The Greenwood Christian Academy family is reeling after the sudden loss of its athletic director.
Sue Tameling, who was guiding the school through the most successful athletic year in its history, passed away late Sunday night. GCA superintendent Michael Chitty said in an email to staff that the cause of death was, according to Tameling’s father, "most likely a heart attack."
"It definitely caught me off guard," said boys basketball coach Jonny Marlin, who had spoken with Tameling as recently as Friday. "I’m having a hard time processing it, honestly."
The Cougars had been enjoying their greatest sporting success since Tameling’s arrival in the summer of 2018, particularly during this past winter season. The girls basketball team won the school’s first-ever regional championship, and the boys team had been the top-ranked Class A team in the state for much of the year, winning Johnson County and sectional crowns before the COVID-19 outbreak cut the season short.
"She was turning the athletic department around, and it was good to see," said boys soccer coach Jason Noel, whose team had also won a pair of sectional championships during Tameling’s tenure. "She loved the kids, loved the athletes, loved the GCA community. She was all in.
"She supported the soccer program like no other. She was at every home game, she was the first one there at sectionals, she was the first one there at regionals — she was really dedicated."
Girls basketball coach Alan Weems echoed Noel’s sentiments, adding that Tameling steered the athletic department with a steady hand — and that her impact at GCA went well beyond all of the winning.
"Her biggest impact, I think, is that she just liked the kids so well," Weems said. "She genuinely liked our kids and really enjoyed their successes. And I think that’s the big takeaway when you start looking at things — she just was a kids-first type of administrator."
With schools closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year, the Greenwood Christian community won’t have a chance to come together and properly mourn the loss of Tameling anytime soon; her family plans to hold a small graveside ceremony in her home state of Michigan in the near future.
But Cougar coaches and athletes are already planning to pay their respects whenever the sports world is up and running again.
"I’ve already told our boys that come fall, hopefully, the first home game we’re going to do a big memorial for her," Noel said, "and just try to do the season for her."
