It's going to take two people to replace Bruce Stancell as track coach at McDonald County High School.
Stancell served as the boys' and girls' teams track coach at McDonald County for 25 years. He announced his retirement following the 2017 season.
But instead of having just one head track coach, McDonald County decided to break up the job into a girls' team coach and a boys' team coach.
Neither of the new coaches is unfamiliar to McDonald County runners, including one also named Stancell.
Darbi Stancell, Bruce's wife and former head cross country coach at MCHS and current assistant track coach, has been named girls' team coach while Henri Whitehead, current junior high head track coach, will lead the boys' team.
Darbi Stancell retired from cross country after the 2015 season.
"Track doesn't take near as many weekends," she said. "Also, we haven't in the past spent near as many days in summer off-season that we do in cross county which was kind of hard on me since I teach summer school. It was more of a decision I felt the young personnel were ready to take over cross country and I didn't have that same feeling with track. I still have the desire to continue coaching high school track."
Darbi has been an assistant to her husband for 21 years, taking on many of the head coach's duties.
"I did a lot of the administrative stuff, but Bruce is irreplaceable," she said. "That weighed really heavy on me -- whether or not I was worthy to fill his shoes. It's very rare you find a man that is capable of coaching every aspect of track and field."
Darbi said after all the years as assistant she is excited to take over as head coach.
"It wasn't something I thought about doing until after Bruce resigned," she said. "I felt like I was ready and it was time. Maybe it was difficult for me to think about having someone other than Bruce as my boss. As much as we fought like cats and dogs, he is very good at what he does and he will be missed. I will probably get along better with coach Whitehead."
Whitehead is a graduate of East Newton High School and the University of Missouri. He said he was a miler and cross country runner at East Newton, earning all-state honors in both sports. He has experience as a head track coach, starting at Sheldon following his graduation from Missouri in 2009.
"I started out as a head coach at a small school and I like the autonomy of it," Whitehead said. "I like having control and being (able) to set the tone of how the athletes are treated."
Whitehead said he enjoys seeing kids who might not have much success in other sports finding their sport in track.
"I like seeing kids not in a sport excel in track," Whitehead said. "That's kind of where I am from. My brother is the baseball, football athlete. My dad built a baseball field in the backyard and I played American Legion baseball. But I started running track in junior high and saw this is what I am good at. I want that for everybody. These kids don't realize that anybody can be a track athlete if they work at it. It just takes a little bit of hard work and patience. I tell kids I was terrible when I was a seventh-grader but by the time I was a senior I was all-state in two sports. I felt like I had accomplished something and these kids can do that too because a lot of them are better than I was."
Stancell and Whitehead said they both are excited to work with each other. Stancell said they will have disciplines in which they will specialize and coach both boys and girls.
"I am excited to work with coach Stancell," Whitehead said. "I worked with her in cross country and we were able to bounce ideas off each other. I think it will be great. I want to be the flexible one and can shift to whatever discipline where we need help. We have some athletes here with so much potential, sometimes I feel like I am scrambling to keep up with them because they learn so fast."
Whitehead said he's going to start "recruiting up a storm" when school starts next year in order to get as many kids out for track as possible.
"I have already talked to coach Factor (wrestling coach) about how we can share athletes and get more kids out," Whitehead said. "I think that is the biggest thing -- getting kids out and keeping them out. We have some kids walking the halls that could be all-state athletes. I am going to be working with all the other coaches making sure we share athletes."
Whitehead said he appreciates the opportunity he has been given by the administration and school board.
"The school board has been extremely helpful and Greg (high school principal Greg Leach) always listens to my ideas -- even the crazy ones," Whitehead said. "I feel a lot of support from the administration."
Sports on 06/08/2017