“She knows nothing about baseball.”
“In my defense, I keep asking him to watch a game together and teach me.”
“We’ve tried.”
Joe and Christa Fabre have more in common with each other than most married couples do due to one important detail: their respective jobs. Both Christa and Joe work in Union’s athletic department as assistant coaches, Christa for volleyball and Joe for baseball.
The two met when they themselves were college athletes playing at Lee University. Christa was on the volleyball team, and Joe transferred from a junior college to play on the baseball team. After the two graduated, Joe knew that he wanted to coach while Christa took time overseas to do mission work. Once she came back to the states, Christa coached at University School of Jackson for a year before being offered the assistant coach position at Union. A year later, Joe was offered the graduate assistant spot for Union’s baseball team.
“We understand what it takes,” said Christa. “If you had a partner that wasn’t in [coaching] or had never been in it, they wouldn’t understand because they would feel neglected. Coaching is for a group of people, and it’s not a selfish job.”
Sitting on Christa’s lumpy futon in her office, the couple discussed how time consuming being an assistant coach is, and how lucky they are to be on the same campus. As assistant coaches, the two work long nights and are often on the road on weekends. Occasionally they must go out of town to recruit during their respective offseasons. But, with the blessing of proximity, the Fabres try to eat lunch together every day and are sometimes lucky enough to catch each other in the wellness center.
“I wouldn’t do it if we were at two different schools,” said Joe.
The Fabres are one of the five married couples at Union with at least one spouse in the athletic department. Even if the other partner is not a coach, Union provides opportunities for spouses to work on campus, whether it be at Union Station or in Residence Life.
“I think they do that on purpose,” said Christa. “They try to help your family stay together in that way. A lot of it is the Christian environment and understanding that God has marriage as something that is a priority, and so Union wants to do their part in keeping that together.”
With baseball being a spring sport and volleyball being played in the fall (this year being the exception), the Fabres are always excited to watch each other’s teams and watch each other in their element; however, the difference in the speed of the games is always something to get adjusted to.
“It’s so different than volleyball, and that’s fun to see,” said Christa. “Baseball has definitely incorporated itself into his life and personality because he’s very patient, and I’m just fast and I need things to be done fast. And volleyball is that way too, there’s something happening all the time. So, I think we balance each other out in that way.”
Despite their differences in coaching styles, the couple can agree on one thing: they are coaching to make a lasting impact on the players. They both know that their mission in coaching is much larger than how many wins they get in a season.
“We both have the same passion,” said Joe. “Obviously, we both want to win, and we’re very competitive. But at the end of the day, we both understand that our mission in coaching is about something much larger, and we both believe that if we’re approaching it like that, then the wins and losses are going to come.”
