By Jim Henry

jhenry@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Amy Townsend, former women's basketball coach at Missouri Southern, has been named the Health Education Professional of the Year for the state of Kansas.

Townsend, now a physical education instructor at Emporia State, received the award Thursday night during the Kansas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD) convention hosted by Pittsburg State.

“I teach some courses on the health side and the fitness side, but my main emphasis is special populations,” said Townsend, who majored in physical education and minored in special education. “I'm teaching physical education majors or recreation majors how to work with somebody in their classroom who has a disability. For example, say I have a Downs Syndrome kid, and they go to regular PE, how then are you as a PE teacher going to make sure they are included.”

The convention, with PSU instructors Janice Jewett and Scott Gorman as managers, ended its three-day run on Friday and attracted more than 500 physical education teachers from Kansas. Breakout sessions were held all three days, and topics included archery, dancing, self-defense, zumba, kung fu and skateboarding.

Townsend, a 1988 graduate of Girard High School, was an assistant women's basketball coach and head volleyball coach at Pittsburg State before she was hired at age 27 to coach the Lions in 1997.

After four seasons coaching the Lions, Townsend spent a year in Oklahoma City working for a company that sold natural supplements while doing some adjutant teaching at a junior college in nearby Midwest City.

“I did not take my foot out of the teaching world, because I knew that's what I wanted to do,” Townsend said. “I did OK (with the company), but I was used to being at a desk or with kids.”

She returned to full-time teaching at Carthage Middle School as a special education teacher and basketball coach, but she returned to Oklahoma after being contacted by another former MSSU coach.

Dr. Debbie Traywick, who coached Missouri Southern's volleyball team from 1988-2003, is associate professor and PE program coordinator at the University of Central Oklahoma. Seven months ago Traywick received the Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Traywick told Townsend about an opening at Piedmont High School, located east of Oklahoma City. Townsend was there for a year before Traywick called again about an opening at UCO. Townsend taught at Central Oklahoma two years before taking the position at Emporia State.

Townsend is beginning a new challenge on Sunday.

“I'm actually starting my PhD, something that I thought I always wanted to do,” she said. “It actually starts Nov. 1, and it's all online, which is kind of cool these days. I'm excited about that. It will be a new little journey.”