Davey Tree Flipbooks

Michigan's Dundee High School wrestling team picks up Coach Roberts after their 2014 State Championship victory. F or Line Clearance Coach Tim Roberts, the feeling of coaching a winning team is priceless; let alone having the opportunity to apply similar coaching principles at Davey. Roberts has coached Michigan's Dundee High School wrestling team for 26 years, but his history with the school extends a bit longer to when he began wrestling for the school's team as a student. "I did OK; I never won any state champion- ships or anything," he explains with a chuckle. After high school, Roberts enlisted in the military, a short period of time in which he earned valuable disciplinary and hands-on training experience. When Roberts returned to his hometown, those same experiences and lessons inspired him to return to his high school's athletic program to give back. Upon visiting one of the wrestling team's practices after school, Roberts approached the Dundee High School wrestling coach about assistant coaching opportunities. Jim "Witt" Wittibslager agreed to hire Roberts as the assistant coach, a position Roberts held until Wittibslager retired 16 years ago. As head coach, Roberts has led his team to win four state championship titles, 16 conference titles, 16 district titles and 15 regional titles. His team has had 122 individual all-state wrestlers, 25 of whom were state champions. A 14-time Region Coach of the Year and four-time State Coach of the Year, Roberts has witnessed many students grow up into adulthood, ever since they joined the local wrestling club at five years old. "We spend a lot of time together," Roberts says, adding his practices begin at 5 p.m. each weekday from November through March each year. "But it's a great reward to see students change over time." Roberts' job at Davey also reflects his passion for helping and positively changing others' determination and attitudes. "It's a good feeling to see that something I did maybe made their jobs smoother," he says. As a 10-year Davey employee on the Detroit Edison account, Roberts not only works alongside production employees in the field Parallel Experiences but also travels to different crews to instruct others on the importance of safety. "I am a line clearance coach—a first for Dav- ey," he says, adding Davey and Detroit Edison developed the position in the interest of better training employees to work safely. After at- tending a safety training class and an interview, Roberts received an offer for the job. "I appreciate the time I have to spend with many different employees on the job," Roberts says, adding he has met a lot of people with varying personalities and ideas and learned more about tree trimming. "My presence is one more way to help employees build habits," he says. "My other training and coaching experience fit right in with what I'm doing—everything worked out." Byron Swain, trimmer on the Detroit Edison account, and Tim Roberts discuss a project. 8 | September/October 2015

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