Making a difference
- Updated: June 18, 2021
Anniston’s Bullock, Westbrook’s Kennedy recognized for their positive impacts on their communities
From staff reports
Anniston girls basketball coach Eddie Bullock has often said it’s not the championships that he has remembered most during his 20-year coaching career, but rather the joy in seeing his charges reach their potential. That’s called making a difference.
Bullock and former Westbrook Christian baseball coach and athletics director Matt Kennedy are among seven Alabama high school role models selected as 2021 AHSAA “Make A Difference” award winners.
The other recipients, each representing one of the state’s seven classifications, are Anthony Edwards, Loachapoka softball, basketball, track and football coach; Ryan Hall, Oakman head football coach; Chris Bashaw, Guntersville volunteer track coach; Joe Webb, Mountain Brook soccer coach; and Nancy Shoquist, retiring Mary Montgomery volleyball coach.
The award was established in 2011 to recognize individuals who go beyond their normal duties as a coach, teacher or administrator to make a positive impact in their schools and communities. The winners will be recognized at a banquet in Montgomery July 23.
“It means a lot,” Bullock said. “As a coach you tend to get the feeling that people don’t appreciate the things that you do. So when the state told me I was going to be a recipient I felt pretty good because that let me know an impartial observer recognized the things that you do.”
Bullock returned to Anniston after college at Montevallo in 2000 and picked up right where he left off – making a difference in the lives around him. He still lives on the same street he grew up on.
He was once described as “a father figure to so many students and athletes at Anniston High School … a huge plus for the students who do not have fathers in their lives.”
On the field, he led the Bulldogs’ football team to the state playoffs four times in eight seasons with 10 wins in 2010 – the first 10-win season for the program since 1994.
His girls basketball team has become perennial state contenders, compiling a 385-111 overall record with seven regional championships, 12 area titles, 11 Calhoun County tournament crowns and three straight trips to the Class 4A state finals from 2019-2021. His Lady Bulldogs won the state title in 2020.
His nurturing spirit is a calm in the storm for the players. One player described his impact simply. “He prepares us to succeed by teaching us the importance of working on the little things every single day.”
His entire coaching and teaching career can be summed up by one phrase, “building positive relationships.”
Another admirer wrote, “In a word, it’s clear to see that Coach Bullock cares about winning, as his track record will attest to that. However, after sitting down and speaking with him, what becomes most clear is his passion for investing in our young people, and showing them how they can be whatever they wish to be, if they are willing to put in the time.”
Bullock couldn’t put a number on how many lives he’s made a difference in over the year. Instead, he likes to think he influenced them all in some form or another.
But there are success stories. Like the student who was going to drop out of school because he simply felt no one cared. Bullock demonstrated he cared and did what was necessary to help the student get back in the classroom and eventually graduate.
Or the structure he gave players who were teetering on a wayward path. Or the times he drove a student to school. Or the times he’d see to it needy students had the necessities they were missing when they went off to college.
“All I ever tried to do was make a difference in someone’s life,” Bullock said. “I had individuals who helped me out and I remembered some of the things I learned and the good that came out of it I tried to keep. I just wanted to make sure people who grew up like me and came out of the same area I did I could teach them some of the things I learned to help them be successful.”
For the last 29 years, Kennedy’s mission field has been working with the kids at Westbrook Christian School. He has used his love for baseball to teach them important lessons about life – knowing full well that many of those children had already seen plenty of trials and tribulations in their short lives.
A graduate of Shades Valley High School, he has worked diligently to provide a family atmosphere, says his nominator, “and has always tried to instill in them that God has a plan.”
That plan culminated in the Warriors’ first AHSAA state baseball championship in 2021. The players were thrilled to win, but Kennedy was more thrilled to see his team filled with kids who had the winning spirit of a champion.
Kennedy retired from Westbrook following the state championship and will become the principal of Etowah County Refocus Center. The school for at-risk students is going to be in good hands, said Westbrook principal Cindy Greer.
“Coach Kennedy loves kids, and he will continue to make a difference in kids’ lives because that is just who he is.,” Greer said. “As he told me, his mission field is just changing.”
His Westbrook teams won more than 350 games in 18 seasons, including 16 area titles, were state runner-ups three times and won the title in 2021.
“I still love the game and still love to coach,” he said. “I’m sure in the coaching world, people are thinking, ‘Well, he’s won it so now he’s going to get out.’ You coach because you want to change kids’ lives and make them better people.”
Cover photo of Anniston coach Eddie Bullock by B.J. Franklin/GungHo Photos
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