By JON WEBB
GLASGOW — Sam Royse may be retired from teaching, but he’s not retired from baseball.
The Glasgow coach will return for his 26th season after his application to remain as coach became official on Wednesday.
Royse said retirement laws stated that when he retired from his teaching position he had to retire from coaching as well and wait three months to reapply.
“I didn’t want to leave, but the retirement laws dictate that you retire from any positions that go along with (teaching),” Royse said. “If it hadn’t been for the retirement laws, I could have just left the teaching position.”
Royse’s retirement became official on July 1, forcing the coach to wait until October to reapply. In that three-month span, Royse said he expected Glasgow High School Principal Kelly Bell to look at other applicants, but hoped the job would remain open.
“If it were still open, I anticipated taking it,” Royse said. “But I’m just like everybody else and I’ve got to go through the channels.”
Royse may not be like everybody else.
The coach has spent 25 years as Glasgow head coach and two as an assistant.
Bell said she is excited to see Royse return as coach.
“We’re thrilled to have someone of Sam’s caliber back at the head coaching position,” Bell said. “(He has) years of experience and has influenced countless young men in the community.”
Bell couldn’t remember the exact number of applicants or interviewees, but said she interviewed several candidates and each got “equal-billing.”
Royse will return to a team that finished 14-12-1 in 2009 and fell to Barren County in the first round of the 15th District playoffs. The team also added a new assistant coach over the summer in former Corbin High School coach Jeff Garmon.
Royse said “there’s no way to predict” how the team will finish this season, especially considering the level of competition in the district and region.
“We have some good players coming back, but we play an awfully tough schedule,” Royse said. “Our district is tough enough as it is.”
More than anything, Royse said he was thankful Bell believed in him enough to entrust the baseball team to him for the 26th time.
“I’ve been here for more than a quarter century,” Royse said. “That has a nice sound to it.”
