By Dianna Troyer
Generous Spartan fans and former students create a first-rate Minico athletic complex.
For Minico High School alumnus Greer Copeland, knowing something needs to be fixed or tweaked at his alma mater’s athletic complex is like an itch that needs to be scratched. “I feel compelled to just go and do it,” says the Rupert resident who graduated in 1976. “Becoming a journeyman lineman, I had the skill set to do electrical work and operate heavy equipment, so I was able to get some projects done there.”
After playing baseball for the Spartans, Greer coached baseball and softball, served 12 years on the school board, and spearheaded countless improvement projects at the complex. Sometimes he just did projects himself with his own money after getting off work as a journeyman worker and manager of East End Mutual Electric Co., where he worked for 40 years and retired in 2020. “He has spent countless hours at the sports complex,” his son, Kris, says. “You can’t throw a rock and not hit some project Dad did during the past 4 decades.
Our family joke is that when we go back home to visit he’ll say, ‘Can you help me at the school for a minute? We won’t take but a minute.’ And away we go.” As a Christmas gift, Kris compiled a 6-minute PowerPoint about his dad’s involvement with Minico sports and realized the magnitude of his contributions.
Greer helped install and wire lights on the varsity baseball field built the junior varsity field, and helped build the indoor hitting facility and softball fields. He also paved the tennis courts, leveled the soccer fields, widened the track, and upgraded the concession stand.
Due to his father’s decades of dedication, Kris proposed the sports complex be named for him. Coaches, administrators, and school board members agreed, saying Greer’s efforts saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars. In February, they approved the facility’s name—Greer Copeland Athletic Complex—and plan to have a sign erected.
When Greer watches games there and sees the improvements, he thinks of community support rather than his role in the renovations.
“None of the projects at the complex would have happened without the financial generosity of Minico fans,” he says. “People donated $93,000 in 2 months to build the indoor hitting facility. Electric co-ops work together and do community outreach, so they donate employees’ time, and some materials, and use of their equipment to install lights and do other projects. It’s definitely not me doing all this.”
Throughout his life, Greer says his mission has been to give back to the community and be a good role model through work, sports, and church.
“I get a little restless if I’m not volunteering,” he says. Since retiring four years ago due to heart issues, Greer, 65, channels his energy elsewhere in Rupert. He volunteers at the historic Wilson Theatre’s concession stand while his wife, Kay, ushers. He helps with the Fourth of July community breakfast and serves on the Christmas Lighting Committee and Project Mutual Telephone Board of Directors.
“If needed, I’ll still help with the baseball program, giving tips on left-handed batting or playing the outfield,” he says.
High Energy, No Mediocrity
Greer’s ideal has been “to live life and not wait to live,” Kay says. When he was coaching, Greer was also farming 65 acres of hay and grain, managing the electric co-op, volunteering with the East End Fire Department, and serving in leadership positions at church.
“He’s high energy and felt fine sleeping from midnight to 4 a.m.,” Kay says. “He’s the type to see a project through from start to finish.”
Greer had high expectations of himself and his players. 1 of his players, Jared Price, a 2000 graduate, was named head baseball coach in 2012.
“He was a hard-nosed, old-school style coach who pushed us because he cared and wanted to bring out our best,” Jared says. “He was definitely an asset to sports programs in our community.” Kris says his dad had a traditional spot for watching games.
“He always sat on a bucket at the end of the dugout so he could see everything,” Kris says.
Growing up, the baseball fields were like a second home for Kris and his siblings.
“We’d help Dad hang batting cages, put up the backstop, or were there practicing or playing games,” he says. “For Eagle Scout projects, I put up the flagpole, and my brother, Kyle, put up the scoreboard.”
Kris says his father instilled in him and other players perseverance and community service—traits that motivated him to work as a resilience trainer and performance expert for the U.S. Army at Fort Cavazos, Texas.
During his coaching career, Greer says he was grateful for an understanding board of directors at the electric co-op.
“They believed in community service and didn’t mind if I had to be gone at times for games,” he says.
East End’s new manager Randy Sneddon, says he has continued Greer’s management style.
“See it, do it, get the work done, and go home,” Randy says. “We focus on providing personalized customer service. Our members are names, not account numbers or addresses.”
“Whatever I’ve done at East End or at Minico, it was because there was a need, and I could get it done,” Greer says.