By Rick Teverbaugh
The Herald Bulletin
MIDDLETOWN —
For the first time in 37 years, Shenandoah High School will open its door this fall without Rick Penn as part of its academic and athletic family.
Penn stepped down from his athletic director’s post at the end of the school year and has moved to Las Vegas to live.
Penn came to Shenandoah in the fall of 1973 and didn’t start his varsity coaching career there until the 1978-79 season when he worked as an assistant coach to the boys basketball program under head coach Bob Heady.
“What Bob Heady taught me was to work hard and demand the kids work hard as well,” said Penn last week as he finished moving out of his office. “He taught me to learn to compete. We improved all the time during the year. We were built to lose five or six games during the year and still play like state champions.”
Penn was assistant coach in 1981 when Shenandoah played in the boys state basketball finals.
He took over the baseball program during the 1981-82 school year and remained in that post for eight years. During that stretch the Raiders won four sectional titles, doubling the total for the history of the school. Under his guidance the Raiders won their only two regional crowns.
In that stretch the baseball team was aggressive and sometimes that trait spilled over to the practice of bench-jockeying, a tactic designed to take the foes’ minds off the game.
“We took that a little bit too far,” admitted Penn. “If a coach did that when I was athletic director, I probably would have had him tone it down. But coach (Rob) Robbins came in from the (St. Louis) Cardinals organization and he brought a competitive attitude. That enthusiasm built into a winning program.”
Penn had one more varsity coaching stint as he took over the boys basketball program for three years, starting in 1988.
He almost left Shenandoah once. “I got an interesting opportunity to be an administrative assistant in Tennessee at the university level,” he said. “But I decided that just wasn’t for me.”
Penn accepted the post as athletic director at Shenandoah for the 1994-95 school year.
“I always wanted to be that athletic director that I always wanted when I was a coach,” said Penn. “That’s still how I see the athletic director’s job. It is his job to get everything he can that the coach needs.”
Doing that is becoming increasingly difficult and never more so that for the upcoming school year. “I’m not leaving the school in a good financial situation,” said Penn. “Economic issues have finally trickled down to the high schools.” Particularly damaging was the loss of an annual statewide AAU basketball tournament that routinely brought $5,000 into the school’s coffers.
Todd Salkoski, who retired as girls varsity basketball coach and will take over the AD job vacated by Penn, knows he has some large shoes to fill.
“I wouldn’t want to try and fill this position after him if I hadn’t had the chance to work with him,” said Salkoski. “He’s always been there for us. After a game I never had to worry about calling him up and explaining something that happened so I could get some advice. He’d been at all of the games. He has an eye for the details.”
Penn has left the state but he has plans to return, sometimes physically and more often as a virtual teacher in a classroom situation.
“I’m not ready to retire and do nothing,” said Penn. “I just decided it was time to do something else. I want to move in new directions.” The fact that those new directions don’t include completely leaving Shenandoah is no big surprise.
“He hasn’t sat idly by, that’s for sure,” said Salkoski. “He will be greatly missed by everyone here.”
