From Detroit, Michigan, to French Camp, Joe Watkins has thrived in a life filled with family, teaching, coaching, and Christian stewardship.
Watkins serves as the head track and cross-country coach at French Camp Academy, along with being a dorm parent to nine girls during the school year with his wife Mitzi. He also teaches geometry, advanced algebra, and trigonometry. Watkins was recently named Mississippi’s coach of the year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association, and he is currently up for the national award. This recognition is partly due to his success leading the FCA girls’ track team to a 1A state championship victory.
After graduating from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in education, Watkins and his wife began working at Bair Lake Bible Camp — an independent, evangelical Christian camp in Jones, Michigan. It was there that Watkins met his close friend Mike Paladino, who eventually left Bair Lake to continue his career at French Camp. For Watkins’ 30th birthday, his wife took him on a surprise trip to visit Paladino in Mississippi.
“We found out what was going on here and thought it was incredible. My wife was the director of an after-school program for at-risk youth in Michigan and always had a desire to be connected to the kids more than three afternoons a week,” Watkins told The Star-Herald. “We came down here and saw my friend living in a dorm with 14 teenagers and trying to minister to them. I thought to myself, ‘This is something amazing.’ So, in about another year, we came down and went through an interview process and really felt the Lord call us to be here. Being able to serve has been an awesome ride ever since.”
Watkins officially joined French Camp Academy in the summer of 2009 as a math teacher and dorm parent. It was not until the fall of 2014 that he was asked to be the track and cross-country coach, which Watkins said began with his attempt to shed some pounds.
“I went from a very active job to teaching. I'm on my feet the whole day, but it just wasn't the same physical exertion. I started gaining weight like crazy, and the only way I knew how to lose weight was to run. So, I started running,” he said. “French Camp Academy’s former track coach had just retired, so the administration looked at me and said, ‘You run a lot; you should coach!’ It has been an awesome opportunity to connect with young people in another way.”
Since then, Watkins has gained coaching experience and led his girls’ track team to a 1A state championship this past school year alongside Assistant Coach Drew Lewis, who Watkins credited as an outstanding athlete with a great mind for running, competition, and program development.
Watkins explained that only the top four runners advance in each race, regardless of how many participants are entered. This was true for French Camp Academy as it ascended from regionals to south state to the state championship. He said that in years past, he would test girls out in different areas to see how they fared and aim to give them their best chance at qualifying. This year, however, all six female runners advanced to the state meet.
“This is the first time ever that every single athlete qualified to the state meet. We didn't weed out one person, and that's never happened to us before. Ever,” Watkins said. “That accomplishment speaks to the caliber of athletes that we have. These girls were so talented and committed to working hard.”
The coach was particularly impressed with upcoming senior Maddie Davis. She competed in the triple jump, long jump, and ran 100- and 300-meter hurdles during the state meet. Carrying such a big load, Watkins said he expected her to perform her heart out, but envisioned her pulling in some fifth, sixth, and seventh place finishes. That was not the case.
“In the 300-meter hurdles, which is three quarters of a lap and jumping hurdles every 20 yards, Maddie came around strong. No one told her that she wasn't supposed to do well. So here she is expected to finish fifth, and she runs the race perfectly. Flawless. She kept getting stronger towards that final push. She was just passing girl after girl and ended up getting second in the state. She beat out a talented girl by five hundredths of a second at the finish,” he said.
When the team was on their way to the state meet, Watkins knew the level of adversity the girls faced. Many of the athletes were nervous and putting pressure on themselves to perform well. He pulled the bus over and read to them from the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah and Jews rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem facing much opposition and doubt. To the girls, he read: “After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’”
The message hit home, and many girls wrote the words “remember” and “fight” on their arms to remember that the Lord is great and powerful and to fight for each other and God’s kingdom.
“The opposition was really heavy on our hearts and our heads. The opposition wasn't the other schools’ athletes. It was fighting self-doubt, insecurity, and nervousness in our own systems,” Watkins said. “I felt like every one of my girls was fighting for the next girl that came with them. I was watching champions, victors, fighters, and warriors all day, and I couldn't feel anything but admiration for my girls.”
After being dorm parents to students for six years, Joe and Mitzi transitioned to work at Camp of the Rising Son, French Camp’s Christ-centered summer camp. Since they had a background working camps, the move was easy, but after three years, they wanted to get back to being dorm parents again. Watkins said he and his wife felt a tugging at their heart to maintain a strong relationship with the students, although their camp stint gave them time to focus on their nuclear family of four.
The couple has two adopted children, Ayden and Kinley. Ayden was born in Kalamazoo, MI, and moved to French Camp with them when he was only six weeks old. After being in Mississippi a couple years, their daughter Kinley was born in Jackson. In both cases, each child had a birth mother that chose the Watkins to be adoptive parents.
The family occupies Heidelberg Home on campus along with nine FCA students during the school year. Additionally, the family has an honorary “third child” in Ami Sherif, a former runner for Watkins. Studying at Blue Mountain College, the Watkins home serves as a “home base” for Sherif when she doesn’t want to travel back to her hometown of Memphis. Sherif was the only member of her family born in the United States, with parents originally from Sierra Leone, a country on the southwest coast of West Africa.
Courtesy of the Watkins family
Mitzi Watkins, left, and Joe Watkins, right, with former student and “honorary daughter” Ami Sherif.
“I love my kids so much, and they're each very unique and special,” he said.
Watkins’ dedication to serving God has played a pivotal role in his life, and he is grateful for the opportunity to work somewhere where he gets to openly share his faith while teaching the students around him.
“I feel called to be here—to be able to live out loud and really get to the heart of the issue, at times, with students and athletes. I get the privilege to start every one of my classes with prayer, and we start and finish every one of our practices with prayer. Coach Lewis and I are always trying to point the kids back towards the Lord. Academia is not going to solve all of our problems for us. I tell students to start with what they know is true and keep building on truth. From there, we'll get to the right answer. That's a life skill as much as a mathematical skill,” Watkins said. “I am so encouraged by my brothers’ and sisters’ in Christ commitment to work in the public schools, and I enjoy the fact that I don't have to speak in code, then I can be out loud. What an awesome opportunity I get to minister to my runners and my athletes out loud. I just keep pointing them back towards Jesus.”
