All-American best friends get opportunity

By JOE CANNON

Banner Sports Writer

When opportunity knocks, open the door.

That’s what a pair of two-time NAIA All-Americans are doing as they pair with a 36-year coaching veteran to direct the Walker Valley girls’ basketball program.

With the retirement David Tucker, the only head coach in Lady Mustang history, principal Danny Coggin has turned to a couple of former Lee University standouts to take over the program that made the TSSAA State Championship just a couple of months ago.

Jan (Dodson) Spangler and Jessica (Still) Stone will reunite to direct the Lady Mustangs along with longtime northside mentor Junior Tucker.

While Spangler will be the team’s head coach with Stone and Tucker serving as assistants, she is quick to point out it will be a total team effort by the trio.

“Jessica and I have been teammates and roommates, so we have a rare level of communication that will help us. Neither of us have been a high school coach and that’s where Coach (Junior) Tucker comes in,” Spangler explained. “He knows how things work and with his experience we are excited to have him stay with the program and help us continue the success he and Coach David Tucker have built.”

With his brother, David, leaving to take the boys head coaching job at Union County, Ga., Junior Tucker “thought it was time to step away as well, but Mr. Coggin and the coaches (Spangler and Stone) wanted me to continue with the program. I love coaching so I was glad to get the opportunity to continue.”

Tucker was the head girls’ coach at Charleston High School for 20 years, as well as three years in Sequatchie County before that. He also served as an assistant at Charleston for three years and has spent the last nine on the Walker Valley bench, along side his brother. Tucker, along with his brothers David and Gary, who coach’s at Tellico Plains, have combined to win more than 1,400 high school games.

With two of the three Tucker brothers on the bench since the beginning, Walker Valley has compiled a nine-year record of 248-53, including a 139-28 mark since becoming a Class AAA school.

“We want to continue the success the program has had and having Coach Tucker stay will be a big part of that,” Spangler declared.

Spangler and Stone are no strangers to winning, posting 110 victories as four-year starters and playing in the NAIA National Championship Tournament each of their seasons with Coach Marty Rowe at Lee.

Along with being Academic All-Americans (three times for Spangler, twice for Stone), they were both selected twice to the NAIA All-American team. Stone was named the Southern States Conference Player of the Year, while both were All-SSAC multiple times.

In her two years since graduating Lee, Spangler has been teaching math at Walker Valley while serving as an assistant coach under Rowe with the Lady Flames, which made an Elite Eight run in 2009, and a Final Four appearance this past season.

Likewise, Stone, whose dad was a high school coach for more than 15 years, has been a wellness teacher at WVHS while coaching basketball at Ocoee Middle School.

Although both Spangler and Stone grew up and played high school ball in Western Kentucky they didn’t meet until Rowe recruited them both to play for him at Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky.

“We both red-shirted our freshman seasons when we made the NAIA Final Four. When Coach Rowe took the Lee job that summer we came with him along with a couple other girls,” related Spangler, who is married to Bradley Central assistant baseball and basketball coach Patrick Spangler. “I saw her play in a Christmas tournament one year but we never played against one another.”

“Her cousin was actually my best friend growing up and he’d talk to me about her and talk to her about me, but we didn’t meet until Brescia. Then we found out the connection with the cousin,” added Stone, whose husband Adam teaches math at Polk County High School.

The duo became roommates and best friends upon arriving in Cleveland, where the highest point of their Lady Flame success came with a No. 2 ranking in the NAIA national poll for much of their senior season.

“We learned a lot from playing for Coach Rowe and I’m sure our coaching will reflect that,” Spangler stated. “Getting to work with him these last two years as an assistant coach has really helped me.”

“These are two girls that are accustomed to winning and will accept nothing less,” Coach Rowe proclaimed. “This is a great situation for them and for Walker Valley.”

“They are confident in their (coaching) abilities and are smart enough to ask for help and having guy like Junior (Tucker) there will make it a great combination,” Rowe added.

“Over the last nine years we have had the good fortune of having quality individuals like David Tucker and Chris Doan to lead the Lady Mustangs in basketball and softball,” stated Coggin. “Recently both of these gentlemen have decided to go in different directions with their lives but both of them are doing so in relation to their families. We are excited for them and wish them well because they have given us their all at Walker Valley High School.”

“We are excited to announce the new leaders of these two teams. These coaches bring brilliant playing experiences, collegiate, high school and middle school coaching experience to the table,” he added. Along with the announcement of Spangler and Stone joining the basketball staff, former Lady Flame and Bradley Central standout Lauren (Hilliard) Limburg was promoted from assistant to head coach of the softball Lady Mustangs (See related story page 17).

“All of these coaches bring quality to the athletic department at Walker Valley,” Coggin continued. “These are great people. They are great teachers. We are excited about what they bring to these teams. We have a wonderful mixture of youth and experience with the selection of these people to lead these teams.”

“This is real challenge to come into a strong program like this but I think we have a great combination to make it work,” Spangler assessed.

The new coaches will meet with incoming freshmen who want to play on the team Monday morning at 8:45 in the school’s gym before the start of Coach David Tucker’s basketball camp.

“We have a good group of players coming back and were are expecting some good players coming up from the middle school to help us out,” Spangler commented. “We are trying to get everything worked out for our summer camps and our off-season programs.”

The trio will also be holding a individual skills camp in late June.