‘Miss R’ has devoted her life to coaching
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What: 19th induction banquet
When: Saturday, April 9, 2022
Where: Blair County Convention Center
Tickets: The event is sold out (900).
Individual inductees: John Hayes (football), *John Lingenfelter (motorsports), Eric Malone (jet skiing), *Eddie Miller (basketball), Tawney Nardozza Schmitt (swimming). *Posthumous
Team inductee: 1970 Bishop Guilfoyle boys basketball team
Lifetime achievement award: Julie Roseborough
Guest speaker: Doug Flutie
Website: www.blaircountysportshof.com
By Buck Frank
bfrank@altoonamirror.com
Bellwood-Antis High School has only ever employed one girls head track and field coach.
Julie Roseborough began the program back in 1966, and 56 years later, she is still guiding the team.
"This is my 32nd year coaching with her,'' Robin Campbell, Roseborough's longtime assistant coach, said. "I thought I'd always retire when she did, but she kept going.''
Roseborough, known as "Miss R'' among all of those who have known her over the last 5¢ decades, will become the third recipient of the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame's Lifetime Achievement Award when the banquet is held Saturday at the Blair County Convention Center.
Roseborough, 79, not only has coached girls track and field, but she has guided boys and girls cross country for the last 29 years and had also coached field hockey for 25 years in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Bellwood is such a really good school district,'' Roseborough said. "There are so many good people, good kids, and my experience there has been wonderful.''
Roseborough is a 1960 graduate of Juniata Valley High School and graduated from West Chester University in 1964. She was then hired as a physical education instructor at Bellwood a week before classes began that fall.
In the early spring of 1965, she agreed to add a few girls events to the Bellwood-Antis Track and Field Invitational Meet, and that led to the creation of a girls team for the spring of 1966.
Except for the 2020 track season, which was canceled due to the pandemic, she's been at the helm every year. The track at Bellwood's Memorial Stadium was dedicated in her name on May 1, 2006.
"I think as a coach she epitomizes bringing the best out of everyone,'' Nick Lovrich, who has been the boys head track coach for the last 23 years, said. "Not everyone is a state champ, but each athlete can improve by working hard and doing their best in competitions. She's that way as a coach -- she cares for every kid.''
Roseborough, who was inducted into the Huntingdon County Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, began the 2022 track season with a 474-98-3 all-time record. She's coached 34 state medalists, including Lisa Haupt, who won a PIAA gold medal in the long jump in 1977 and also won four other medals.
Roseborough's record in field hockey was 123-38-16, and she's compiled a 188-130 mark with the boys cross country team and a 179-141 record with the girls squad.
That's a grand total record of 964-367-19 in 1,347 competitions.
"She is always very well organized,'' Campbell, who also was coached in track by Roseborough, said. "She was a lot more intense when she was younger -- she's mellowed over the years. But she doesn't like to lose.''
Roseborough, however, would deflect the credit.
"Throughout the years, I've been fortunate to have many, many good assistants,'' she said. "There are too many to name, but it was not a one-woman show.''
Beyond the wins and losses, though, are the positive impacts she's made on countless young student-athletes, who now range in age from teenagers to some currently in their 70s.
She's coached three generations of Bellwood athletes.
"She's been a pillar of the Bellwood community,'' Lovrich said. "She's the type of person who makes relationships with everyone she comes into contact with. All of the kids love her. She knows the family histories of everyone -- she's just a great person.''
Roseborough said she's now taking coaching one year at a time.
"I still enjoy the kids,'' she said. "I'm going to have to make a decision on when it's time to give someone younger a chance to coach -- whether the program would be better off with somebody younger. But I still enjoy the kids.''
No one in Blair County history has coached more scholastic seasons (56) than Roseborough, and that's a record that might never be broken.
"You're not going to see another coach coach as long as she has,'' Lovrich said. "It's amazing.''