Toby Keith
Feb 28, 2011
Show Dog Nashville's Toby Keith is adding football coach to his list of achievements. Keith, a longtime Norman, OK resident, is part of Norman's Whittier Middle School seventh grade coaching staff. He coaches there up to six days a week for three hours.
"I have always been really, really close to football," Keith said. "I know some people would be surprised that being a successful songwriter, that they would think he couldn't coach. But we have been very successful at it."
This is Keith's first year with the team, but it's not his first time for coaching. He has been playing and coaching since before his music business success, including winning titles in the Optimist league.
"It's a love for me. The first thing I did when I got through playing with the Oklahoma City Drillers, I had tryouts with the Oklahoma Outlaws in the USFL. I found out right there what level of player it takes to get to that next level. Even though I didn't have a kid at the time, I ran right out and started coaching little league football. And then when my son came along, I said I will be there at day one. So I just routed my schedule around it," Keith said.
Robert Webb, Whittier's head football coach has encouraged parents to be a vital part of their kids' football experience. When Keith asked to join the staff, Webb said he treated him just like any other dad.
"Coach Keith as been an absolute asset to the program," Webb said. "In fact, he just kind of fits right in with what we do here. I feel like we need extra coaches out here to get done the quality of coaching that we want. So we are very committed to recruiting a lot of committed dads. We have 17 coaches all told between the seventh and eighth grade."
Keith credits his past coaches for teaching him the value of being a good coach and he wants to have the same affect on his players.
He said, "My first coach was Eli Billings. All the way until I played for the Oklahoma City Drillers for two years in the '80s, all the coaches I had meant something to me. But my junior high and little league Optimist level coaches were the most formidable to showing me what it was going to take."
For more on Keith's coaching career see the Norman Transcript's feature here. (www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_299011529?start:int=15) For more on Toby Keith, see www.tobykeith.com.
By Karen Goodner
