Editor’s note: Beth Culbertson Douglas and her husband Everett served as missionaries in Nigeria and Brazil in the 1980s and 1990s. They now live in Myrtle Beach, where Everett serves on staff at Ocean View Baptist Church and Beth teaches music at Christian Academy and Musikgarten and Kindermusik at Ocean View School of Music.
DouglasThe world lost one of its greatest coaches during the last days of February. In his whole career, he was never mentioned on ESPN. Not many people would recognize his name. But to a group of girls at Sans Souci Baptist Church in Greenville, Fletcher Allen, or “Coach,” as we called him, was as famous as anyone we’ve ever known.
During the late ’60s and ’70s, as he led our softball and basketball teams, Coach Allen gave us all he had as a coach, father, encourager, listener, and, most of all, an example of a man sold out to Christ.
Back in those days, there were no girls teams, and we weren’t allowed to play with the boys. After having four daughters of his own with his dear wife, Betty, he decided to take up coaching and was instrumental in getting the girls’ church leagues started all over Greenville. He and his friend, Leonard Frazier, were our dedicated coaches throughout our ‘tween and teen years.
We had a great deal to learn about softball and basketball during those years, and Coach patiently taught us the fundamentals. Finally his work paid off as we began to win championships in both sports. But his “life coaching” is what we will always remember. When we put down our bats and gloves years ago to walk into the world of business, marriage, children and life, we realized that he had prepared us for much more than sports throughout the long seasons of mentoring and encouraging.
Beth Douglas, front row, left, remembers the life lessons she and her Sans Souci Baptist Church teammates learned from their coach, Fletcher Allen, right, former longtime associate editor of The Baptist Courier.Let me give you an example. In addition to playing ball, I also took piano and was involved in a monthly class meeting that coincided with Saturday basketball practice. Coach Allen was fine with Libby (another ball-playing musician) and me going to the meeting, but we were always to call him the week before and let him know. One month we forgot to tell him. In fact, we probably forgot more than once, and this was the final straw. When it came time to play ball on Monday evening, neither Libby (our star player) nor I started the game. We paced the sidelines for a full half as we watched out team get pounded. Our teammates gave us some disgusted looks and begged Coach to let us play. But Coach stood his ground. It was a hard game to lose that night. But Coach Allen had taught me something that was much more important than winning the game: a life lesson.
In talking to some of the other girls in these past days since Coach Allen passed, I realized that he did the same thing in different ways for all of us. He met us where we were, and let us know he loved us, and that was all we needed to let him mold us and shape us for sports – and for life. Most of us would say that he would be in our top-three people who had been the biggest influence in our lives. Not famous. Not flashy. Just living it out for Christ, making a difference in so many lives just by being there for us.
Thank you, God, for Fletcher Allen. May we celebrate his life as we remember, and be thankful that you have promised that we will see him again when we meet in Your presence.