Andrews-Frank Maennle spent two stints at Andrews High School and 30 years at Swain County High School coaching basketball and football. He also served as athletic director at both Smoky Mountain Conference schools.
Maennle announced his retirement on May 22 at Andrews High School’s annual athletics banquet. Speaking with the Cherokee Scout, he reflected on his coaching career and shared what he is looking forward to most in retirement.
Maennle, who graduated from Andrews High, started his coaching career in the Valley from 1979-83. Then got the opportunity to go to Swain County, where he was a coach and athletic director for 30 years. In 2017, he returned to Andrews, where he served as athletic director and assistant basketball coach until his retirement.
During his time at Swain, he coached football for 24 years, leading the Maroon Devils to seven state championships. His brother, Steve, was offensive coordinator for two of those state championships. He also got to coach alongside the legendary Boyce Dietz while at Swain.
‘You’re doing great’
Maennle’s father inspired him to want to be a coach. His father was the head football coach when Andrews won its only state championship on the gridiron in 1958.
“I can remember when he coached at Sylva-Webster, every time he left the house, Steve and I was with him … Daddy took us everywhere he went. He even had basically a manager that was responsible for keeping up and playing with us during the practice sessions so he could do his job,” Maennle said.
He added that he never doubted that he wanted to be a coach. Being a coach appealed to him, and seeing his father coach led him to want to do likewise.
Maennle said there was no doubt in his mind after he graduated college he was going back to Andrews to coach. The first football coach Maennle worked with at Andrews was Terry Postell, came to the Valley after leading Murphy to multiple state championships.
During his first stint at Andrews, Maennle taught civics and world history. His younger brother, Jim, was in one of his classes. Frank asked Jim if he was doing all right and Jim said, “Frank, you’re doing great.’ ”
‘Support the community’
While in college, Maennle worked at the town pool in Andrews and helped start a successful swim team for the kids in town. He knew he wanted to coach, but
Andrews
Frank Maennle spent two stints at Andrews High School and 30 years at Swain County High School coaching basketball and football. He also served as athletic director at both Smoky Mountain Conference schools.
Maennle announced his retirement on May 22 at Andrews High School’s annual athletics banquet. Speaking with the Cherokee Scout, he reflected on his coaching career and shared what he is looking forward to most in retirement.
Maennle, who graduated from Andrews High, started his coaching career in the Valley from 1979-83. Then got the opportunity to go to Swain County, where he was a coach and athletic director for 30 years. In 2017, he returned to Andrews, where he served as athletic director and assistant basketball coach until his retirement.
During his time at Swain, he coached football for 24 years, leading the Maroon Devils to seven state championships. His brother, Steve, was offensive coordinator for two of those state championships. He also got to coach alongside the legendary Boyce Dietz while at Swain.
‘You’re doing great’
Maennle’s father inspired him to want to be a coach. His father was the head football coach when Andrews won its only state championship on the gridiron in 1958.
“I can remember when he coached at Sylva-Webster, every time he left the house, Steve and I was with him … Daddy took us everywhere he went. He even had basically a manager that was responsible for keeping up and playing with us during the practice sessions so he could do his job,” Maennle said.
He added that he never doubted that he wanted to be a coach. Being a coach appealed to him, and seeing his father coach led him to want to do likewise.
Maennle said there was no doubt in his mind after he graduated college he was going back to Andrews to coach. The first football coach Maennle worked with at Andrews was Terry Postell, came to the Valley after leading Murphy to multiple state championships.
During his first stint at Andrews, Maennle taught civics and world history. His younger brother, Jim, was in one of his classes. Frank asked Jim if he was doing all right and Jim said, “Frank, you’re doing great.’ ”
‘Support the community’
While in college, Maennle worked at the town pool in Andrews and helped start a successful swim team for the kids in town. He knew he wanted to coach, but coaching the swim team in Andrews helped reinforce that he wanted to coach and help the kids.
He had spent all summer coaching the kids and when the school-year came around, he had to remind them to call him “Coach” and not “Frank.”
