34 Years of Dedication

Coach Jay Lucas retires from 34 year of teaching and coaching.

Brook Jankowski, Staff Reporter|May 3, 2017

Coach Jay Lucas in his last few weeks at the high school, he will be greatly missed by many.

“Time to start a new chapter in my life.”

Coach Lucas is retiring at the end of the school year. He has been teaching and coaching for 34 years. Of this 34 years of experience, he has been a head coach of the Girl’s Basketball team and the athletic director of 21 sports.

“I have been the athletic director for 4 years at Woodford County High School. Thanks to everyone who helped me in my position as Athletic Director at WCHS, specifically Gene Kirk and Dennis Johnson,” Lucas said.

“I always did well in math class. I was a math teacher for 23 years and an SWS (School Within a School) teacher for the last 11 years,” Lucas said.

Lucas has alway enjoyed being a teacher and coaching basketball. He likes to see success, hard work, and victory in the classroom and on the court. He is a tough coach, but is fair to everyone and always puts the team before individuals.

“I loved working with student athletes to make them the best player and person they can be with,” Lucas said.

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Best of luck to my girl’s basketball team as they transition to a new coach in 2017-2018. I will be your biggest fan.

— Coach Jay Lucas

Delaney Enlow is a freshman who has been on the basketball team for two years now.

“I think Coach Lucas was a great coach for me. He really understood how to work with me without either of us getting frustrated. He understood how to productively coach kids and the best way to get the best game out of everyone,” Enlow said.

“He really loves the game. He was very dedicated to the team. He would stay up past midnight doing film and preparing for the next day after a game. He also tried to listen to us when we were frustrated or had complaints. It takes a good coach to be able to deal with almost 30 girls for three months and not go crazy. We really appreciated how he cared for us and how he really did make it fun,” Enlow said.

Enlow considers Lucas to be more than a coach. In him, she sees a friend and family figure.

“The nice words I would like to say is that Coach Lucas was not just a coach to us. He was family. He made the game fun and being able to have fun was especially important for us to succeed. He really believed in what I could do and helped me mature as a varsity player at a young age. Losing him is like losing family and it’s very hard on those who were close to him as a coach,” Enlow said.

Enlow recalls the moment when her team won the first round of districts, which brought excitement and inspiration to the girls.

“When we won the first round of districts. As a team, I’ve never seen that much excitement from everyone. We went running down the hallway screaming and cheers as we waited for coach to come to the locker room. We just love beating Western Hills and winning against them by around 20 or 30 points was the best feeling ever,” Enlow said.

Peyton Rose is a junior who has been on the basketball team for 6 years. She started playing on the high school basketball team in the 8th grade.

“Coach Lucas has a constructive coaching style. He may not always be ‘friendly’ when giving feedback, but you can’t take it personally. He says what he says and does what he does for the good of the team,” Rose said.

“Coach Lucas loves and cares for every individual player on his team no matter what. He may yell at us and make us run, but that’s when you know he actually cares about our performance. Off the court, he is a very lovable person. He makes us laugh and keeps us focused in the locker room before and after games,” Rose said.

One of Rose’s happiest Coach Lucas memory was, “when we beat Anderson County on their home court and Coach Lucas started dancing in the locker room after the game.”

“Thanks for making me into the player and person I am today. And thank you for the motivation and advice that you have given me throughout these years. You will be missed,” Rose said.