‘Awesome’ for Jordan to be back home

Published 10:00 am Thursday, August 11, 2016

TIFTON, Ga. — Monique Jordan is back home.

It has been a few years since she left, but the former Tift County High softball and track standout is teaching physical education at J.T. Reddick and assisting with the Lady Devils’ softball team.

Things happened quickly for Jordan, a former two-time state discus champion, who said she jumped at the opportunity once she found out about the position. After finishing Troy, she spent spent three years in Atlanta in human services and three more as a personal trainer.

She came back to Tifton in May to be nearer her parents. “It was time for me to be closer to home,” she said. Plus, she had been bitten by the coaching bug.

“I thought it would be awesome if I could get back in the school system and coach,” she said. “Here I am, coaching now.”

Almost as soon as she arrived, Jordan plunged into assisting the Tift County High softball team. She’s hopeful of assisting with track in the spring. “If I can help them,” she said, “I want to be out there helping them.”

Jordan’s background in human services put her around kids, giving her an advantage to teaching the same age group at Reddick.

“A different area,” she said, “but not new.” There were some differences in human services, though in plotting curriculum for the kids — who ranged in age from 5-21 — Jordan would often get them involved in exercises to keep them engaged. Sometimes, she would would be helping them work off energy. That has some definite similarities to Reddick’s PE program.

“My third block,” she said, “coming from lunch, they are hyped.” Jordan is teaching four classes per day. “I couldn’t ask for any other position,” she said.

She already has a goal in mind for her elementary students, which is helping to conquer childhood obesity.

“I have them doing exercise routines as soon as they come into the gym to help jump start their day before we move into other activities,” she said. “I really want them to learn the importance of health,” said Jordan, “and eating and of course, exercising is big. They’re active kids and I don’t like the kids to not be active.”

Jordan has formed a bond quickly with her softball players and she said they had gravitated towards her. She is also enjoying working with Kyle Kirk, who is also in his first year with the team.

“I’m very happy to be out there on the softball field,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m reliving my moments. I feel like I’m reliving it through the girls a little bit. I see so much potential.”

Third base was Jordan’s position in high school, where she won all-region. It had been a time of transition at Tift County High, from slow- to fast-pitch. Freshman year was the first she played fast-pitch. The team caught on quickly to that, as well to their new digs; Tift moved from E.B. Hamilton Complex to their current stadium when she was a sophomore. “That why it feels so good to be back,” she said.

Jordan will be an exceptionally busy individual over the next few months. Besides her teaching and softball schedules, there is also the Tift County Athletic Hall of Fame, where she will be inducted as a member of the third class.

It was a surprise, she said to even be nominated, much less make it in. “Me? Little old me?” she said. Jordan is nervous about making her speech.

Getting into coaching has put Jordan around some of her former mentors, including Ivey Vickers, then-head softball coach before moving over to tennis and swimming. They greeted with one another with a hug, she said.

Jordan has nothing but praise, too, for former track, cross country and basketball coach John O’Brien. “I love that man to death,” she said. They have stayed in communication over the years and he told her he was proud upon hearing she was coming back to coach.

O’Brien was head coach for her two state championships in track, a sport Jordan began in middle school.

A friend talked her onto the track, she said. Jordan was hesitant at first, as she did not believe she was a runner, but the friend told her about the field events. “I have this strong arm …,” she thought. After impressing coaches, she decided to stick with it.

“Ninth grade, Coach O’Brien had me and worked with me and worked with me,” Jordan said. The efforts paid off in a third place finish at state, where another Tift teammate, Shanice Dawson, took second.

Jordan did not make the podium as a sophomore, but that soon changed.

As a junior, her distance of 130’9″ won her first state title. “I was pumped,” she said. A year later, she threw it 144’5″, breaking her own school record. “Mentally, I was always competing,” Jordan said.

Her efforts resulted in a scholarship to Troy, where Jordan added a new throw to her repertoire: the hammer.

She said she realized she was not going to be able to throw just one event in college. Jordan had thrown the shot, but did not consider herself very good at it. But then she met the hammer. “When I picked up the hammer,” she said, “I loved it.”

“Throwing stuff far and hard has always been like ‘I can do this,'” she said. Jordan also participated in its indoor cousin, the weight throw.

Like with her elementary students, Jordan already has goals in mind for working with softball. “I would love for the girls, Coach Kirk and myself and Coach David (Ray), I would love to excel beyond region champs.” It has been a few years since the squad’s last region championship and she wants them to go even further. “Being overall state champions would be a definite goal.”

She also wants them to know they can go to college on athletic scholarships. “I had the joys of doing that and I want you to experience it as well.”