One day, he got called to the office after the principal heard one of the kids on the swim team call him Frank. Maennle retold the story, laughing, and said the principal told him, “Either you can take care of it or I can, but that better be the last time she ever calls you Frank in this hallway.” Frank responded to the principal with, “Yes sir.”
Maennle was on the Cherokee County Board of Education from 2013-17. However, he said he missed the kids and his fellow coaches, prompting him to return to Andrews as athletic director.
“I always thought my job as athletic director was to take care of our student athletes, our coaches, our school and our community. Wherever I was at, whether it was in Swain County or here, I feel like I did a good job of that,” he said. “I think if you came and watched ball games and saw the support the community was given, a lot of good things came from that.”
‘It’s unbelievable’
Sharing some of his favorite moments as coach or athletic director, he started with Swain winning its first girls basketball state championship in 2008.
“My daughter was one of the top players on that team, so to be able to have been the AD at that time, and my daughter to be to be one of the top players and my sister-in-law was the head coach, that was incredible,” Maennle said.
His son, Matt, was on the state championship-winning football team at Swain in 2011. Maennle said, “To have had both your daughter and your son win state championships, that was special from a family aspect.”
He added that getting to coach with his brothers at Swain was special. He also got to coach with his two younger brothers, Jim and Mickey.
A moment that stood out for Maennle as athletic director was his first year back at Andrews in 2017, when he got to see O’Malley Salinas win the state cross-country championship, as well as what Logan Shuler has done in winning back-to-back state high jump championships.
Maennle got married in 1989 to his wife Angie, which was the same year that he became head basketball coach at Swain County High School.
“Angie’s been with me through everything. You can’t do this job without that kind of support … She worked her hind end off right beside me, running concession stands and just doing whatever she could do to help, and that’s been great,” he said.
“It’d be wrong not to mention the impact she’s had on this because of the support that I’ve received during all this time. I don’t know how you do it without that kind of support, and I’m thankful for that. It’s unbelievable.”
‘Dad would be proud’
Maennle is a Florida Gators fan because of one of his players, Heath Shuler. Maennle and his wife – along with Shuler and his parents, as well as Marty Burns – went down to Gainesville, Fla., for Heath’s official visit. Maennle said he fell in love with Gator football and Florida’s head coach, Steve Spurrier.
At Swain, he was also the weight-lifting coach. Maennle said one day one of the coaches wanted only football players in the weight room for that time. Maennle advocated for one of Swain’s athletes, who went on to win Olympic medals in rowing and canoeing, that he could stay in the weight room and lift with the others.
“I fought for all athletes or non-athletes who wanted to lift weights to come in there,” he said.
Maennle said one of his father’s friends posted on Facebook a message that meant a lot of him. The post said, “Congratulations. I know you’ve had a great career, and I know your dad would be proud.”
“That meant everything to me. Just to know that somebody who had been around my dad felt that way. That’s why I never take for granted the opportunity to be around Matt and what he’s doing now, and Lauren and what she’s doing because myself, and Steve and Cheryl and Jim and Mickey, you know, we didn’t get to have that,” Maennle said with emotion.
“My mom, what she did to raise us after that, it’s just unbelievable. I always told that story that, no matter what some people think, we all turned out pretty good,” Maennle said with a laugh.
‘A family man’
Some of Maennle’s biggest supporters were George and Trish Postell. George coached Frank in football and George continued to come see Frank coach as basketball games.
Another one of Maennle’s biggest supporters was Ken Solesbee. Solesbee, a fellow coach with him, became like a father figure to Maennle after his father passed away.
“I tell people about how I’d been at a basketball practice and I’d hear the door open on the side of the gym and I’d hear somebody pulling a chair around the corner and I’d look and there’d be coach Solesbee. He’d come in to watch practice. He didn’t come in to teach practice, he just came to watch and see what we were doing,” Maennle said.
“I know it’s devastating to all of us when he passed, but somebody that had that kind of impact on your life after your dad passed, and I wouldn’t trade that for nothing.”
In retirement, Maennle is looking forward to traveling with his wife. He added that he will be there to support his children, Matt and Lauren, in what they are doing, as well as spending more time with his three grandchildren.
Maennle added that, “I’ve always been a family man, and that’s what I want to do. I want to honor my family for the rest of my life.”