Wrangell grad Stacey Wayne named to state high school hall of fame

Stacey Wayne, Wrangell High School class of 1982, said it was an honor and a blessing to work as drama and debate coach with Sitka students for a quarter-century. The Alaska School Activities Association added to the honor this month when it inducted Wayne into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame.

"Wayne started coaching and teaching drama at Sitka High in 1987 and took two students to the state championship event in that inaugural year," the May 7 awards ceremony program said.

"The next year she was able to add debate, resulting in the school's first drama, debate and forensics team. With the help of talented assistants, Wayne developed a powerful program that led to more than 40 individual and team state titles in her 25-year coaching career."

Wrangell schools did not have a drama and debate team when Wayne was a student, and she had never served as a drama or debate coach before she accepted a job with Sitka schools. She learned that the teacher she was replacing had done the work - so it seemed natural to take on the coaching assignment, she said.

"It turned out to be such a blessing," Wayne said in an interview May 9. "Kids excel at levels you don't see in the classroom."

"Wayne calls her proudest accomplishment knowing all the students she coached and mentored who have continued to share their drama, debate and forensics talent passion through coaching themselves," the awards event program said. "Her coaching tree has branched out all over the state - to Anchorage, Metlakatla, Mount Edgecumbe, Skagway and elsewhere."

One branch of that tree is particularly close. Her son, Sam Woolsey, is the coach at Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School.

Wayne retired from Sitka schools in 2010, having taught English, history and theater, in addition to drama and debate. She was named Alaska DDF coach of the year in 2010.

She retired as coach in 2012.

Wayne still lives in Sitka and works as a mediator for the Alaska Court System.

A contingent of former Wrangell residents attended the awards ceremony in Anchorage, including Wayne's classmate of 1982, Mercedes Angerman; Carol (Stewart) Beecher, class of 1980; Myron Myers, a longtime teacher and coach (girls basketball and volleyball); and Audrey Myers.

Wayne is the fourth former Wrangell resident named to the Alaska High School Hall of Fame. She joins basketball star Archie Young, class of 1991, inducted in 2014; former elementary and high school principal in the 1980s and 1990s Dave Dirksen, inducted in 2016; and former principal and schools superintendent Dick McCormick, inducted in 2009. He died in 2018.