CLEVELAND — He grew up seeing Collinwood High School in his neighborhood and used to sneak in to hang out with the students. Today he’s coaching and teaching Collinwood students how to run life’s race and win. His name is Coach Corbin Stacey. I went to Collinwood High School to talk to him about how he keeps his students motivated and focused. He said he teaches what was instilled in him at an early age by his track coach.
"He never let us fail,” Stacey said. "Being exceptional was instilled in me at an early age from ninth grade up."
After high school, Stacey got a scholarship to Youngstown State University to run track. He went to the military, became a surgical technician, coached tae kwon do in the Paralympics, and competed in tae kwan do in the 2019 Pan Am games. Recently he earned his master's degree in education from Cleveland State University.
So I was curious and asked him what drove him to sprout off in so many different directions. He said, "Not being complacent. Just living up to my family expectations of if you get an opportunity, you need to walk through the door. Don't look at it. Go through it. The worst that can happen is if you fail, you can get up, start over again."
Stacey had to do just that. He shared with me something that changed his life while serving in the military.
“I served for 19 years, and my last year I got injured in the military. I was paralyzed from the neck down. Being in a wheelchair and being told you may not walk again. So for me, I had a conversation with God and said like 'hey man you let me out this bed, I'll do your will' and that's what I've been doing since I got out the bed."
The man who couldn't walk was blessed to eventually rise and teach young people how to run and finish their course in life.
I wondered if he ever looked back over his life in amazement.
He said no. The reason?
“I wish my son was here," Stacey said. "In 2016 he committed suicide so I do it for him. His legacy. We've got to figure something out because whatever he was going through, he was a high school student. He had just graduated high school. He was a Division I football player. But he's not here. So we do what we do. We keep moving."
He does that by teaching his athletes what hangs high on his classroom wall: Respect, integrity, fortitude, and courtesy. His friend and colleague of over 40 years, Raymon Reed, has seen coach Stacey put his words into action
Reed said, “I just watch coach, you know, open up his heart, open up his wallet, open up his classroom, and then open up his wealth of knowledge from so many different areas of expertise to just teach life lesson after life lesson."
When I asked Stacey what's the best lesson he hopes his students will learn, he quickly responded and said “Don't gravitate towards mediocrity will be the best one for us."
