ALPINE – On July 15, Kay Whitley will conclude an extremely well-traveled career at Sul Ross State University.
Kay Whitley
Whitley will conclude 33 years’ service as lecturer, coach – of three different sports – and athletics director, that included miles and miles of Texas and beyond.
“I have tried to calculate how many miles I have driven Sul Ross vehicles over 33 years,” she said. “I think half a million is a conservative estimate.”
She can add more miles as a Lobo student-athlete, as her Sul Ross connection dates back to 1968, when she enrolled as a freshman. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the first intercollegiate volleyball team at Sul Ross, and played on the 1971 national championship team coached by Paul Pierce. She also competed on the 1972 team, which won the Texas state intercollegiate championship, and placed fifth in the National Association of Girls and Women’s Sports tournament.
The Brownfield native received B.S. (1972) and M.S. (1975) degrees in Biology, then enrolled in the doctoral program at New Mexico State University. She was a science teacher and coach at Rochester High School for three years before returning to Sul Ross in 1979 as head women’s basketball and volleyball coach and instructor in Physical Education.
Whitley was named Sul Ross athletics director in 1997, the same year the American Southwest Conference was formed. When she stepped down earlier this year, she was the conference’s longest-tenured athletics director.
“It has been fun,” she said. “I have had a lot of enjoyable people to work with. Staff members have helped each other out and people have always been cooperative in doing what they needed to do.”
Since joining the Sul Ross faculty, Whitley has coached women’s basketball, volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis. During her 18-season tenure as volleyball coach (1979-1996) her Lady Lobo teams won nine Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles, the last in 1991. In 1979 and 1980, Sul Ross finished eighth and fourth respectively, in the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national tournament, and had a total of eight playoff appearances.
She has also coached the Lobo tennis teams to seven women’s conference titles and one men’s championship. Two of her players competed in the NAIA individual championships.
Other duties include serving as the university’s compliance officer and senior women’s administrator. She also served on several NCAA Division III committees, including: Student Athlete Reinstatement Infraction Appeals, Strategic Planning and Budget, Working Committee on Membership Issues and chair of the Practice and Playing Season sub-committee.
She has taught a wide variety of courses in biology, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and sports science, as well as driver’s education and Red Cross swimming and life-guard classes.
“If you had asked me as a high school senior what I planned to do, I really and truly thought I would just be a science teacher,” Whitley said, noting that Sul Ross did not offer women’s intercollegiate sports when she first enrolled.
“As far as athletics, I would never have thought I would have been as involved as I have.”
Retirement may re-kindle her interest in biology, as she spent a number of summers as a naturalist at Davis Mountains State Park. Her Sul Ross mentor was the late Dr. Barton Warnock.
“I may also stay involved with Sul Ross as an adjunct faculty member, to help with compliance and I hope to remain as tennis coach for another year.”
She also plans to travel and spend more time with family members, including her mother, Lois Harvell, Andrews; sisters Lynda Brown, Andrews; Carolyn Hillis, Midland; Regina Isbel, Post; Kara Hale, Brownfield; step-sisters Shirley Gutierrez, Seagraves; and Cathy Purcell, Fort Worth; and step-brothers David Hale, Houston; and Rusty Hale, Midland.
“I am grateful to Dr. Chet Sample for the opportunity to be involved in intercollegiate coaching,” she said.
“I also thank Presidents [R. Vic] Morgan and [Ricardo] Maestas for the privilege to have served as an administrator.”