Andrews – Some 46 years ago, Frank Maennle began his career as a coach. On Thursday night, he announced his retirement as a coach and athletic director.
Maennle announced his retirement while serving at Andrews High School, where he was the athletic director and assistant varsity boys basketball coach.
“I just don’t know when you say it’s the right time or anything like that. I’m going to be 70 in December, and I just felt like we came off a great fall and winter sports season. I was real proud of our teams during those times, and I just thought if I was going to do it, that this would be a good time to go ahead and take that step,” Maennle said.
“I want to be able to watch my grandson, who’s finishing up his freshman year, as his Pops, and we’ve got Matt’s two little grandbabies, so I can help chase them around the gym. It just felt like a good time to make the move.”
Maennle graduated from Andrews High School in 1974, then came back and taught there.
“I just can’t believe that, after being gone for 34 years I guess it was, that a community, my community, my old community, would welcome me back with the open arms like they did. I rebuilt relationships with friends that I hadn’t seen in years. And just as a result, they became supporters of our programs. You know, the first four years I was there as the varsity boys basketball coach and the last four as athletic director, and these people, they supported me in a way that you couldn’t imagine,” Maennle said.
“I tell people when I became an athletic director at Swain in 1997, and I did the same thing at Andrews, I tried to do four things. I tried to be that leader, or beacon of light, for our student-athletes, I tried to
do it for our coaches and our coaching staff, I tried to do it for our school and I tried to do it for our community. I’m hot tempered, I’m very emotional, but I didn’t want to ever do anything that would embarrass any of those four entities. I was there to lead those student-athletes, the coaches, the school and the community, and I just think people saw the energy that came with what we were trying to do.
“I know the coaching staffs felt like they were supported and backed, and if they had a problem that I was going to try to take care of it the best I could. If you’d have told me 40 years ago that I would come back to Andrew and it would be as good as it was, I’d have told you you’ve lost your mind.”
Maennle has served as athletic director at Andrews High School since 2017. Prior to that, he began his career as Andrews assistant baseball coach in 1979. In 1983, he took a job at Swain County as the Maroon Devils’ basketball and football coach. Maennle stayed at Swain for 30 years.
After four years away from coaching, he then returned to Andrews in 2017 as athletic director until his retirement Thursday.
Maennle comes from a family of coaching as his grandfather, father and brother have coached for Andrews.