Eastern Mennonite School has named Robert Stuart as its next girls varsity basketball coach. The soon-to-be retired Coach Stuart is excited to focus his full attention on the team and share his passion for creating a team culture that keeps the sport in a healthy perspective.<\/p>\n
That perspective includes an understanding that winning is great, but school work and having fun is a priority. \u201cIt\u2019s time to leave the game if you\u2019re not having fun,\u201d is Stuart\u2019s philosophy. \u201cWhen we build a close knit team that is having fun and is like a family, we will win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart\u2019s 40-year coaching career started at the Staunton YMCA and the Staunton Quarterback Club as the instructional basketball coach. He went on to coach everything from middle school \u2014 most recently at Kate Collins in Waynesboro \u2014 to college (Mary Baldwin in the late 2000s), and at R.E. Lee High School in Staunton.<\/p>\n
He has coached men and women, boys and girls. \u201cI prefer working with the girls,\u201d he admits. \u201cThere\u2019s a bit less ego\u2026 maybe some drama at times, but I just like working with girls who are eager to learn and open to coaching. They bond well and are good teammates to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Stuart works best with his wife Tampa, a credentialed Baptist minister, who has been the girls basketball coach at Kate Collins Middle School in Waynesboro for the past two years, with Stuart as her assistant. Prior to that, she she coached girls basketball at R.E. Lee for five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work together so well,\u201d Stuart says. Tampa will assist Stuart at EMS. \u201cShe is a nurturer,\u201d he says. \u201cShe is firm and can give love and discipline at the same time. Her gifts complement my coaching well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is about confidence,\u201d he concludes. \u201cWhen we all put in the effort and work together, we\u2019ll gain confidence, and that will reap rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart picks up the reins from Coach Andy Routzen, who led the team in winter 2021, and moved to the Richmond area to support new job opportunities for his wife.<\/p>\n
Andrew Gascho, athletic director, says the program is on a strong trajectory. \u201cCoach Routzahn did an amazing job building a positive and supportive culture, despite COVID challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cCoach Stuart will build on that. He brings just the right experience and passion for coaching that we were looking for, and we are excited to welcome him and his wife into the EMS community.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eastern Mennonite School has named Robert Stuart as its next girls varsity basketball coach. The soon-to-be retired Coach Stuart is excited to focus his full attention on the team and share his passion for creating a team culture that keeps the sport in a healthy perspective. That perspective includes an understanding that winning is great,\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":46022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[382],"class_list":["post-46019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-girls-varsity-basketball"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46019"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}