There have been a lot of people inducted into the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame throughout the years. But not many of them enter the Hall more humbly than Larry Tribble.

Tribble enjoyed a great coaching career at Ardmore and West Limestone, but he never took credit for his many victories. He gives all credit to others. That continues as Tribble goes into the Hall of Fame in a few weeks.

“First and foremost, I think it’s an honor for my family and all the players that I coached throughout the years,” Tribble said about being inducted. “Personally, it’s more about the kids that I coached. It’s not really about me. I had a lot of really good players, and a lot of them played college ball.”

Tribble coached at Ardmore from 1987-89, leading the Tigers to the softball state tournament. He then coached at West Limestone from 1989- 2000. He led the Wildcats’ girls basketball team to 249 victories in his 11 years, advancing to either sub-state or regional tournaments in 10 seasons.

Current West Limestone girls basketball coach Chasity Legg, who played for Tribble from 1995-1999, and went on to play at Belmont University, remembers a coach who always cared for his players first.

“He was always so positive,” Legg said. “He was supportive, encouraging and always went above and beyond. He opened the gym anytime we wanted him to. He was just a phone call away.”

Legg said she tries to incorporate lessons she learned from Tribble into her coaching philosophy.

“He was always loving on his players and putting them first,” she said. “That’s a good lesson for all coaches to learn.” Tribble said some of his fondest memories of coaching are the relationships he made with not only players and coaches, but officials as well.

“I never had what you would call a rival, someone I didn’t like,” Tribble said. “Even the officials. There was this one official who was a big guy who was a hard liner. He didn’t take anything from anyone. I always dreaded seeing him. But when I was diagnosed with diabetes, he found out and came up and talked to me about it, and was giving me advice. I was thinking ‘This is one of the guys who I never wanted to see, and he’s giving me advice about diabetes.’”

Tribble also takes a lot of pride in his former players who went on to play in college or went into the coaching profession, such as Legg and Ardmore girls basketball coach Brittney Smith.

“I get a big kick out of the kids who went back into coaching and teaching,” Tribble said. “I’ve followed their careers and seen how they’ve done. One of the first things I would do would be to ask my kids what they wanted to do after high school. And a lot of them didn’t veer too far from what they told me.”

Tribble said those players are why he is being inducted into the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame June 8.

“I was basically just out there,” Tribble said. “I had a bunch of kids who were really outstanding people, and they ended up being outstanding players also.”