She ruled with an iron hand and a soft heart
She was a force like no other at Susquehannock.
Many of us knew Carolyn Adams only for legendary English classes that were run as a dictatorship. She didn't take an ounce of crap if it got in the way of writing, rules and learning the Classics.
READ: Carolyn Lee Adams' obituary
She called students by their last name, and her bluster brought more than a few to tears for something like bringing water into the computer lab.
And yet if you paid close enough attention, you learned that she soaked in history, literature and those famed authors — and her students' success — with a grand appreciation that was intriguing and full of a greater purpose.
We didn't know her as the ground-breaking coach she was.
Adams, who grew up in Waynesboro, died a couple of weeks ago at 76, which has given her former players and colleagues the opportunity to celebrate her for that and for so much more.
She played a particularly critical role when girls' sports were just beginning to make a name for themselves in the mid-1970s. She led the Warriors to the PIAA's first volleyball title in '74 — the first state title won by a YAIAA girls' team in any sport.
READ: GameTimePA YAIAA girls' volleyball all-stars 2016
Joy Keller-Brown played for Adams and helped lead that victory over Pittsburgh-area Norwin.
After the championship match, Adams made good on a promise to treat her girls to a steak dinner. They rushed through the pounding rain into the long-ago Flamingo Restaurant on Belmont Street in York, and she cautioned them.
"Girls, slow down. You'll only get wetter if you run."
READ: Northeastern uses volleyball to support mental health
Keller-Brown remembers every bit of that moment, some four decades later.
"At the time, I thought it was so weird," she said with a laugh. "But to this day I do not run in the rain. ... Maybe she meant that when you're confronted with a challenge, instead of running away from it or getting excited, just slow down, stay calm and kind of deal with it.
"She was coaching us, even at that moment."
Roberta Thoman coached under Adams and taught English alongside her. Eventually, Thoman's own children learned from her.
She described a head coach so intense and so passionate that her players were afraid to ask to leave practice early for doctor appointments. Even Adams' fellow teachers jabbed about her intimidation.
"There were times she surprised," Thoman said. "She was so stern, it was amazing when she let her sense of humor out. I think she just set the bar high. A lot of other teachers wanted to be your friend or make it easy for you. She had goals in mind and wanted them to be accomplished, and she expected them to do it."
She became the most unusual of commodities: A hard-ass coach drilling you on Shakespeare and Dickens, which made college courses seem breezy.
And yet there was even more.
Adams also helped start the Susquehannock boys' volleyball program. She was a surprisingly poor speller but was well-read beyond compare. She adopted and helped raise two daughters.
After retiring, she traveled the world and devoted countless hours to leading programs at her church.
But most important were the countless times she comforted or inspired a student who needed it most, outreaches that she usually saved for quiet, behind-the-scenes moments.
Her Facebook page is full of such treasures.
No matter that so many saw her so differently as a coach, teacher and monitor of the halls.
She never much cared about that.
She simply had other ways to get things done.