The guests at the meeting included: Carolyn Rice of the Dayton Rotary, who is also Montgomery County Treasurer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Past-president Judy Budi noted that one of the recent college scholarship recipients, Alex Blair, had sent a thank-you note to the club expressing his appreciation for the $2000 award and for the club's support in his academic future. He said he will try his best to live up to the club's motto, service above self, in serving the community.
Judy was one of the club members who rode on the fire engine driven by club member Lee Hieronymous in the July 4, American Festival Parade, which had national TV coverage and beautiful cool, sunny weather, with 100,000 people at the festival. She thanked Lee and John Callander, the latter who brought a big squirt gun and squirted a Centerville police officer riding on a motorcyle. He came back and told John not to do that and John pointed the gun at him like he intended to do it again, which apparently horrified Judy and others riding on the vehicle. Hieronymous had been forewarned not to swerve the fire engine along the parade route, and Lee drove straight, which wasn't as much fun, he said.
On a more serious note, Judy said a memorial brick with the name of deceased member Jim Singer has been readied for placement in the deceased club members grove by the Nature Nook.
Club member Ram Nunna gave a small slide presentation showing the results of the clean water project in Nigeria that the Centerville club participated in along with the Cincinnati Rotary Club, and the project initiator, the Dayton Rotary Club. Our club donated $500 to the total cost of $13,500 needed to provide a well for a school. The Rotary Club of Eziukwu-Aba, District 9140, Nigeria, led the effort in constructing the well. The slides show the students at the school by the running water and with a big Thank You Rotary sign they'd made. Ram said a group of Dayton business people sponsored by the Dayton Rotary came back from their exchange trip to the area and said they were shocked at the school's lack of clean drinking water. They came up with $1,000 and asked the Dayton Rotary Club if they could help make a clean-water project possible. It was built so it could not be vandalized and would be self-sustaining, Rice said. Ram said the club was presented with a flag from the Rotary Club of Eziukwu-Aba. It was passed around for everyone to see, and is shown in the picture below.
Club Sgt.-at-arms Erich Eggers collected Happy Bucks for Organization Warm, to provide coats for underprivileged kids this winter. The coats cost $20 each. Club member Ram Nunna gave $100 for the cause, stating that it was to make up for the three months he was absent from the club while on a work assignment in Columbus.
SPEAKER: Rodney Roberts, new Centerville High School Varsity Football Coach
Roberts (on right) is shown in the picture below speaking with club member Ram Nunna after the meeting.
Club member Ron Hollenbeck introduced Roberts, noting that he is a graduate of Franklin High School. He has a bachelors degree in Education from UD and a master's degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Cincinnati. He has been an educator for 20 years, serving the last eight years as the director of athletics and a football coach for the Franklin City School District.
At UD, Roberts was a three-year varsity letter winner in football and a member of the 1989 National Championship team. He began his coaching career at UD in 1993 as a graduate assistant coach.
After six seasons at Carlisle High School as a head coach, and four seasons at Springboro High School, with the last eight at Franklin High School, he was named head varsity football coach at Centerville High School in January, 2014. He has numerous coach of the year awards..about 16..and counting...He and his wife Cheryl live in Franklin with their children, Brooke, Brittany, Bayleigh, and Ryan, along with grandchildren Greyson and Lula.
Roberts said he is looking forward to being in the classroom as well as coaching, as he likes the student interaction. He believes that teaching them about service above self, as in Rotary, helps prepare them for becoming better community leaders. He said he has been a Rotarian in the past, but had too many job and family commitments to stay involved.
He said he plans to have the quarterback throw the ball and expects the team to do the best they can. A good quarterback has to show leadership, he said.
He said he has been making home visits to each senior's home. He decided he would do this before he realized there were 38 seniors, he said. So far he has visited all but two homes. He said he believes the team already has a good work ethic in place and that "we're getting better every day." He got some early training by spending several weeks with Centerville Football Coach Gregg while at UD, he said.
Roberts said he knew he wanted to get into coaching when he was in college, because "I wanted to pay forward, the way people influenced me." He got to play under legendary UD coach Mike Kelly and got his start as a coach at Carlisle High School because "nobody else wanted it." When he was at Springboro High School he coached Jake Ballard, who made a spectacular catch at the Rose Bowl and is now a tight end with the Arizona Cardinals, he said.
Roberts said he left Springboro for the Franklin job because he needed a larger income and was offered a job as athletic director as well as football coach. His step-daughter was in a car accident and his wife had to quit her job in 2005, so he needed the extra income, he said. He got to coach his own son this past year, which was very rewarding, he said. The team won 29 football games over the past three years, he said.
Roberts said Centerville High School will get to be the host site of this year's Flyin' to the Hoop high school football invitational, which has Premier Health as its title sponsor. The Backyard Blitz will take place Aug. 30. Centerville will be the host site and a participant for one of the two games that will take place that day, in what is billed as the Ohio vs. the Nation contest.
The inaugural Backyard Blitz will feature two games on Saturday, August 30 at Centerville Stadium.
The 4 p.m. game features Goose Creek out of South Carolina against Pickerington Central.
The 8 p.m. kickoff has Centerville taking on Glenbard North out of Illinois. "It's going to be a great event," Roberts said.
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