SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — Cathy Burdge has a lot of names and wears a lot of hats at Charles Page High School.
"It goes from Mrs. Burdge, to Mama Burdge, to Mimi Burdge."
Students call her Mrs. Burdge because she's the Attendance Clerk. Athletes call her Mama Burdge because she's helped her husband, the cross country coach, for 38 years. Then there's Mimi.
"And then my grandkids call me Mimi," Burdge says.
Since 1983, she's been involved with all kinds of sports and promoting its benefits for kids of all ages.
"I just like being around the kids," she says.
She's run the Little League Baseball Park for more than 13 years. She's a founding member of the Sand Springs Youth Football Association and Basketball Association. When her own kids were young, she tried her hand at coaching her daughter's softball team and her son's t-ball team.
"Then I got fortunate enough that he got on a better team," Burdge says with a laugh.
"I like [the kids]," she said. "Some days they're a pain in the heinie but I still like them."
Burdge says she'll continue spending her weekends at the sports field promoting the benefits of sports and making sure every kid has a level playing field as long as she possibly can.
"It's an amazing job, and it's not a job," she says.
"It's an amazing privilege for me to get to go out there and watch them and feel like I had a part of that good thing."
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