Coaches are wedded to their work

NEW PORT RICHEY - It was not a trial separation, just a separation rife with trials. The husband came to Florida early, starting his new job as Gulf High football coach while living in a 26-foot camper.

The wife stayed in Kentucky, caring for the two children and putting the house on the market. He missed his son's first grand slam. She missed the spring game. Now, after five months, they're together again. And not even sudden death will do them part.

Marital bliss is back for Jay and Vickie Fulmer. And here's their bliss package: Jay will be the Bucs coach. Vickie will be an assistant.

"Yes, she's getting a supplement," Gulf athletic director Paul Girardi confirmed. "He knows her better than I do. We're comfortable with that for the time being." Holy matrimony.

Before conjuring this distorted image of a woman aspiring to graduate from tomboy to Tom Coughlin, understand the parameters of Vickie's job: She'll focus primarily on the administrative side of the program. Currently, she's collecting each player's necessary paperwork as well as the participation fees, and working on a fundraiser. Once the season starts, she'll dole out equipment -- to both JV and varsity players -- and do the laundry.

"I need an assistant coach that does those things," Jay said.

"I don't mind doing it," added Vickie, a mother of two and physical education teacher at Deer Park Elementary. "It lets the other coaches concentrate on their job rather than, 'OK, does quarterback Alton Voss have his physical forms turned in?' "

On game nights, she'll remain in the bleachers with her kids and friends. But this is where she and her husband of 12 years can't emphasize their point with ample vigor. If Vickie was needed to work the sideline, she could. And in a pinch, she will. Currently, Jay has only four other paid assistants. "If she sees a kid make an arm tackle, she won't hesitate to call him on it," said Jay, who arrived at Gulf in March after 10 seasons as a head coach in Kentucky, where he developed a reputation for transforming once-moribund programs.

"My wife don't take any crap off anybody."

Long before she and Jay met, while both were majoring in P.E. at Eastern Kentucky University, Vickie understood the game's nuances -- a byproduct of being chronologically sandwiched by a pair of football-playing brothers. While growing up, she took gymnastics, tap dance and jazz, was a cheerleader, played softball, soccer and volleyball, and owned her neighborhood in basketball. Football would've been a part of that extra curriculum -- had her parents let her play.

"I was a tomboy," she said. Her passion for the game -- and knowledge of it -- naturally augmented when she and Jay married. When Jay would monopolize the couple's only TV by breaking down videotape, Vickie would break down and watch it with him.

"If he gave me his play card for a JV game, I could say when to run or when to pass," she said. Now, that same zeal has led the Fulmers to the Gulf Coast. Both say they took massive pay cuts to move to Pasco County, but moved anyway because of the Florida -- and Florida football -- climate.

"We just decided to downscale and do what made us happy," Vickie said. "We know Kentucky's known more for being a basketball state, and we just wanted to be somewhere where the administration and people cared about football."

They formally cross this threshold Aug. 26 -- at home against Wesley Chapel.

Jay acknowledges his wife wasn't among the initial choices for his staff. To the contrary, she came aboard only when some assistants that he hoped would accompany him from Kentucky backed out. But he also insists this isn't the first time he has considered putting Vickie on the payroll. Nepotism laws in the county where they previously worked prohibited such a move -- and therein lies great irony.

Football has always been a familial endeavor for the Fulmers, the vehicle by which they bond. This year, that vehicle will seat several. Another Bucs assistant, Kenneth Hollar, is Vickie's cousin. The Fulmer kids -- 10-year-old Will and 6-year-old Tori -- will be a waterboy and watergirl, respectively. Helping the children will be Hollar's son, Lane.

"I'm just so excited," Vickie said.

How long this arrangement will hold up is uncertain. Jay acknowledges that if a few more of his Kentucky colleagues join him in New Port Richey, "I may have to fire her."

Vickie accepts that -- so long as Jay knows his whistle won't reverberate as forcefully inside their home. "I just have to let him know he's my boss only on the field," Vickie said. "And you can print that."

Sounds like Jay Fulmer's honeymoon period is officially over.