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Rod Weikle ('61)
High Profile - Rod Weikle - Teacher, coach closes chapter in life
This article appeared in the Register-Herald on June 29, 2003.By LANCE CRANMER
FAIRLEA - When Greenbrier East High School closed its doors on another school year earlier this month, Rod Weikle could only look toward the future.
After 30 years as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Greenbrier County school system, the Beckley native's once jam-packed schedule suddenly wasn't so busy.
"You're thinking, I don't have anything to do," Weikle said as he sat outside the school. "Tomorrow, I don't have to get up at any time. I don't have to do anything. Retiring is sort of a scary thing, but I guess happy, too. Maybe I'll take off to Italy or someplace."
Weikle began his teaching career at Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg shortly after graduating from Concord College.
"At that time, well, pay for teachers has never been very much, but the Greenbrier Military School paid a whole lot more than public schools," Weikle said. "I came there and taught for four years."
During that time, Weikle's girlfriend Lynn - now his wife - was working her way through Concord for a teaching degree, as well.
"We met in college. She's from Cabin Creek. She grew up where Jerry West grew up," he said. "(We met) at a college dance when she was a freshman and I was a senior, I guess. We didn't get married for two years. We said we'll get married when she graduated.
"She took extra classes and went in the summer and graduated in three years. Then we got married."
Weikle continued to work at GMS and the couple lived in Lewisburg with their first child, Melissa.
As conditions at the school began to deteriorate, though, Weikle began to consider another line of work.
On the advice of a friend, he applied for and eventually got a job that would call for some major changes in his life.
"I was a special agent for the United States Secret Service," Weikle said. "A friend of mine that was an agent kept saying, put in your application. They didn't hire very many people, but I got in."
The new job required the young family to relocate to Charleston.
"There's only one field office in West Virginia and it's in Charleston," Weikle said. "When they're not doing protection, we were doing investigation of counterfeiting."
At first, the job was a positive experience for the Weikles, but with a new addition to the family, son Scott, one problem became very evident.
"Well, the campaign year starts out and they say, Agent Weikle, report to Washington, D.C. You've got 90 days watching (presidential candidate) George Wallace," Weikle related. "I started thinking, I don't know if I want to do this for 20 more years. Every time your kid is playing in a ball game or doing something that you want to see them do, you're going to be gone. So that's when I decided."
After nearly three years, Weikle chose to return to Greenbrier County and his original profession of teaching.------
As a youngster growing up in Beckley, Weikle was constantly involved in sports.
"I played basketball, baseball, football. It was a big part of my life," he said. "My family came to all the games. We were close."
Weikle quickly rose to prominence in the sports-crazed city, first under the direction of legendary coach Jerome Van Meter, then his successor, Lawrence "Preach" Wiseman.
"Wiseman took over and was the basketball coach and the baseball coach," Weikle said of his junior year at Woodrow Wilson High School. "We were fortunate enough my senior year (1961) to play in the state championship game in basketball. We lost to Huntington. Three months later, I pitched in the state championship game in baseball. We lost to the same group of people from Huntington. Same ones. That's probably never happened before."
During his days playing sports, Weikle made friends with another well known Beckley athlete named David Barksdale.
"He was on the team, but he was a junior. He didn't play then," Weikle said of the future Flying Eagle basketball coach. "He's a great person."------
Upon their return to Lewisburg, Rod and Lynn Weikle each took a teaching position.
"I taught 15 years at Lewisburg Junior High when I first moved back," Weikle said. "I also coached a lot of sports."
After a long tenure at the junior high, an opportunity to teach calculus and trigonometry became available.
"The principal (Charlie Carney) kept calling me and wanting me to teach (at Greenbrier East)," Weikle said. "When an opening came up that I thought was a good one, I changed."
Weikle began teaching math at the high school and coaching baseball for the Spartans as an assistant.
Years later, his role in Greenbrier East sports would take a dramatic increase when he accepted the position as the school's athletic director.
"It's been a job," Weikle said of the eight-year period he served as A.D. "You don't see what goes on behind the scenes. Here at Greenbrier East we have 16 sports. You have to have schedules for all of them. Right now I have the schedules made for the next three years in football.
