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August Features
Volume | Issue 122011 | August | 4August | 2011
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A classroom for all By MADOLINE MARKHAM
Football preview | pg 16 Editor’s Note
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Mission Trips
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Fun for Preschoolers
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Back to School Fashion
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Last fall, Christ’s Kids Preschool and Nursery (CKPN) opened its doors to eight special needs children. The teachers will tell you it was an adjustment but not one they would think twice about doing over again. “I loved watching the parents get excited,” resource teacher Katie Steverson said. “I would tell them what their child had done that day, and they would tear up.” A boy that used a walker took 10 steps by the end of the year. By watching their peers, little boys learned to play with cars instead of cupping them in their hands. One little girl always held her special friend’s hand. A class would applaud when a special needs child reached a small milestone like not throwing a cup at lunch. “It would warm your heart to watch,” Director Amy Tolloch said. “The children jumped right in and wanted to nurture, help and include those children. We never had any exclusion; it was a beautiful thing.” Five out of nine classrooms had different therapists coming in up to four or five days a week. Some of the children had Down syndrome, others autism,
Ms. Susan Stroup’s 4K class at Christ’s Kids Preschool and Nursery. Photo courtesy of Katie Steverson.
developmental delays, speech issues or gross and fine motor delays. “For a small preschool of 80 to 85 kids, eight was a large number of special needs children,” Tolloch said. “It was a learning process and a blessing for us.” The preschool is housed at Christ Church United Methodist behind Spain Park High
School. This fall, the school anticipates having around the same number or as many as they can accommodate. “Parents just want their children to be with typical children and to be treated like
Claire Fabian
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Phil Campbell Backpacks
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Spirit of Hope Ranch
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School House
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Sports
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Restaurant Showcase
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Business Spotlight
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280 Business Happenings
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By RICK WATSON
Highway 280 Feedback
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Rick Watson
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Library Happenings
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Kari Kampakis
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Paul Johnson
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Calendar of Events
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Music Listings/Classifieds
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Coach Fred Yancey is entering his 22nd season as head coach of Briarwood Christian School football, and he has good reason to be excited about the coming year. Not only did he reach a milestone of 200 wins during the 2010 season, but his team was also region champs and runner-up for the state 5A title. Yancey actually surpassed the 200 mark in 2006, but that number included wins at other schools as well as Briarwood. For Yancey, playing sports is a way to help kids to grow up. “It’s obviously not the only way,” he said, “but it’s like a laboratory where children can be tested so that one day when they do grow up, they will have already been through some ups and downs.” Those ups and downs of football have been Fred Yancey’s life. As a boy growing up in Tennessee, he enjoyed football as well as other sports. “I had some really good coaches, and I enjoyed the experience of being around them,” he said.
See CLASSROOM | page 30
Continuing a coaching legacy
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Briarwood football coach Fred Yancey. Photo by Rick Watson.
When his brother, who is five years older, became a coach, it encouraged Yancey to become a coach too. “I took that route, and I never looked back,” Yancey said. Yancey began his coaching career in his hometown, Memphis, after graduating from Memphis State University. He first served as assistant coach at Overton High School and then head coach at Towering Oaks High School. He later served as head coach at Gatewood High School in Georgia and then athletic director and freshman football coach at Evangelical Christian School in Memphis. In 1989 Dr. Byrle Kynerd at Briarwood Christian lured him to Birmingham to serve as head coach at the school. He moved with his wife, Sharon, and two children, Allison and Bart, and he’s been here ever since. When asked what it takes to win at football, Yancey is quick to point out that the first requirement
See LEGACY | page 8
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