Alum Spotlight
Karen Collins:
Winner with a capital W
Karen Collins , MUW class of ’85, had five minutes to talk -- she was about to coach her team in the All Star North-South game where her team split losing their first game and winning their second.
Karen this year coached her Lady Dolphins of Gulf Shores High School in Gulf Shores, Ala., to their second consecutive Class 5A State Championship.
Her coaching skills have brought her acclaim from the Alabama Sports Writers Association which named her 5A Coach of the Year this year and from the Mobile Press Register which named her Super 12 2007 Coach of the Year. This year her team made the jump from 4A to 5A and began the year ranked #1 in the state.
Karen, MUW class of ’85, is in her 16th year of teaching and coaching softball. The PE major said she was well prepared when she began teaching at Clarke Country School in Grove Hill, Ala.
“Dr. (Dorothy) Burdeshaw and Dr. (Joan Thompson ’53) Thomas tried to tell me it would be like this, but I don’t think I believed them,” she laughed. “At the W our classes were small enough for me to get individual attention -- that’s why we went there – so I got a great education.”
In 2001 Karen was chosen as one of only six coaches across the nation as Most Caring Coach in America by USA Weekend when she was at Clarke County (Alabama) High School in Alabama.
Karen is originally from Thomasville, Ala. Before school starts again, she is running a summer-long free softball camp for Orange Beach-area youth.
Karen is the daughter of John R. Collins and W alumna Bettye Miller Collins ’60 of Thomasville, Ala.