"You can imagine how many phone calls you have to make for 16 sports to have all the schedules done. All the officials. Making sure you have buses. Organizing the whole thing. And teach, too. It's been a busy eight years."------
During his time in the athletic department, Weikle developed more fond memories than he can recount. One in particular stands out above the rest, though, not only because of the game itself, but who it was against.
"The best game I ever saw, it was a basketball game," Weikle said. "We had played Beckley (under Barksdale) about two weeks earlier at the (Raleigh County) armory and they beat us 110-55. About two weeks later, they came up here and we won. A 55-point turnaround. That's pretty amazing."
The annual meeting of the rival schools in Fairlea is the one night of the year Weikle says is his favorite.
"It's so tense that you just know there's going to be fights break out, but you know, there's never been any that I know of," he said. "Our gym holds 1,800 and I know we probably break the law. We probably put 2,000 people in there. That's a great night. Even when Barksdale was here. He would say, 'I love coming to Greenbrier East. They boo me, but it's lively.'
"It really is. That's what high school sports is all about."
Another of Weikle's favorite memories also involves his old friend and his alma mater.
"Greenbrier East is always who I'd root for and I always did, but it was funny sometimes," he remembered. "One time we had all these kids, maybe 600, get a picture of Barksdale off the Internet. They glued them to these paper bags and cut eye holes out and wore them. He got a kick out of it."------
Being a Beckley graduate, Weikle regularly took some good-natured harassing from his students.
"The kids give me a hard time in class. I have a few pictures of myself playing and shooting and stuff," he said. "They'd always say, who are you rooting for? Of course, I'd always say Greenbrier East."
During his final week at school, Weikle was faced with the task of taking down and packing up all of the mementos he'd accumulated in his classroom and office over the years.
"It was a little emotional, collecting things you'd put in there over 15 years," he admits. "I'm not emotional. I don't get too high and I don't get too low. Even when I was in the Secret Service, I can remember we'd be around stars. I remember Frank Sinatra. You know, everybody got real excited. I didn't get that excited. I talked to him."
One celebrity he met more recently, though, did make an impact on Weikle.
"Last year Jerry West came back to West Virginia," he said. "He and (Spartan girls' basketball coach) Jim Justice are great friends. Jim has a hunting club at Gap Mills. Jerry West went over there to duck hunt and I got to go. It was fun sitting there with Jerry West shooting ducks and talking about the Lakers. That was interesting. I spent the whole day with him. Jerry West was my hero when I was in school."------
A few sports heroes in their own right passed through the halls of Greenbrier East during Weikle's teaching and coaching career, most recently Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitcher Seth McClung.
"Seth is one of those unique people," Weikle said. "You could tell he was going to make it. He just had the physical talent to do that."
Years before McClung starred in a Spartans' uniform, another superstar athlete rose to prominence.
"I coached Bimbo Coles in junior high," Weikle said. "He was amazing athlete. He was already focused way beyond his years. In football we'd do tackling drills. He'd hit so hard that I was afraid he was going to hurt somebody. He was probably a better football player than he was a basketball player."------
With both Weikles completing their 30th year of teaching, the couple chose to retire together. While they don't have any major plans for the immediate future, one thing they're looking forward to is being able to travel.
"We have grandkids now, so we'll be visiting them a lot," Weikle said. "We also want to take one good trip every year for like two or three weeks. Last year we went to Italy and we stayed for two weeks, and we liked it so well we plan on going back to somewhere like that from now on because it was just so much fun."
Still, there's no place like home.
"Greenbrier County is a great place," Weikle said. "I grew up in Beckley and I like Beckley, but there's no place like Greenbrier County. You can fish here. You can hunt here. It's historic. It's a great place to live."------
As a teacher, Weikle never made the kind of money he would have working for the government, but he says he wouldn't change things for any amount of money.
"I had never regretted coming back (to teaching) even though I took a pay cut," he said. "If I would have stayed there I probably would have been making $100,000 by now, but I wouldn't have enjoyed my life as much."
Teaching has been good to Weikle, especially his experiences dealing with students.
"I'm not sorry to be retired. I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I'll miss the kids. It was always rewarding when they'd come back and say, 'I'm doing great in college because you were a good math teacher.' That made it worthwhile.
"You've got to do what you like doing and you'll be a lot happier. Do what you like doing the rest of your life."
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