Head girl’s basketball coach and Athletic Coordinator Amy Tennison’s final day was Monday, April 21. Teachers and staff visited her office to bid her farewell. She plans to coach the girls’ basketball team at Midlothian High School. Tennison chose Midlothian because she wants to be closer to her home.
“It’s emotional,” Tennison said as tears welled up in her eyes. “That’s really the only way I can describe it. Any kind of change is hard.”
By moving to Midlothian, Tennison will step down from an administrative position and go back to coaching and teaching simultaneously.
“It’s just a little bit better fit for where I am in my life right now,” Tennison said. “I can actually teach and coach in my own community, as well as take on more of a mom role for my kids.”
Tennison informed her athletes that she would be leaving about a month ago.
“I told them that you guy’s leave me all the time,” Tennison said. “Every year some of them leave me, and it’s just unfortunate that this is a little bit better fit for this stage of my life.”
Senior Kai Thomas has known Coach Tennison since she started recruiting kids from the Worley basketball team.
“We have a strong relationship,” Thomas said. “The whole team is really close to her.”
Thomas wasn’t as upset as others that Tennison was leaving because of the fact that she graduates this year.
“It’s not that I don’t mind,” Thomas said. “It’s just since I’m graduating this year it doesn’t really affect me. The girls next year are going to have to step up since [the new coach] won’t have favorites anymore.”
Thomas appreciated Tennison’s coaching during the four years she was here and admired her as a person.
“She has a good attitude about everything, even if we lost she’d tell us what we did good before she told us what we did bad,” Thomas said. “She’ll be there if [her athletes] need her.”
Tennison doesn’t worry about leaving her position. She believes the coaches on staff have been working at Legacy long enough to keep things running until her replacement comes in.
“We have a veteran staff, so it kind of runs itself. We’re fortunate in that regard,” Tennison said.
