Page 151 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

COACH AS MENTOR: RICK RAWLEIGH

**RICK RAWLEIGH HELPED RAISE TWO GENERATIONS

OF KIDS**

BY TIM KIRBY

LAKE CITY REPORTER

Back when a coach was more mentor than administrator, one man who

exemplified the term was Rick Rawleigh.

As a physical education instructor and coach, Rawleigh molded two

generations of Columbia County boys with his sense of fair play,
competitive fire and humor.

Beginning in 1954, Rawleigh guided young teenagers here for 32 years.

He was an unlikely candidate to lead sons of the South.

Rawleigh hailed from Elmira, N.Y., and graduated from Elmira Free
Academy. He spent two years in the Navy and entered Brockport State

University soon after his return in 1946.

Rawleigh followed his folks to Florida in 1948 and completed his

health/physical education degree at Tampa University in 1950. He
returned to the service, this time the Air Force, for another two years.

In 1952, Rawleigh landed a job with the St. Petersburg Recreation
Department where he was a swimming instructor and moonlighted as a

lifeguard at the beach.

“After I decided to teach school and make use of my degree,” Rawleigh
said, he applied for a job in Lake City and was hired - sight unseen - by

Sidney Ellison in September, 1954. Rawleigh insisted on going through
with the job interview and got hired-and a fly-casting lesson from

Ellison all in the same day.

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