Dexter coach makes one final go of it with the Bearcat athletes

DEXTER – Longtime Dexter High School coach and educator Starla Pulley will be sad to see her latest group of seniors say ‘Goodbye’ later this spring, as she has to endure each volleyball and softball season. However, this year will be particularly emotional, as Pulley is leaving Dexter Schools at the end of the year.

Pulley’s husband, Trevor Pulley, was hired in November as the assistant city manager in Cape Girardeau, so the family is moving to Trevor’s hometown this week, though Starla will commute through the end of the school year.

“I always thought that I would retire (at Dexter),” Pulley said. “I have been here for nine years. I have had great girls and great parents.

“I shed a lot of tears when I had to tell the girls.”

The Bearcats dropped a tough 5-4 game against Malden on Tuesday and will host Bloomfield today at East Park at 4:30 p.m.(The game against Bloomfield has been postponed due to rain)

This particular Dexter softball squad is very young, so despite its 1-3 record, the potential for the Bearcats is great, something that Pulley thought about as she was resigning.

“It is hard,” Pulley said, “because you have girls coming up and you think ‘Oh, I can’t wait until they come up.’ You have a plan in your head and in four to seven years, I can retire. I had a plan in my head, all of the girls that I would be able to coach through those next seven years.”

In volleyball, Pulley has been a part of an incredible tradition of success.

In the nine seasons that Starla Pulley has been a part of the Dexter High School volleyball program (four as an assistant and five as the head coach), the Bearcats won 202 matches, which included four MSHSAA Class 3 District 1 championships.

“Our community really supports our volleyball program,” Pulley told Semoball last fall. “We have lots of parents that invest in their children. They start at a very young age and when you have a program, and it is successful, it starts building a tradition.”

Pulley has already lined up a teaching and coaching (middle school volleyball) position with Oak Ridge Schools north of Cape Girardeau.

“I could not have asked to have a better school district than Dexter for the last nine years,” Pulley said. “They are family and I am going to miss them. I’ll still come back and cheer for them, but it is hard.”