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 Parents
have the privilege and responsibility of holding the hands
and directing the lives of their children for a little
while; teachers touch the lives of many more children and
hold the sacred trust of each student as well as every
parent to not only teach but guide, to nurture as well as
instruct, to be a role model and to care for even those
who are difficult to reach.
By all accounts, J. C. Popplewell achieved the lofty goal
of a true "teacher", remaining an influence in the lives
of many of his students long after they have become
adults.
"I enjoyed the kids that I had teaching and in
basketball," says the teacher/coach/vice-principal who
this past weekend celebrated his retirement with friends,
parents and co-workers at Henry School when the PTO and
faculty combined to honor his years of service. "I just
enjoyed being around them; I still stay in contact with a
lot of them, especially the basketball players. I may not
see them all year but I still get Christmas cards. We had
some good teams - good kids."
During the 1987-1988 school year, five years after coming
to Henry School in 1982, the Henry Pirates yearbook was
dedicated to Mr. Popplewell for his many worthy
contributions to the school and education.
The narrative in the yearbook reads: "He is well liked and
much respected by his students as well as by his peers in
the educational field. He gives us his all every day in
the P.E. classes he teaches. He is always there to lend a
kind word, to give a little one an extra smile on their
first day of school, to loan 50 cents for a coke, to
encourage or just to care. Being a star basketball player
in high school and at Bethel College, his coaching ability
is a great asset to sports program at Henry School. His
football teams have won many county championships. His
basketball teams have always had super seasons even when
it seemed to others to be a "growing" season. He is
considered to be one of the finest coaches around... The
Christian concepts are the guiding principles in and out
of school. The winning of the battles of life are more
important than just the winning of the game. Coach
Popplewell - we salute you!"
 "They
would say the same thing today," stated Melinda, his wife
of 30 years, without hesitation.
Lou Carter, himself a retired teacher, agrees. "He's a
fine gentleman and he's been a fine example of what
teaching position is all about: good character - morals -
we need more people in the profession like that; good role
models for students and young people."
Carter recalls that he and Popplewell attended Bethel
College in McKenzie at the same time. "I watched him play
basketball, then we didn't see each other for years until
his son and my son were in class together. He coached my
son in basketball and we became good friends over the
years."
Basketball was a driving force in the life of J.C.
Popplewell from an early age. He was born on December 22,
1948, growing up in the tiny town of Russell Springs,
Kentucky, a town that has since grown to "about the size
of McKenzie," he grins.
There was enough work to keep all six of the Popplewell
children - three boys and three girls - busy on the
family's dairy farm. In addition to milking cows, young
J.C. drove the tractor in the performance of many tasks as
the family raised all sorts of crops plus tobacco.
"All the above I have done," he said rolling his eyes as
if he would rather not dwell too much upon the chores he
was called upon to accomplish in his youth. When he wasn't
working on the farm, he and his brothers were shooting
basketball.
"There wasn't any basketball for girls in Kentucky at that
time," Popplewell related, relating that it was 1975 or
'76 before girls' basketball was started there. When he
was a young coach at McKenzie Junior High School, girls'
basketball was played half-court until around 1981.
Although he got into plenty of trouble at home for
shooting basketball when his dad thought perhaps the
chores weren't quite done, basketball became Popplewell's
ticket to college after graduation from high school.
A star high school ball player, Popplewell was noticed by
coach Doug Hines who coached Russell Springs' rival
Sommerset team. When Hines came to Bethel in 1966 to coach
basketball, he remembered Popplewell.
"He offered me a full ride so that's how I ended up here,
fell in love, married and stayed," Popplewell grinned,
summing up destiny's role in keeping him in McKenzie when
his studies were done.
He had been a student and basketball player at Bethel for
almost a year before he and Huntingdon native and Wildcat
cheerleader, Melinda Milam, went out on their first date
in the spring of 1967.
Before that time, he says, "I was busy playing ball and
studying - I made good grades 'til I met her." He shifts
in his chair, laughing at his joke while speculating there
are professors who will agree with him on that score.
The couple dated over the next three years, graduating in
June before their marriage on August 8, 1971.
Coach Popplewell, as he became known, hired on at McKenzie
Junior High School, teaching science and physical
education his first year at the school. For seven of ten
years at the school Popplewell was the girls' basketball
coach, winning the regional tournament three times in his
career at McKenzie.
A game especially memorable to Melinda was the 1975
contest in which her husband led the McKenzie High School
Rebel team to victory over the Trezevant High School girls
in their only defeat of the season.
"The Trezevant girls' team won the state tournament that
year; they only lost one game the entire season and that's
when McKenzie beat them," she says, her face reflecting
the excitement of the evening 26 years later.
