By Josh Beavers
Note: This is a series of stories about people who go above and beyond to help our local schools.
This week: Wesley Duck, youth sports
There are very few concrete truths in life. One is that money does indeed buy happiness; it just can’t prevent sadness. Another is actions speak louder than words. And another is that coaches are teachers. Plain truth. That’s the bottom-line cause Stone Cold said so.
And one more truth – coaches/teachers don’t have to be paid for their time or for services rendered. They can do what they do because they want to give back and/or they just want to help make the world a little bit better place.
Wesley Duck is one such coach. Wesley Duck is one such teacher.
His anonymous nominator for this edition of “For the Kids” said this: “Nick Rowton, Alex Collins, Jessie Smith, and Wesley Duck have been the heroes of elementary football at Glenbrook for years. Most of them volunteered to coach even before their own kids were old enough to play. I know there are more who help, but these four are the pillars of the elementary program.
The message continued: “They all work full time jobs; two of them own their own businesses. They all have families of their own but volunteer to be an extra role model for these boys and would do anything for any of them. They lead with integrity, compassion yet sternness, and love. They easily become a part of your own family because they mean so much to your kid.”
I will feature each of these men in coming stories, but for now let’s talk about the husband of Elizabeth and the dad to two boys – Weston and Marshall.
Those are his two biological children. However, he has another family he has made over the years. A family of kids he coached in sports and in life.
“My coaching started when Weston was six,” he told me. “I signed him up for Minden Rec baseball late, and he was placed on a waiting list. They told me there were eight kids ahead of him unless I coached. I made a quick phone call to two lifelong friends that I grew up playing sports with, Marcus Gibson and Brian Grubbs, and we decided we would coach a team ourselves. I went back to the Rec and told them to put us down as coaches and give us all the kids from the waiting list so they could all play baseball. Kind of started my passion there – with a sport I didn’t play for long as a child myself.”
Soon, football would come calling and he signed up Weston to play for Alex Collins in the Bossier league.
“Alex asked me to help, and that’s where the joy of coaching really began,” Wesley said. “Even with the stress of two jobs and building our house – literally with my own two hands – I found great happiness and success coaching football. With everything going on that fall, I felt I found a calling I never knew I needed. I needed it just as much as most of the kids needed it.”
That coaching continued for several years until he began coaching Glenbrook elementary football in 2017.
“We played in the MAIS elementary league until Glenbrook made the swap to LHSSA, and we had to find another league to play in,” he said. “Nick Rowton had been in contact with other schools, and they got the ball rolling to create a league for elementary sports, now known as the North Louisiana Youth Sports Association. Nick asked me to be a board member, and I jumped right in with them. We have monthly meetings and now have nine different schools involved in the league.”
He said: “It’s been awesome to be a part of something this big involving youth sports. The biggest enjoyment of coaching is being a part of these kids’ youth.”
I asked him why he coached? There’s no money involved, so what drives him to take on this extra burden when so many others shy away?
He answered: “It’s about being that mentor and someone they trust enough to give you everything they have in them. I was blessed with great coaches growing up and still refer to them as ‘coach’ to this day. That is an endearment term. I’ve learned that means you impacted their life enough they remember you as ‘coach.’
“It’s about teaching the boys how to celebrate victories, endure and overcome the losses, and how to work harder than they think is possible mentally and physically,” he continued. “Those are life lessons, not just sports. That’s everyday life. So, to hear them call me coach after they no longer play for me, that’s powerful. That means I did something right.”
Something right indeed. Making the world a little bit better. Coaches are teachers. Coaches make a difference. And Wesley Duck is a coach, a teacher, and a difference maker. Just ask the hundreds of boys he’s helped mold into young men.
(“For the Kids” is a series of regular feature stories published in the Webster Parish Journal. If you have a recommendation of someone who needs to be recognized for their work with our local school children, please reach out to Josh Beavers either through Facebook or email at joshwbeavers@gmail.com.)