never once has Cavey asked me not to use his colorful insights or to make sure he doesn’t sound too harsh in the paper. Honesty is something he believes in and he is always going to give it to you straight. There’s no sugarcoating the facts with him and it’s why I think his players and other coaches in the area respect him.
From a sports writer’s standpoint, it beats dealing with the old coaching cliches and dealing with a coach who will never say anything beyond, “We’ll line it up and try to find some offense.”
In the often non-descript, close-to-the-vest world of high school coaching, Apalachee’s Cavey comes through as a colorful character that makes the job a little more enjoyable.
Chris Bridges is sports editor of the Barrow Journal.