"If they had let me go our son would be six weeks older,"
she insists, protesting, "Nobody would let me go! I had to
sit in the rocking chair and listen to the game on the
radio."
By 1980, Coach Popplewell's plate was overflowing as he
coached junior high girls and boys' basketball as well as
high school girls.
 "It
was a little bit too much," he reflects, recalling that
his son Robin was four or five years old at the time. "I
was spending a lot of nights working - well, I wasn't
here," he declares. "I thought I was ready to get out of
coaching; I guess I thought it was time they had a change
- and it was."
He left his position in the spring of 1981, taking a break
from teaching by selling insurance that summer and fall
before accepting a position at Henry School in January
1982.
Ironically, Popplewell's first seeds of teaching were sown
at the school years earlier when he practiced his skills
there as a student teacher under Mr. Horace Derrington.
Robin, then in the second grade, began riding to school
with his father each morning while maintaining friends he
had met in kindergarten and first grade at church and in
later years playing basketball during summer breaks.
Coach Popplewell was able to coach his son in basketball
during his fifth through eighth grade years, along with
many other children enrolled at the school. When he
graduated from the eighth grade at Henry, Robin returned
to McKenzie for his high school years.
Popplewell assumed a new role at the school five years ago
when he accepted the position of vice-principal.
Last year, he was inducted into Bethel College's athletic
hall of fame. As Bethel's most valuable player two years
in a row, Popplewell was instrumental in leading Bethel's
team to victory in the VSAC (Vol State Athletic
Conference) tournament in Nashville, beating teams like
Union University, Lambuth University, Belmont University,
University of Tennessee at Martin, LaMoyne-Owen, and
Christian Brothers University.
Time has brought Coach Popplewell nearly full circle as he
enters his retirement years still young and vibrant,
though restricted in the participation of two of his
greatest pleasures - basketball and softball - after old
sports injuries flared up in two herniated disks in his
back.
"Until he couldn't, he played basketball every second he
could find someone to play with him, and softball all
summer," says Melinda, "and in between that fishing and
mowing yards."
"If I didn't have that I'd still be playing softball but I
can't do it," her husband admits. Today, Coach Popplewell
enjoys taking care of the couple's log home, driving his
tractor in the accomplishment of bush-hogging and
small-farm chores and taking care of the horses that call
their barn home.
Friend Lynn Brannon, knowing how much she wanted a horse,
currently keeps his 35-year-old Shetland pony at the
Popplewell residence as well as a three-year-old unbroken
palomino.
"I like taking care of them, watching them and feeding
them. It sort of goes back to older days when I was
growing up taking care of cattle, calves and all that
stuff," he says, recalling as well caring for the family's
mules as a boy.
Following Melinda's passion for horseback riding, the
Popplewells began taking trips to the Land Between the
lakes over the last five or six years where they could
rent horses for rides lasting about an hour and a half.
"We haven't bought any yet, we just have good friends who
let us ride when we want to," smiles Melinda.
Popplewell also enjoys walking, his long-time passion of
fishing, and "playing with that grandbaby."
Now 26 years old, Robin (aquatics coordinator for the YMCA
in Jackson) is married to Milan schoolteacher Tamara
Popplewell. Their 18-month-old son, Davis Clay, is the
apple of his grandparents' eyes.
Melinda explains that "Clay" is a name passed down through
generation, with J.C.'s father being Henry Clay, J.C.
representing the name James Clay, Robin 's full name being
Robin Clay and little Davis continuing the tradition.
Don't try to use J.C.'s full name, however. Melinda says
he doesn't answer to either James or Clay, preferring
instead J. C., while she retains the privilege of calling
him, affectionately, by the name of Jay.
The Popplewells are active members of Long Heights Baptist
Church where he is a Sunday School teacher, currently
teaching the young couples class, and Melinda is church
secretary, a job she describes as her mission.
Popplewell plans to pursue part time employment while
spending his free time enjoying the fruits of a life well
lived.
His co-workers are his best resume in seeking out that
job: "He's the easiest person I've ever worked with, not
one time did I ever get frustrated with him," says Leigh
Anne Durham, a fourth grade teacher now on maternity
leave.
"He's a wonderful, wonderful person. He's right there for
us if we need anything - kind, considerate," says
second-grade teacher Betty Cate.
"I can't say anything, I'll cry," declares kindergarten
teacher Sheila Cox as she rushes back to her place,
offering punch to guests at the reception.
Across the room, Mr. Popplewell and Melinda smile as they
greet guests in sharing what is simultaneously a beginning
and an end, but is more a continuum along a path
cultivated over many years into a garden of love and
friendship. |
