Winning Tuba City Coach Resigns

Tuba City, Ariz. Milfred Tewawina, who coached the Tuba City Nigh School girl’s cross-country teams to four straight state titles, has verbally resigned as coach of the Lady Warriors.

Tewawina recently left his full-time post as a special education teacher at Tuba City High School to become co-coordinator of the 21st Century Community Learning Grant based at Greyhills High School, which is also located in Tuba City.

Tewawina knew a lot of folks would not be comfortable with him working full-time at one school and coaching at another, so he decided to also make the coaching move.

“I want to express my appreciation for the support I received for the years I coached at Tuba City High School,” he continued. “I graduated from Tuba City High School and I’ll always be a Warrior at heart. But as a runner, I want to coach kids and teach them about running. It doesn’t matter who they represent.”

Tewawina said he hopes the late Bud Davis, who was his coach when he ran for Tuba City High School, would approve.

“I think he felt the same way that it doesn’t matter where you go as long as you touch people’s lives to make them better people,” he said.

Tewawina said he is not sure how the community will respond to his career change, but he hopes that they’ll be supportive.

While Tewawina has to go through the application and interview process for coaching at Greyhills, he anticipates becoming the head cross-country coach for girls and boys at Greyhills.

“Greyhills is a gold mine. I respect what they’ve done there,” he said. “Greyhills is a great place because of the dorms. It’s the perfect environment for runners.”

Tewawina said Greyhills recently has seen improvements in its students standardized test scores. He said scores have been low, but they are going up.

Tewawina said he has the support of current Greyhills cross country coaches Annette Hemstreet and Woody Franklin. He said Tuba City Athletic Director Floyd Haven also supports his career change.

Tewawina said knowing that Mitch Kalauli serves has superintendent of Grey Hills High School helped him make the decision to go to work at Greyhills. Kalauli previously served as superintendent of Tuba City School District and Tewawina had worked for him there in the early 1990s when he guided the boys to his first state title as a coach.

“Kalauli is an awesome, awesome man. I respect what he’s done. It’s easy to come over knowing he’s there and that he’s supportive,” he said.

Tewawina said he decided to take the job as co-coordinator of the 21st Century Community Learning Grant because it is similar to the post he held when he was director of Moenkopi Youth Center.

With his wife Ophelia also working at Greyhills as director of its day care center, the decision wasn’t hard except for how it will impact the current Lady Warrior runners.

“The runners were disappointed when I told them that I was thinking about changing, but I don’t think any of the runners will follow me over. Because their parents have a history at the public school; I feel they’re going to stay there. I respect that. I want them to be comfortable where they’re at and I want them to go where their family wants them to go,” he said.

Tewawina added he wants to see Tuba City perform well at state next year and he looks forward to a nice, friendly competition with them.

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