In football, they’re often anchored on the sideline as the “chain gang.” These are the gray-tints who are incredibly unerring about colorful details of a football program through the eras. Years of uninterrupted service is their norm.
At Beavercreek High School, Gene “Big Daddy” Koverman and Dr. Roger Coy have taken those extremes to the next level.
Koverman’s term as the boys varsity and reserve basketball clock operator is hard to match. He’s the only person to hold that position for Beavers games since the high school opened in 1957.
Except for illness, that’s 54 years of being anchored next to team benches.
Coy is in that longevity ballpark. He’s served as Beavercreek’s boys basketball announcer for 39 seasons.
That’s a whole lot of teams, players and highlights the seniors have shared courtside.
Koverman’s most memorable moment in more than a half century of duty?
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that or not,” he shrugged.
That’s typical of his quick wit that served him so well as a business teacher at the high school. But it was after school that “Big Daddy” made a lasting impression with many Beavercreek teens.
As the Intramural Basketball Association founder, he helped scores of Beavercreek boys extend their fondness for hoops on Saturday mornings and weekday nights.
As the detention taskmaster, he instilled the benefits of “silence” to all who spent an extra after-school hour with head bowed in his classroom.
Through it all, he ran that clock. He guesses he’s worked more than 1,000 games.
“The first year that I did it was 1957,” said Koverman, who retired from the school district in 1985 after 33 years of teaching.
“The man who did this got sick and they came and asked me if I would do this. I said ‘I’ve never done that before. I don’t know what it is.’ They said, ‘Well, you’ll learn, won’t you?’ So I did.
“I get to see all of the games free. I’ve always loved to do this.”
Coy is from a patriarch Beavercreek family. He rose to a district administrator and retired in 1988 after 32 years of service. He spent the next 18 years teaching at the University of Dayton.
“So I’ve had 50 years in education,” he said. “It’s been fun.”
Coy started what quickly turned into the area’s best wrestling program in 1960, a domination that lasted a decade. He also coached Beavercreek football and track and field.
Besides basketball, he was the announcer for Beavercreek home football games for 35 years.
Like Koverman, being connected with something that played such a big part in their teaching careers is still special.
“That’s the whole thing right there, to be part of the programs and the kids and the coaches, all the athletic directors and the fans. It’s just been wonderful, really,” said Coy.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2381 or mpendleton@DaytonDaily News.com.
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