Fork Union coach Micky Sullivan’s wife Kathy has been along for the ride — literally in some cases — for a long, long time.
“I was telling somebody earlier that 41 years ago, six days after we got married, she got on a yellow school bus to go to a game,” Sullivan said. “Friday she rode the bus when we went down to play Goochland. It’s a partnership and it’s a really good one.”
For 29 years, Sullivan has been patrolling the sidelines at Fork Union Military Academy as the prep football head coach. He’s helped produce countless college football players and FUMA graduates who’ve gone on to other pursuits. But Monday he let the Academy community know that he was stepping down at the end of the 2012 season to concentrate on his duties as the school’s athletic director and spend some more time with his wife, three daughters and five grandchildren.
“I want to be able to see them a little bit more,” Sullivan said. “Plus, the Admiral (FUMA president J. Scott Burhoe) has some ideas about me getting involved in some different things like a physical fitness plan for the corps of cadets and doing some other things I haven’t really had time to do.”
Sullivan led Fork Union to eight VISAA state titles from 1991 to today, including his last one, in 2010 with a roster stacked with Division I talent including current quarterback Christian Hackenberg, Kent State’s Andre Parker, North Carolina State lineman John Tu’uta and speedy Indiana State running back Richie Dyer. Sullivan earned coach of the year honors in the state for that campaign that included unseating top-seeded Liberty Christian in the semifinals before edging Collegiate 16-14.
Sullivan was 185-102-2 coming into this year and the Blue Devils are now 2-1, falling in what’s believed to be the first game by a private school from Virginia televised on the ESPN family of networks against powerful Hermitage. Since then they’ve knocked off Georgetown Prep and Goochland. If FUMA keeps playing like it has, he’ll end up just a little shy of 200 career wins, a tall task in a boarding school environment where consistency can be hard to find. For 29 years, Sullivan and his staff have assembled a team on a short timetable, never quite sure exactly who was going to come back or enroll in fall. Each arrival, however, has been rewarding in its own way.
“You can go from everyone like (Heisman trophy winner) Eddie George to Danny Osmond who’s a builder down in Nags Head,” Sullivan said. “They’re contributing members of society and they’re successful. The friendships you make (through coaching) and the great players that grow up to be friends, that’s the fun part.”
The first bus Kathy rode was to watch her husband’s 1971 Twin Springs High squad from Nickelsville play. He started the job shortly after graduating from East Tennessee State.
The odds are good that Sullivan’s spot will likely be filled via promotion from a member of the current Prep or Postgraduate football staff, a logical move considering the coaching talent already a part of Fork Union’s faculty.
For now, Sullivan and Fork Union will focus on completing what has a chance to be a special season.
“I told the kids the other day — we’re not going quietly into the night,” Sullivan said. “This isn’t your grandfather hugging you, we’re going to finish this thing out how we planned when we started.”
