Weldon L. "Jake" Gibbs, 2016
Weldon L. "Jake" Gibbs enters the HOF under two categories - as a coach and administrator. Gibbs served as principal of GHS from 1977-1983 and as a coach from 1979-1993. During this time, he coached the varsity and freshmen girls' basketball teams, softball, volleyball and cross country. His varsity girls compiled a record of 322-99, while the freshmen's record was 64-11. The successful record of his girls basketball team is a lengthy one that included numerous regular season championships, six district championships and district tournament winners, seven conference titles, seven conference tournament championships, two Christmas tournament championships and 14 trips to the regional tournament. Along with these team successes, his players also had great individual successes. There were over 30 players who achieved recognition in each of these areas - all district player, all district tournament player, all conference and tournament player. In addition to girls who were named MVPs, there were also 20 plus girls who were named to All Mid-State. Coach Gibbs was named Coach of the Year five times.
Gibbs had several highlights during his coaching career including coaching the 1979-80 Girls Basketball Team. He also coached the 1986 team, which finished in the final four of the state tournament and placed two girls on the all state tournament team. He is especially proud of having 20 girls receive college basketball scholarships and 16 playing in college, including his three daughters. He had a nationally recognized "Carnation High School All-American" in Rhonda Knight. The thing he enjoyed most about coaching was working with the fine young ladies at GHS. He said, "They were the most motivated, hard-working, dedicated and toughest girls I have ever been around. They refused to accept defeat and never thought they lost; they always thought they just ran out of time. They never complained about the hard, long practices we had. They just worked." As a principal he supported all the teams, listening to each coach's requests and never placed one program above another one. He wanted each program to be a great success. |