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Oct. 08, 2008
PRESTON DOCKTER 'He would have been such a positive influence'
After Preston Dockter talked about the Pahrump Valley High School fast-pitch softball team he coached last spring, he wanted a favor. "Be sure to say that my wife, Katie, and my parents ... have been highly supportive ... and that has to benefit me," said Dockter, on the eve of the Lady Trojans playing in a season-opening tournament at River Valley, Ariz., in early April. The Lady Trojans went on to give the rookie coach a marvelously successful season. They shared the regular-season Southern Nevada Class 3-A League title with Las Vegas Faith Lutheran, then knocked out the Crusaders in the regionals to advance to the state tournament at Bishop Manogue High School in Reno. The Lady Trojans didn't win the title, but with 30 wins in 39 starts, there were really no reasons for anyone to complain about the job Dock did last spring. Preston knew his way around the fields of competition, having played football and baseball, as well as wrestling for the Trojans. He went to Mayville State in North Dakota, where he played football for four years. He met his future wife, Katie, at Mayville State; they were married in June 2007. In three weeks, a son, Zach, is expected, which was why on Saturday, a baby shower was celebrated by friends and family at their home in Pahrump. Preston and a couple of long-time friends decided to leave. It was on their return home that Dockter's almost new motorcycle crashed on East Calvada Boulevard; the 24-year-old was fatally injured ... "It is so sad ... for his family, his wife who is going to have a son ... and thousands of other kids he would have mentored and have a positive influence on, as a teacher, as a coach, and as a friend," said Leo Verzilli." He was so excited to be a coach ... he had found what he wanted to do with his life." The head football coach at Pahrump Valley High School, Verzilli was named to that position last spring, and one of the first things he did was hire Dockter -- who had been the head coach at Rosemary Clarke Middle School in 2007 -- as his defensive coordinator. "He was so great to work with," said Verzilli. "He set the terminology for our defensive schemes and he worked on game plans each week. He was in charge, but Dock always came to me and asked, 'What do you think about this?' What a wonderful kid he was ..." More will be said about Preston Dockter's life and times tomorrow afternoon on the football field at Pahrump Valley High School. Eulogies will be presented by Craig Rieger, who coached Dockter in wrestling, and Rich Lauver, who was the head softball coach in 2006; his assistant was Dockter. In 2001, Dockter had been on an American Legion baseball team Lauver coached and this past spring, Preston and Lauver worked together on occasion with the Trojans' baseball team. There is another fact as equally important as anything Dockter contributed to athletics and athletes in the Pahrump Valley. In 2002, Dock graduated from PVHS, went to school in North Dakota -- and returned to the valley to start his life as a family man and as a professional educator. He taught history at RCMS; one day, he had his students sit in the stands in the Sharks' gym during a basketball tournament. Their assignment: to write an essay on what they had witnessed. It was a clever way to get them involved in a current event, and not something they had read in a text book. The Pahrump Valley has not had that many high school student-athletes to make the decision to return here after graduating from college and to get totally involved in the community. Preston, who was born in Bismarck, N.D., lived in Pahrump 14 years. The Pahrump Valley was where he wanted to contribute, where he could use his expertise as a teacher and as a coach -- and most important, be a friend. We will all miss him, more ways anyone can imagine. Pray for Katie. Pray for Zach. Pray for the rest of the Dockter clan and family. Be there and be their friends ... just as Preston Dockter had been to all of us ... |
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