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Antwain Turner, standing in front of Whitefield Chapel, is Bethesda Day School head football coach and campus minister. Bethesda's guiding light
Holly Moore, a receptionist at Bethesda Home for Boys, beamed at the mention of Antwain Turner's name.
"He got his master's (degree) in ministry," said Moore, "and now he's our campus minister. We don't know what to call him." That's because Turner is also the football coach for the on-campus school, Bethesda Day School. Being the campus minister is just another duty picked up by the popular Turner.
"Hey, I'm just going to call him Preacher-Coach," a visitor said. Turner broke out into one of his hearty chuckles when he heard that. The 28-year-old Atlanta native is a guy who laughs easily and greets everyone with his trademark smile and bear hug. He's a man who wears his love of his fellow man and God on his sleeve.
And, it is his faith that inspired Turner to get his master's degree in ministry from Covington Theological Seminary in Rossville.
A 2002 graduate of Savannah State University where he played quarterback under three different coaches, Turner is the father of Bethesda's football program. The Blazers are in their second year of 11-man football after competing in an eight-man league for two years.
Actually, it's the seventh year of football for the Blazers. The first two years the school competed in flag football, said athletics director Mickey Minick. Then came eight-man football and now the full-fledged game. The Blazers went 1-9 last year as a member of the Georgia Independent School Association.
The evolution of the football program is similar to how Turner's tenure at Bethesda has grown and expanded.
A love of teaching
He started at Bethesda after graduating from SSU, where he was a business administration major with an emphasis on information systems.
"I had a passion, a calling to teach," Turner said. "I didn't know what I wanted to teach, but I really knew that the calling was to the youth. God had placed something in me. You may laugh, but I had a dream about Bethesda before I got to Bethesda.
"I didn't know at the time, obviously, I would be the campus minister here," Turner said. "I would get frustrated working here, but every time I got frustrated it was only because God was telling me it was time to move to the next position."
Turner's first job at the Ferguson Avenue school was as a cottage counselor working the 3-11 p.m. shift. The following year he got a job as a counselor working 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. "That was good," said Turner of moving to the day shift. "Then the next year I moved into the school system as a teacher, and this year moved into the campus ministry." Minick knows he has a gem of a person on staff.
Photo: Antwain Turner is Bethesda Day School head football coach and campus minister."To know Antwain is to love him," said Minick, who is also the school's basketball coach. "He does a great job for us coaching, and he's a great role model for the kids. His life is a testimonial for everything we stand for around here. He's just the kind of guy we want to keep and have around."
Football started at Bethesda, said Minick, when some of the youngsters in the cottages told him they wanted to have a team. Turner made their wish come true.
"He took it from flag football to eight-man to 11-man," said Minick. "Many of our kids have no background of organized football, so there's a great teaching aspect to that. He's a teacher, coach, role model and father figure."
The school has approximately 50 students in grades 9-12, and 24 of them are on the football team, which Minick said is a direct reflection of Turner.
Ex-coach's impact
Turner, who married his wife Petrina two years ago, has a motto for his team: "It's not how you start, but how you finish." It was something he picked up from Steven Wilks, his second coach at Savannah State, who is now the defensive backs coach for the Chicago Bears after stints at Notre Dame and the University of Washington.
"Coach Wilks was a great guy," Turner said. "He was strictly about business. He told us he would cut jokes and laugh with us when we were off the field, but when we get to the field it's business. That was his demeanor, and my coaching style is very similar."
The motto, said Turner, is applicable because of the backgrounds of many of his players. "The dynamics of the kids we're getting here is changing," Turner said, "but we have a lot of kids coming into the program accustomed to quitting.
Photo: Daniel Wilson, Bethesda student/athlete"They're used to having people quit on them, having their families quit on them. So we have to instill that 'Hey you may have had a rough start at the beginning of your life, but believe it or not God is going to do something great in your life, that the finish is going to be so much better.'
So, that's why we've adopted that as our motto. We just have to take that and run with it."
Multitasking
Turner stays busy in his newest role. He teaches a Bible class, has a coaches huddle on Friday followed by a team huddle. Then there's Bible study for resident students on Thursday night, chapel every Monday morning, and work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter.
"I counsel the kids coming here for the first time and take the opportunity to help them adjust," Turner said. "We all have to embrace the school and the residential life. I believe if the spiritual life is fine, everything else will fall into place."
Turner serves the entire Bethesda community of students, faculty and staff. "I assist people who are having tough times," Turner said.
"I visit hospitals, and today I'll be spending time with one of our students who lost his uncle. I tell the principal (Kelly Burke) I'm here to serve, to do whatever she needs." And, if any of the youngsters think they can pull a fast one on their coach and minister they better give it a second thought.
"I was fortunate to grow up with both of my parents with a strong Christian background," Turner said. "Unfortunately, we did grow up in a tough neighborhood, and because of that I learned a lot of the neighborhood genre. I was a neighborhood child, but because of where I was raised I can relate to a lot of these kids because I know exactly where they're coming from."
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