Liberty coach retiring from teaching career

When Rod Fletcher began teaching in Spangle 34 years ago, he was happy just to put his degree from Eastern Washington University to use.

“It was a big deal that I found a job,” said Fletcher. “I didn’t get hired until like two days before school started, so at that point any job looked really good.”

Fletcher would eventually add head coaching to his resume at Liberty, coaching both junior high and high school teams from 1972 to 2003. After 30 years of leading Lancer teams, though, Fletcher is retiring after this season.

His wife, Sammie, is also retiring after the school year, with both of them leaving after a combined 64 years of service to the school. It was a journey neither expected to make.

“Sammie is from Liberty and is a Liberty graduate,” said Rod. “When we first got married, the first year I taught, and she still had another year of school at Eastern.

“When we started looking, jobs were very, very tight. So about the time we thought it was time to look for a high school job, there was a basketball job (at Liberty), so we went for that. We enjoyed our stay and never really had any reason to leave. To look back on it, it’s like, wow, we’ve been here a really long time!”

“I did go to school there for 12 years,” said Sammie. “I was really excited when I got married and thought I would find something different and new.

“Rod ended up getting a job there (at Liberty), and I did too.”

The rest, they say, is history.

Fletcher began his coaching career with the junior high boys basketball team in 1972, continuing in that capacity through 1974. He would take over the boys junior high football program in 1973, coaching it for seven years.

Fletcher got his first high school varsity program in 1975, when he took over the boys basketball team. He would lead the Lancers to a state tournament appearance in 1976.

“Liberty at that time had a very strong basketball tradition, so that was kind of exciting,” said Fletcher.

Fletcher would switch from the boys basketball program over to the high school girls varsity in 1980, leading that team for the next 20 years. He would win 253 games, win two league championships and make four state tournament appearances in that span.

It was in 1981, though, when Fletcher would make the move that would leave his biggest imprint at Liberty. Fletcher took control of the Lancer football program, winning 125 games over the next 22 years. He took Liberty to the state playoffs his first season and made eight more trips to state after that.

In his second season, in 1982, he led Liberty to the state football title, adding another championship in 1992.

Fletcher would also go on to coach the high school baseball team from 1990 to 1994, making state playoff trips his first two seasons and winning a league title in 1991. It also gave him the opportunity to coach his two sons for the first time.

“That was really exciting and rewarding,” said Sammie Fletcher, who attended most of her husband’s games. “I’ll never forget the time he (Rod) was coaching baseball.

“Aaron was pitching, and Eric was catching, and Dad was the coach. They’d have a meeting on the mound, and they would come home, and I would ask, ‘What was that all about?’

“He (Rod) would say, sometimes he’d forget he was a coach and would go out there as Dad, and say ,‘C’mon you guys!’ That was really a special time in our lives.”

“There were five years that he coached all three sports,” continued Sammie. “There were many, many nights when we never had a family dinner.

“Through our kids’ high school careers, Monday through Saturday, we never sat down at the dinner table. The boys would have late basketball practice, and Rod had early because he was coaching the girls practice. Or the boys would have early and Rod would have late.

“It went very fast because we were never home.”

After coaching more than 1,000 games with the Lancers, Fletcher may have learned as many lessons on the playing field as he taught. The most important though, came that very first year.

“I think after the very first loss, it really hurt after my very first game,” said Fletcher. “After a couple of those, you’ve got to learn to separate your coaching from your personal life.

“As you progress, you learn that as you’re winning, you’re never quite as good as you think you are. When you’re losing, you’re never quite as bad as you think you are.

“Probably the main thing I learned over the long haul, players are probably going to take the losses as hard as you do. Then you realize you’re not out there for the wins and losses.”

“He was one that never brought it home if he was angered,” said Sammie. “He left it on the court or he left it on the field.

“He was very good about separating the professional coaching career and our family life. I think that’s one of the reasons why our kids went into education and into the coaching profession, because they saw all the good sides of it from their dad.”

While Fletcher is retiring from the Lancer program, he won’t be retiring from the coaching profession.

“This last basketball season, I was the varsity assistant for Dave Baird out in Cheney, and I’m still going to continue to do that,” Fletcher said. “Coaching is still in my future.

“If football or something were to come along, I may be interested, but right now I’m just going to kick back and see what happens.”

There were as many good memories as there were games for the Fletchers at Liberty, and they hope the people whose lives they touched will look back fondly as well.

“I would like people to remember what a positive person he was …how he always wanted to help people and put everything into perspective,” said Sammie. “He has many former students that come back now and talk to him.

“He’s watched many of his students graduate from college and become professionals themselves, and that is very rewarding for him. I just hope that people would know he will have time for them, whenever or wherever they need.”

“One of the things I’d like to be remembered for was that I was a player’s coach,” said Rod. “I was there for the kids.

“I tried to teach them to make the right choices, and that was more important than what happened on the field. I guess one of my favorite lines with the kids has always been, ‘Good things happen to good people.’ “