Call to Williamsburg

Three years into their life in Williamsburg, Coach Shan Housekeeper and Superintendent Tabetha Housekeeper coach students into adulthood.

"One clap on set. Set." The single synchronized clap fills Gatliff Chapel at the University of the Cumberlands to its high ceiling with noise for a moment, then turns the room silent. The players wake the rest of the way up, faster than the morning sun climbs up and through the stained glass windows. A projector shines the word TRUST on the screen. The football players listen carefully to their coach. It's the day before their game.

The warmth of the people of Williamsburg called husband and wife Shan and Tabetha Housekeeper to move there in 2022. She is the superintendent of Williamsburg Independent Schools. He is the University of the Cumberlands head football coach. Together, they lead young men into adulthood.

Shan Housekeeper coached Hunter Zirkle, 18, after Wednesday's practice. Hunter was suspended for two games because of misconduct on the field. “He needs hope,” Shan says. Shan fights for players to play when they are willing to "fight for themselves," Tabetha says.
Both Tabetha and Shan call young men to be agents of success in their own lives.

Tabetha gathered the middle school boys in the auditorium and, afterward, the high school boys in the gym, when the school discovered the n-word written in the boy's bathroom. She asks them to tell her what happened in the bathroom, and several raise their hands to tell her. She asks them to propose solutions to hatefulness and vandalism at school, and they do. She invites them to speak out by texting her, and they do. "You are leaders, not followers," she says.

On Fridays, Shan's players play football with the middle school boys. When the University of the Cumberlands wins a home game, Tabetha cooks for them. "We have to lean on each other, trust me, or we couldn't do these jobs," Tabetha says. Tabetha says she wants to give everything she has to her work. She does not want her life to end with more she wishes to have done. "I wanna finish on empty."