Fayette teacher wins Caring Coach award

Sam Simpson, the football coach and a health and physical education teacher at Henry Clay High School (Fayette County), has been named a recipient of the Caring Coach of the Year award presented by Dove Men+Care Deodorant and the College Football Hall of Fame.
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Sam Simpson, the football coach and a health and physical education teacher at Henry Clay High School (Fayette County), received the Caring Coach of the Year award from Dove Men+Care Deodorant and the College Football Hall of Fame.

Simpson was one of four youth and high school coaches chosen from hundreds of nominations across the country for displaying passion, character, determination, respect and encouragement, and for making a lasting impression on their players and communities.

“He is not only a coach to his players, but he is a father figure and role model. He is one of the best people I know, and he has always filled the shoes of being a kind person while coaching his players to victory or sharing the agony of defeat,” Sharron Wesley-Porter, a guidance counselor and assistant athletic director at Henry Clay High, wrote in her nomination of Simpson. “We have had several students over the years that have had very little to describe as a home. Sam and his wife, Sheri, have always provided meals and sometimes shelter to those that sometimes did not have a place to go.”

Simpson, who has taught and coached at Henry Clay High since 1993, was congratulated by players and colleagues at a surprise announcement Nov. 17. He and Wesley-Porter will travel to Atlanta this month for a national awards ceremony, including the unveiling of a year-long exhibit dedicated to each of the four winning coaches.