SPANISH FORT, Ala.—Spanish Fort dual-sport coach Barclay Kercher announced her decision to step down as the Toros volleyball coach while staying on as girls soccer skipper this week. Citing a breast-cancer diagnosis just two weeks before the start of last season’s volleyball schedule, a post-season surgery in November and another surgery scheduled for this summer, she decided the program would benefit most with a new full time coach on the court as soon as possible.
“With the recovery time I’m looking at before the season, I don’t think I‘ll be back to full strength for the preseason. And that’s a real important part of the season for a fall sport. I just want the girls to get the training and coaching attention they deserve from start to finish.”
Kercher, 44, added that after 22 years of coaching two sports — most in volleyball and softball at Satsuma High (10 years and as athletic director 2003-05) and then Spanish Fort since it opened in 2004—the time felt right.
“I want to help advertise that there is a position open for varsity volleyball,” she said. “After being diagnosed and beating breast cancer, my priorities have changed. I did coach two sports for 22 years. I think my love of competition kept me going a long time, but with age and this health situation, I’ve realized that I miss a lot of family things. But I also wanted to reach out to women to get early and regular checkups. That’s what caught mine and I have let my students and players know how important that can be for them, too. ”
When the Mobile native played soccer for McGill-Toolen Catholic, the sport still flew a little under the radar at the high school level. She nevertheless played a role in bringing the game a big region-wide headline when she became the first woman’s soccer scholarship signee to the University of Alabama.
But finding a prep head-coaching job for the sport she excelled in most as an athlete did not come easily or soon after the Crimson Tide player returned to her Southwest Alabama home. She served as an assistant to Foley head coach Al Borchardt in 1994 and as JV coach at McGill-Toolen in 1995.
After getting the softball and volleyball programs at SFHS off the ground, she got her chance to take over the girls soccer job in 2007.
In 2010 she took the Toros to the Class 5A final–four winning the semifinal and finished as the state runner up. And went all the way to win the 5A state championship in 2011, the first female sport at SFHS to bring a blue state-title trophy home to The Hill.
In Volleyball, she led the then Class 2A Toros to the Elite Eight state tournament in 2004, the first varsity season for the program, with mostly freshman and sophomore players.
In one year, SF was thrust into the powerful 5A league and still returned to the state tournament under Kercher, in 2007. The Toros have returned to the 5A Elite Eight since then including the last two seasons. Kercher remains as the SFHS girls athletic director.
The Lady Toros will host Fairhope Tuesday in a match that will feature two former Crimson Tide players in Kercher and Pirate coach Courtney Calhoun directing their clubs in a non conference contest at 5 p.m.