Not all sports heroes on campus suit up in teal and blue.

Some go across campus unnoticed and are seen as ordinary students.

Tammy Batchelor, a most extraordinary “ordinary student”, graduates Dec. 12. Batchelor, like so many students, made her way through UNCW by working odd hours (at Jacksonville’s Auto Brite car wash) and managing a tough schedule that balances life, school and work.

She traveled an hour each way, each day, from Jacksonville in search of her Physical Education and Health degree with a teaching certification after five-and-a-half years of study. Like many, she worked her way through by getting an Associates degree at a community college to start the education process.

And in that way, she’s like any of the forgotten students who’ve toiled their way in search of a better life. The heroes of academia that so often schools ignore.

“Oh, I’m so excited. I don’t know if I’ll have a job in January. The prospects look good in August,” said Batchelor, sounding like any other December graduate.

There’s one other piece to add. She’s also an incredibly successful high school coach.

In three years as Richlands High School’s head girl’s basketball coach, she’s guided the Wildcats to three East-Central 2A Conference Tournament titles and two regular season titles – the program’s first since the mid 1980s. During her four years as an assistant coach for Richlands’ girl’s soccer squad, the ‘Cats seized two state championships, a state semifinal appearance and a slot in the state’s final eight.

Beyond the tactics and practices, there is another level. A coach touches players’ lives. Though she’s just a year or two older than most Seahawk graduates, some of the people she guided through high school years attend UNCW.

“It’s tremendous, the dime demands that the (course) discipline requires,” said Nancy Woodside, an academic advisor who taught Batchelor a class, and spent 19 years as a high school coach and some time as an assistant at UNC. “You have to practice. That takes time, because you don’t want to lose them. You need to keep their focus in a two-hour time frame. … And she does her course work, she has a good drive to where she goes and somewhere she has to plan practice and work with the team.

“The students, kids, players need her time, too. Need her time focus and energy to talk with them. The coach becomes not only your coach, but your friend, ally and advisor. When you’re coaching, you have so many roles. It’s not just Xs and Os.”

And that drive impressed her players, some of which are now students at UNCW.

“I think it’s made her a strong person,” said Tara Batchelor, who is not only a former player, but also the first cousin of the graduate. “When you have that pressure on you, you see what kind of person you really are and she’s really shown she can do all these things at once.”

But now, after all those hot July days washing cars, long February nights after practice cranking out a term paper, endless drives up U.S. 17 and all the in-betweens mentoring her players and wrapping up her student teaching, a new stage in Tammy Batchelor’s life begins.

Like all of life’s changes, this one will have its share of questions. But Batchelor has the passion, intelligence and drive to answer them.

“She has all those things and she will be successful,” Woodside said. “She has got a lot going for her and I’m really proud of her.”