Friday’s events would have been difficult for anyone. When the face of an organization walks away, it’s tough on everyone involved. It’s true in business. It’s true in government. It’s true in education. But as tough as such changes are on adults, they’re even tougher on adolescents.

Think about it. High school is tough. There’s the challenge of balancing academics and social life. For most, there is some form of extracurricular activity to factor into the equation as well. And all of it is compounded by the nagging awkwardness that accompanies self-discovery.

Face it. It is a difficult period in life; one for which most of us would give little to nothing to revisit.

The students at Marengo Academy woke up Friday with the notion that they were on the cusp of the weekend. The upperclassmen awoke with thoughts of prom on their minds.

What they found when they got to school must have been difficult to swallow. Their headmaster, John Holley, had stepped down. It is a difficult thing to deal with for any teenager. Regardless of their personal feelings toward Holley, which reportedly bordered on adoration, such a swift transition is trying to an age group that needs stability in all the right places.

No one outside of the Marengo Academy board and Holley himself can ever know what really transpired to lead up to the sudden departure. For all intents and purposes, it became a moot point once the resignation was tendered.

From that moment, the focus had to instantly become the student body and its best interests.

So the board acted swiftly again, naming Jonathan Lindsey as the interim head master. In many areas, the notion of the baseball coach being placed in such a position would ludicrous.

However, for the difficult circumstances currently facing MA, Lindsey is the perfect fit.

Marengo Academy is a school that takes pride in everything it does. This is evidenced most prominently in athletic competitions. A large percentage of Marengo Academy students are athletes. And many of those who aren’t can regularly be found in the stands of home games.

The Longhorn student body is one that rallies around its athletic teams. That fact gives coaches, like Lindsey, an increased impact on an abnormal number of students both directly and indirectly.

The values and requirements of coaches are imposed daily on players. If those values and expectations are positive and properly enforced, then the players positively affect the remainder of the student body. The same holds true for negative values.

So the logical choice for the interim position was Lindsey. The MA baseball coach, who also teaches senior government and economics, possesses the strength of character to guide the school through one of its most difficult periods.

He is a family man. He maintains a rare balance of strength and patience that served him well in leading Marengo Academy to an AISA Class AA state title in 2008 and makes him the ideal fit for such a demanding position now in 2009.

In essence, Lindsey is serving as the proverbial relief pitcher. He is the player that doesn’t complain about not getting enough work. He’ll go days at a time without touching the field. But, when called upon, he’ll step to the mound and do his best to deliver no matter what the circumstances.

In this particular instance, Lindsey takes the ball with the bases juiced in the eighth inning of a tight ball game. But the smart money says that Lindsey will do the same thing he asks his players to do each day. He’ll scrap. He’ll fight. He’ll work hard. And when it’s all over, he’ll find a way to help Marengo Academy get out of a difficult spot and pick up the win.