A legend in the Dale High School basketball program is stepping down as a coach and full-time teacher.
Jeff Edmonson, who has coached and taught for 32 years, 23 of which have been as a head coach, is retiring at the end of the current school year.
School Supt. Will Jones, who described the Dale head basketball coaching position at Dale “as the best coaching job in the state,” explained, “We hope to have a replacement named by the end of April.”
Asked what he’s enjoyed most about it, Edmonson said, “All of it. If I could go back and change anything, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve enjoyed all the practices, the bus rides, everything about it,” he added. He’s been a math teacher the whole time. While he’s retiring from both coaching and teaching, Emondson noted, “We’ll work out something and I’ll probably come back and teach some.”
His wife of 25 years, Michelle, is also a teacher at Dale and he said she will continue teaching.
They have two kids, a daughter Emma, who graduated from college and will begin her teaching career this coming school year, and a son Easton, who is graduating from Dale in May and plans to become a firefighter.
He described coaching Easton these past four years in high school as “perfect,” further noting, “They wouldn’t have had to pay me.”
Edmonson pointed out that he’s been coaching Easton and the other seniors on the team since they were in the second grade.
Edmonson said he began his coaching career at Harrah where he spent a year, then went to Deer Creek for five years before becoming the head coach at Meeker for five years.
He’s spent the past 18 years at Dale, guiding the Pirates to four consecutive state championships. He’s amassed more than 500 wins during his coaching career.
“These seniors haven’t lost a home game in more than four years,” Edmonson said.
He pointed out that he really knew he was going to step down as coach and full-time teacher before this school year ever began. “But I didn’t announce it because I didn’t want it to become a distraction.
“I wanted this year to be all about the kids,” he stressed. Edmonson said there’s been speculation that he was going to take another coaching job.
However, he was insistent, “I’m not going anywhere to any other school. If I was going to continue coaching, it would be right here at Dale. I’ll be here supporting Dale this coming year.
“These kids are part of my family,” he said. Asked about highlights, he replied, “We’d be here all day talking about it because there are so many,” he believes.
Winning the Tournament of Champions a couple of years ago was a big deal, he thinks.
“There have been a lot of good small school teams to go up there but we were the first small school to win it in the past 40 years. We defeated Tulsa Union, then beat Crossings Christian before knocking off Tulsa Union.
“I think we were the best team year in the state that year,” he continued.
Pausing a minute to regain his composure after becoming emotional, Edmonson commented, “It went by too fast is my only regret, my only complaint.”