Coach Terry Kitchen remembered as a 'phenomenal individual, coach, administrator, father figure'

Friends and colleagues of Terry Kitchen on Tuesday remembered “Coach,” as he preferred to be called, as a passionate, one-of-a-kind person whose legacy will live on.

Kitchen died Monday after dedicating his life and energy to the school district he loved. He was 66.

Cape Girardeau schools superintendent Neil Glass said Kitchen was larger than life, a passionate, fiery individual who touched countless lives.

“He was the voice of Tiger Pride,” Glass said. “He was a phenomenal individual, coach, administrator, father figure.”

Glass said Kitchen helped him in his own early years, not just with networking and making connections, but being a person to lean on.

“I can't say enough about the man and what he's meant to the district,” Glass said. “You can't think of Cape schools and not think of Terry Kitchen, or Coach as he preferred to be called.”

Kitchen played baseball, football and basketball at Central, and won the Lou Muegge Award, given to the top senior athlete at the high school, prior to his 1970 graduation. He attended Southeast Missouri State University on a baseball scholarship, and earned his degree before returning to Central in 1978 as head baseball coach. The next season, he began coaching junior high football.

In 1991, Kitchen took over as athletic director for the district. Then in 2003, he took over as football coach and athletic director at Central Junior High, after 12 years as athletic director for the district, according to the Southeast Missourian archives.

As a coach, he set the high school's record for winning percentage in baseball (.769), most district titles and most trips to the final four. As an athletic director, he earned the MIAA SEMO District Athletic Director of the Year award in 1996, and he was inducted into the Central High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

At the start of the 2017-2018 school year, Glass announced the school board had passed a resolution to name the Cape Central Junior High School athletic facilities in honor of Kitchen. The Terry W. Kitchen Athletic Complex houses the baseball, softball and track facilities at the school.

Terry Kitchen speaks July 14 after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Semoball Awards at the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Southeast Missourian file

Kitchen told the Southeast Missourian in 2017, “Was I surprised? Yes. Shocked? Yes. But what an honor! What an honor!

“I'm gonna tell you, I just couldn't help but get tears in my eyes and cry because I just love this school district, and I work for the best district around. Gosh, it took me by surprise and shock, but at the same time, just so thankful.”

In 2018, Kitchen was recognized with the Semoball Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. (Semoball.com is a regional sports website owned by the Southeast Missourian, which puts on an athlete awards show every summer.)

In his acceptance speech, Kitchen said, “There were two things I wanted in life: to play professional baseball, and I wasn't good enough for that, or be head coach at Cape Central. That's all I wanted my whole life.”

In the same speech, Kitchen detailed his battle with pancreatic cancer beginning in 2017. His surgery, chemotherapy and resultant weight loss didn't cause him to miss a day of school except for scheduled appointments.

In December 2018, Kitchen was awarded the Sam Giambelluca Lifetime Achievement Award. His sons Tatum and Kory Kitchen accepted the award on his behalf, as Terry was too ill to make the trip, reported the Daily American Republic.

“There are three things that make him who he is,” Tatum Kitchen told the DAR. “God, family and Cape Central.”

Jim Limbaugh, regional president and executive vice president of Montgomery Bank in Cape Girardeau and a member of the board of regents at Southeast Missouri State University, said Kitchen “was literally one of a kind. I never knew anybody in my lifetime like Terry Kitchen, with that kind of enthusiasm and faith.”

Limbaugh said Kitchen could electrify a group, and that's a skill set most people just don't have.

Kitchen and Limbaugh played football and baseball for Central, Limbaugh said.

“At that time, I learned to respect and admire him, and that never stopped,” Limbaugh said.

“I don't know any one person, much less coach, who has influenced more young people than Terry Kitchen in my lifetime. It was as important how you conducted yourself as how you played.”

Of Kitchen's legacy, Limbaugh said, “Legacies tend to wane. His won't.”

Glass said of Kitchen, “He always said the Tiger spirit was moving within him. I believe that was the case, and I guarantee his spirit will remain.

“He will be sorely missed,” Glass added.

Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday at Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.

Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the church.

Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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