Kelly Sutphin
A familiar face is taking over the girls’ basketball helm at Eastern Montgomery High School. Kelly Sutphin, a physical education teacher at Eastern Montgomery Elementary School, is returning to the bench after a 10-year hiatus. Sutphin coached the Lady Mustangs from 1999-2007, stepping away to start a family.
“Both of my boys are at the age that I cannot no longer coach them so I thought it was time to come back,” she said Friday after meeting with prospective players and their families.
Sutphin graduated from Emory and Henry College in 1998 after serving as the head student athletic trainer for two years. She continued that career with a Master’s degree in health promotion at Virginia Tech in 1999 and served as a graduate assistant athletic training during that time.
She started in the Montgomery County school system in 1999 as a health and PE teacher at Auburn and Shawsville elementary schools, and served as health and PE teacher at both Christiansburg Middle and Shawsville Middle schools for three years. Since 2007, she has held the same position at Eastern Montgomery Elementary School. She will continue that teacher position while coaching at the high school.
“I thought it was a good time to return and help all the kids that I have coached at the elementary school. I see potential, and I want to make a positive impact happen on this end of the country,” she said.
In addition to her teaching position, Sutphin also served as athletic trainer at both Shawsville and Eastern Montgomery high schools until 2007. She has also coached both middle school and jayvee girls’ basketball teams, and was the varsity girls’ tennis coach from 2000 to 2007.
Sutphin has been named the teacher of the year at Eastern Montgomery Elementary School and is a past Three Rivers District tennis coach of the year. In the 2002-2003 girls’ basketball season, EMHS posted at 17-7 record under her, finishing third overall in the regular season.
In addition, she has coached county recreation basketball and T-ball teams for the past five years.
Open gym at the school is scheduled for several times this week, and already Sutphin is planning to take the varsity, jayvee and middle school teams to a June summer camp at Emory and Henry College.
Eastern Montgomery only lost one senior from this past season, and will play a Pioneer schedule this coming year.