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Wetumpka legend dies Monday
By Peggy Blackburn - Managing Editor
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Coach Bazemore at a 2007 Wetumpka football game. -- Herald Photo/Peggy Blackburn
The familiar lanky figure often seen behind the wheel of a late-model sedan driving through the Wetumpka High School parking lot or deep in conversation with other fans at WHS athletic events will make a final trip to his beloved school tonight. Stokely Bazemore, one of Wetumpka’s best-known sons, died Tuesday at about 6 a.m. in a Montgomery hospital. But “Coach” will live on in the hearts and minds of many.
Bazemore, 61, graduated from Wetumpka High in 1965 where he was a member of both the basketball and football teams from seventh through 12th grades. He received his degree from Auburn University in 1969, and returned to his high school alma mater that year as a math instructor and the junior high football and basketball coach.
He continued teaching at WHS until he retired at the end of the 2006 school year. Bazemore coached at Wetumpka for 30 years and in the course of that career, he coached varsity baseball, basketball and football n winning back-to-back state basketball championships in 1979 and 1980 and a state baseball championship in 1982.
He was head basketball coach for the In-dians from 1971 to 1980, head baseball coach from 1977 to 1999, and head football coach from 1979 to 1992. Bazemore also coached summer league baseball from 1970 to 1979.
His basketball teams compiled a 187-57 record and he was named state basketball coach of the year in 1979 and 1980. Bazemore coached seven of his football teams to the playoffs, with two of those (1981 and 1984) posting perfect 10-0 records in the regular season. The 1981 team finished 10-1 and the 1984 squad 12-1. He was named state football coach of the year in 1981.
His baseball squads compiled a 284-157 record, and advanced to the playoffs 12 times. In addition to the 1982 state championship, the Indians baseball team finished as state runners-up in 1987 and went to the final eight in 1988 and 1992.
Bazemore was named state baseball coach of the year in 1981, 1982 and 1992. He was also honored by the Alabama Lions Clubs as a recipient of the outstanding service award for youth.
Wetumpka High’s baseball field is named in his honor. When Bazemore retired from coaching in 1999, he said, “It was a lot of fun even if I didn’t make a lot of money doing it. Building the baseball field was one of the highlights of my career and proved that a community can pitch in together to get things done.”
He was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. At the time he credited the recognition he received to his players.
“Whatever I’ve done as a coach was because of the players I had. I think any coach will tell you that quality kids are what makes a program successful,” he said. “This award is a reflection of all the kids I coached n I was lucky. Kids are what determine ball games. I never threw a pass, made a basket or got a hit.”
While Bazemore impacted his players, he meant just as much to the students he taught the mysteries of every kind of higher math. And his interest in his students’ success in life didn’t end at the schoolhouse door.
“As an eighth grader, I remember always wanting to go to church,” said Steven Roy, chief financial officer of AAA Cooper Transportation in Dothan. “If we missed, Coach was in my face early Monday making sure to tell me that church is where I needed to be Sunday mornings.
“Although we joked about Coach Bazemore’s mannerisms and had many favorite 'quotes,' in retrospect, the man gave virtually every available minute he had to making his students better scholars, better athletes and better people,” said Roy.
Curt Fochtmann, a 1978 WHS graduate and managing partner of Ernst & Young in Charlotte, N.C. shared a prayer he wrote for Bazemore Tuesday.
“Coach, who would I have become without you? From JV football to 10th grade geometry and from baseball to five years of basketball scores, where would I be without you? From teamwork to personal dedication and from leadership to servant, where would I be? From trust to respect and from hard work to celebrating success, where? Not much of anywhere, that’s where. You were coach, teacher, father at times, and friend always. Thank you, for so many of us. God, with Coach Bazemore, one day I hope to be.”
Former Elmore County Superintendent of Education Bobby Murchison was friends with Bazemore for many years.
“I’ve known him since 1966,” said Murchison. “He’s going to be missed. He’ll be missed at the baseball field and at the basketball games, and especially in Bazemore’s corner at the football field.
“One of the funniest things is that he asked me back then if he should take that basketball coaching job,” Murchison said. “I guess that wound up speaking for itself.”
Anne Robinson said countless people will miss Bazemore.
“We knew each other since we were zero,” she said. “We were in school together all those years until we graduated. I’ll miss him ... A lot of people will miss him.”
Bazemore’s students have gone into a variety of professions, and a few have followed in his coaching footsteps.
Chris Motes, head baseball coach at Holtville High, is one.
“He was like a dad to me. He was my football and baseball coach and my trigonometry teacher -- and he lived just three doors down from my house,” said Motes. “We both loved math and we talked about that and baseball a lot.
“I told my guys the other day that I hope I can have half of the impact on them that Coach had on me,” he continued. “To this day I think he was the smartest man I ever met. He was a huge influence in my life and the lives of many others.”
Motes, Wetumpka baseball coach Ray Mullino, WHS softball coach Randy Stough and Wetumpka basketball coach Chris Washington were at Bazemore’s bedside Monday night.
“I feel at peace because I got to see him,” said Motes. “We told old stories about him when we were together at the hospital.”
Stough said Bazemore was important to him as both a coach and a teacher.
“I took algebra from him. He looked out for you in the classroom and on the field,” said Stough. “He taught me to give my best. Coach wasn’t as worried about the grade you made as he was about you doing the very best you could.
“He got such a thrill out of students solving problems. I think his biggest reward was when he saw the light bulb of understanding go off,” Stough said. “Every student was his kid. To me he was kind of like Mr. WHS.”
Mullino followed in his mentor’s footsteps and maintained a close relationship to him, serving as an assistant baseball coach at WHS before Bazemore passed the torch to him upon his own retirement.
“He certainly influenced me, my wife and my family,” said Mullino. “But Coach meant a lot to many, many different people from the people he taught in class to those he coached.
“He had a passion for people and a passion for teaching,” Mullino continued. “Some people find their callings, and teaching and coaching were his loves. He will be greatly missed.”
Visitation for Bazemore will be tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Wetumpka High School. Funeral services will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church of Wetumpka.
Garry Kent wrote on Feb 13, 2008 10:33 AM: