I was out for about half of the golf season this year due to a shoulder injury, but I would always go watch and support the rest of the team. My coach, Chris Quinn, would always offer me a ride in his golf cart to watch the match with him.

At the time, I didn’t have my license, so my parents would pick me up from the matches. Sometimes they arrived before the match was over, but I needed to grab my bookbag from the bus. I would go up to Coach Quinn and ask for the bus key so I could walk to get my bag. But, everytime that happened, he would refuse to let me do that. Instead, he would drive me to the bus with a smile on his face.

This may seem like a small gesture, but it shows who Coach Quinn was. He would always look for opportunities to go out of his way to help others.

Coach Quinn battled cancer for 15 months. Whether he was facing radiation appointments nearly every day or chemotherapy treatments every Friday, he maintained his positive spirit and his encouraging smile. His difficult battle with cancer came to an end on Dec. 7 when he passed away.
He was a health and gym teacher here at SHS. He was the head coach for girls and boys golf and was the varsity assistant coach for girls basketball. Even in the midst of his busy schedule with appointments, he still showed up to every single class and practice that he was able

to go to. He had so much passion and dedication to helping students and athletes learn and grow, and he would do anything to help that happen.

I had the honor of knowing Coach Quinn (or as some of his athletes called him, CQ) for the four years that he worked here. But even before impacting the SHS community, he taught and coached at several other schools. Anyone that knew him knows that he was the most selfless person. He put everyone before himself, even during times in which he struggled.

Senior golfer Sam Brookshire says Coach Quinn didn’t make anyone feel bad for anything extra he did for athletes on the team.

“(He was) very selfless,” Brookshire said. “ That’s the thing that sticks out the most, and he always had a smile on his face no matter his circumstances.”

Brookshire says that last May, the team had a tournament on the same day as prom. With the time of the match, Brookshire wouldn’t have been able to make it to prom. He talked to Coach Quinn, who went above and beyond to switch the time of the golf match.

“It was pretty difficult, but he worked it out with the athletic director of the tournament we were at,” Brookshire said. “I knew it was a big hassle for him, but it meant a lot to me, and I think he understood that.”

Coach Quinn worked alongside the girls basketball varsity coach, Adam Morelock. With the four years he was at SHS, he and Morelock formed a close friendship.

“I miss my friend, my trusty assistant and my confidant,” Morelock wrote in an email to The Journal. “I have missed him every day since he left this summer, and I will miss him even more now that he is gone.”

Coach Quinn affected anyone that knew him and because of that, he will be missed by all. But he will especially be missed by his wife, Jen.
Like he did with everyone else, he put Jen before himself. Jen had always wanted a Corvette convertible. They planned to get one after they both retired. But with Coach Quinn falling sick, they didn’t know if they would both make it to retirement, so he surprised her with the convertible she wanted last Christmas.

“He wanted me to have it while he was able to enjoy it with me. We had so much fun this past summer in that car. I will always love that car,” Jen wrote in a text to The Journal.

But, it was his small or big acts of selflessness for his students, athletes and coworkers that most of us at SHS will remember about him.

“Chris loved his job, our team, and this place,” Morelock wrote. “We are all better people, coaches and players because of him. I just hope someday, I can be half as impactful as Chris has been on this Earth.”

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received is to be the things that you love about the people that you love. I loved Coach Quinn’s selflessness, and I hope to be as selfless as he was and learn to always put others before myself. With that being said, I encourage everyone to follow Coach Quinn’s incredible example.