If you’ve grown up on the “east side of town” and played school sports in the last three decades, Judi Arnold likely had an impact on your life.
Arnold, the longtime athletic director and coach at Neptune Middle School before going to Harmony
Middle School three years ago to help start that program, announced a well-earned retirement from Osceola County School District this year.
The response — aside from heaping handfuls of “Thank you and we’ll miss you” from those who played and worked for her — was an honor all those who enter the Neptune Middle gym going forward will see.
Thursday, the school’s gym was named in her honor at a ceremony. A new wrap on the entry doors proudly proclaims it as the Coach Arnold Gymnasium.
“What an amazing tribute, I am so honored,” Arnold said. “This (gym) was my home for 26 years. Leaving and going to Harmony was the hardest decision I ever made.”
It’s not like the school needed her name on it to prove her fingerprints are all over it. Since starting as a physical education teacher and coach for the Seahawks in 1991, she molded the program into one of the best, a model for the county, which had five middle schools at the start of her career. Now, over a dozen compete in the Osceola County Middle School Athletic Conference (OCMSAC) in what’s now known around the region as a model middle-school league.
And Neptune has, for her entire Seahawk career, been near or at the top of it, in part because of her commitment to organizing and preparing athletes to not just compete, but succeed.
Some of the plaques for count champion teams won were on display Thursday. The count was “between 120 and 150” championships over 26 years. So many were in track and cross country that, rumor has it, the county thought about retiring that trophy, as it simply sat at Neptune Middle year after year. Arnold’s commitment to
Arnold’s commitment to students didn’t just last for the three years they spent at Neptune. She organized an annual reunion to former Seahawks to for a banquet prior to their high school graduation. In fact, Arnold came from that event in the media center Thursday to the gym to be surprised. The event was organized — and expertly hidden from Arnold — thanks to a Facebook page started by Randy Schafer, her coaching cohort at Harmony, and who hired Schafer at Neptune 11 years ago.
Former students — many who have children who Arnold has since coached — and those who coached alongside her — sent in video well-wishes; so many sent 30-second clips that the full farewell video lasts 40 minutes on YouTube. Many called Arnold “A legend,” “The MVP,” or “The GOAT (Greatest of All Time).”
That’s because Arnold helped launch the careers of many successful coaches area coaches, like Schafer. For example: girls basketball coaches Chad Ansbaugh (St. Cloud High School) and Justin Marino (Gateway High) led teams that played for the Orange Belt Conference championship earlier this year; both started as Seahawks.
There were many lighthearted jokes at Thursday’s ceremony, which had a few “roast” moments. One of them was what “retirement” is going to look like for a grandmother of four who also works on a family ranch near Melbourne, from where she’s commuted to school all these years.
“Retirement? I’m going to work!” Arnold said with a wry laugh. “I don’t need to set an alarm, I automatically wake up. But this is bittersweet. Seeing the seniors who’ve come back, I’m glad to see they’ve succeeded.”
One of the gifts Arnold w as presented with was perfect for someone wrapping up a career in athletics and headed back into ranching: a set of spurs adorned with the word “Coach.” She said they will help her fondly remember her career.
“We can’t turn back the clock, but we can certainly keep all our memories.”
