By Michaela Bankston
Photos by Lacey Barnwell, Angel Plascencia & Michaela Bankston
The stadium lights sliced through the crisp fall air over the field at Homer Smiles Stadium, bringing to life the players and coaches on it. Wide Receivers Coach Jesse Turner moved along the sideline with almost as much energy as his 3-year-old son, who ran back-and-forth from the end zone, full of coaches’ wives, to the track by the cheerleaders. Though she was less than a week from giving birth to their second son, Jordyn Turner still sat by the goal post cheering on the Greenwave. Jesse’s mom directed the cheer squad, and his dad watched intently from the stands. For the Turner family, this scene plays out almost every fall Friday night.
***
Jerry and Patricia Partridge attended Leeds High School in the 1950s. They married before graduation and had four children. Jerry coached high school football for more than 30 years. All four of their children, and six of their seven grandchildren went on to work in schools, and the seventh only deviated as far as social work.
“His influence is obvious,” Jesse said of his grandfather, whom he misses everyday.
Jesse grew up in Leeds and wanted to play football as a kid, but he said his mother would not allow him until sixth grade. After that he caught “the football bug” that has yet to subside.
He played in middle and high school, which led to what he called some of the greatest memories of his life. Beyond football, Jesse credits Leeds with giving him all the tools he needed to succeed at the University of Alabama.
“This place gave me so much,” Jesse said. “I feel a sense of debt to this place. I need to serve here.”
This place is also where he, at some point, caught the attention of Jordyn. Though Jordyn grew up in Trussville, her stepsiblings went to Leeds, and her stepsister was in the same grade as Jesse. She frequently attended Leeds events with them, and they found themselves in similar circles.
“I always thought he was really cute,” Jordyn said.
However, Jesse dated someone else in high school, and the two really only knew of each other. Then he went off to college. A year later, she also began school at the University of Alabama, and the pair, both single, connected and went on a date.
Jesse and Jordyn both place blame on him for why they did not continue dating at the time, but they also agree it was for the best.
“We always say ‘If we had kept dating the first time, we don’t think that we would have worked out,’” Jordyn said. “I was a freshman in college, and he was a sophomore, and we were still just trying to figure things out.”
Three years later Jordyn accepted Jesse’s request for a second chance. Exactly a year later, while he was teaching and during her senior year of college, he proposed; she said yes; and they married the following March.
At the time, they lived in Leeds, and Jesse taught here, but Jordyn had found a job at another school system after college. While she enjoyed her time there, she knew she wanted to end up in Leeds with their future children.
“I had a great time over there, and it was some of the best years of my life working over there, but I knew the moment that I had an opportunity to come here, that was 100 percent the choice that I wanted to make,” Jordyn, who currently teaches special education at Leeds Primary School, said.
Jordyn’s students come to her class for different reasons, but many of them struggle with reading. She said she loves introducing them to school and finds it especially rewarding to see them light up when they figure out a sentence for the first time.
“I think by now she’s proven she’s a really good special ed teacher,” Jesse said of his wife. “She’s wonderful, and she’s an asset to our community.”
As for Jesse, he has never known anywhere else. Even while in Tuscaloosa for college, he commuted back-and-forth on the weekends to volunteer with the football team.
“I got offered a couple of jobs, but ultimately, I was waiting on Leeds. I love this place,” he said.
Jesse currently teaches sophomore English and oversees RGR Media, a student-led media organization, which offers students another place to get connected at school.
“The more that they can get involved with our school, or we can get involved with them, the better, because then they’re associated with something. They have somebody in the building that loves them, that cares about them and is curious about them. Then they’re less likely to slip through the cracks,” he said, “I think we do a great job of that at Leeds.”
He also coaches wide receivers for the football team as well as varsity softball, which gives him another opportunity to reach young people. As any coach and most people would, Jesse obviously wants to win, but he also acknowledges that sometimes there are greater lessons in the losses.
“Bad stuff will happen, and sports can help prepare you for that stuff,” Jesse said. “I hope that they take little lessons from that to their marriage and to their job and to their real life.”
He also hopes to pass along a lesson he learned from his granddad: “How you treat people matters.”
“My granddad told me before he passed away, ‘How you treat your players, fellow coaches, opposing coaches, opposing players and officials matters,’” Jesse said
Though he expressed that sometimes the officials offer a more challenging version of this lesson, for him, it is all about the relationships forged along the way.
***
The Turners have missed one Friday night football game they can remember–almost four years ago on the night James was born. As invested as they are, Jordyn said they never forced James to like sports, but it came naturally growing up around it. Whether running around the football field, helping dad at the batting cages or playing T-ball, James wears a big smile.
This fall the Turners will have another son in tow on Friday nights beginning on Aug. 22 as the Greenwave take on the Mortimer Jordan Blue Devils at Homer Smiles Stadium.
