Lowville Remembers Bobb WatkinsIt was standing room only in the auditorium at Lowville Central School Saturday, as hundreds came out to honor longtime school employee and swim coach, Bobb Watkins. "It means a lot to see how many people that my father's touched over the years," said Sean Watkins, Bobb Watkins' son. As swim coach, Watkins tallied more than 500 wins. However people who knew him best say Watkins' will be remembered most for the way he cared for everyone on his teams. From the star swimmer on down. "They might have been fourth, but because they got a personal best, which was huge with him, it mattered. So everybody on that team mattered," said Lowville Superintendent Ken McAuliffe. Fellow coaches say Lowville swimming will never be the same. "It's just an empty spot that I can't go to him and say, 'wow, look at what happened yesterday,'" said Bill Marks, a teacher and coach at Lowville. It wasn't just swimming that dominated Watkins' attention. He had a life-long love affair with music. "When seniors would graduate, he would put together a special CD for them. When we did our two-hundredth anniversary, he produced the music," adds McAuliffe. And what about his unique name, Bobb? Watkins' son says he added the extra "b" in while he was in high school. "Dad really liked to be an individual and he wanted to make sure people knew he was an individual. So that made him different, that made him unique," said Sean. While everyone had different memories of Watkins, there was one thing all could agree on. Without Watkins, Lowville Central will never be the same. Most Popular |
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
, Watertown, NY
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