MOULTRIE — Beth Redding once mused about the impact those involved in recreation have on the people they interact with.

In her 30 years with the Moultrie-Colquitt County Parks and Recreation Department, Redding coached thousands of youngsters and adults in her hometown. Most enjoyed and profited from their recreation experiences in ways perhaps they were not even aware of.

But several took what they learned on the dusty fields of Colquitt County and imparted that knowledge to new generations of youngsters.

Among those who came through the recreation programs that Redding operated in Colquitt County are Jo Beth Weaver, Nancy Anderson Mark, Vanessa Taylor and Veronica Freeman Reese, all members of the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.

Redding will take her place beside them next week when she, too, is inducted into the Hall of Fame at the annual banquet, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Colquitt County High School cafeteria.

She also played basketball in the county recreation league run by Bud Willis, was on the eighth-grade basketball under coach Knuck McCrary and was an all-region player for the Packerettes under Ace Little — three more Hall of Famers.

And the man who gave her her start in a career she could not have imagined was the father of Colquitt County recreation, Jim Buck Goff, a member of the Hall of Fame’s first class.

For David Whittington, who coached recreation softball teams for 10 years producing five national champions and four national runners-up, Redding’s selection to the Hall of Fame was a no-brainer.

It was Redding who inspired him to coach youth sports, he said.

“She ran a department full of love and caring for the youth she touched,” Whittington said. “She was always there for support, comfort, compassion and guidance for the children in her program.

“I believe she changed lives, and who knows what child she redirected to become more than what they would have been without her?”

Born Beth McCoy on the Fourth of July in 1947, she is the daughter of Bee McCoy, who died last December, and Kate McCoy, who still lives in Berlin, where her daughter was raised.

“Berlin was a great place to grow up,” says Redding, who was part of family that included four sisters and a brother. “All kids like to play ball and we liked the competition.”

Her competitive instincts were honed on the playground of Berlin Elementary School, which she attended.

She was talented at basketball and softball and played in the county league run by Willis.

In eighth grade, she began playing basketball for McCrary and soon was a starting guard on Little’s Packerette teams.

“He was a very good coach,” she said of Little. “He knew a lot about it. He got as much as he could out of our team.”

In 1964, when she was a junior at Moultrie High, she was named to the all-county team that also included teammate Ida Faye Smithson, Cheryl Hathcock and Mary Jo Fincher of Doerun High and Wanda Purvis and Carolyn Grantham of Norman Park High.

Fincher and Grantham are Hall of Fame members and Purvis — now Wanda Purvis Ross — will join Redding in being inducted this year.

Redding was an All-Region selection as a senior in 1965 and the next year attended Abraham Baldwin College.

The following year, she began working at Moody Air Force base and married former Packer Stanley Redding.

When their son Jody was about 5, Beth was at the Moultrie Recreation Department tennis courts when Goff told her he was creating the new position of girls and women’s sports director and said he thought she would be right for the job.

After discussing it with Stanley, she accepted, never dreaming she would hold the position for 30 years.

Her first activity was cheerleading and she had some 100 girls involved. That program has grown over the years and often had more participation than the boys football program.

When basketball season came around, she took a 12-and-under team to the Georgia Recreation and Parks Society’s state tournament in Savannah and it finished as the state runner-up.

The recreation department, its programs and facilities grew over the years. More options became available for girls and women and Redding was at the forefront. Girls basketball and softball teams won a number of district and state championships and women’s basketball, softball and volleyball teams did as well.

Over the years, she directed district and state tournaments in basketball and softball.

In the early years, the girls softball leagues played in the mornings during summer, using the fields that the boys youth baseball teams would play on in the evenings. Soon the Knuck McCrary Sports Complex was completed and served as the home of the women’s city and church softball programs.

And in 1996, the softball complex at the Jim Buck Goff Recreation Complex was completed and now serves as the home to the girls softball program.

Redding credits Goff with the growth of recreation in the county and says he had much to do with her professional development.

“He was the only boss I’d had when he died,” she said. “He lived up the road and I saw him every day. Our recreation department is a credit to him.

“And he has his family were always very supportive of me.”

And while she spent considerable time building the girls programs, she did not neglect women’s sports, overseeing basketball, softball and volleyball.

Jan Tucker, who also took advantage of an aerobics class that Redding offered, remembers going to the state volleyball tournament on two occasions, finishing fourth one year and seventh another.

Also on those teams were Nelle Collier, Pat Yearty, Irene Cox, Linda Zito, Peaches Hoffmann, Toni Hood, Carol Skidmore and Janie Pitts.

Several members of that group continued to meet at the Moultrie Youth Center to play table tennis several times a week.

“We called Beth ‘our fearless leader,’” Tucker said. “She would plan trips to see the Atlanta Braves. We would have the most fun on these trips. She was the best.”

Tucker said she also often walked on the exercise trail with Redding.

“I can’t tell you the times she would call and say she was going to be late,” Tucker said. “She would be waiting on a parent to pick up their child.

“She would not leave until every child was picked up. I bet she spent a month out of her life waiting with children.”

By the time she retired in 2003, Redding had received a number of awards for her work in recreation, including the Meritorious Service Award and the William “Cut” Edwards Professional of the Year Award presented by the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association’s District III.

But retirement did not mean Beth Redding was giving up on recreation.

She had begun coaching recreation baseball in 1999 with a team that included her grandson, her niece and her nephew.

When grandson Brice and niece Megan May played, their teams own the 10-and-under and 12-and-under league championships. Redding’s all-star team also won a 10-and-under district championship.

“I have loved being around kids,” Redding said. “I’ve tried to use a positive outlook and be a good influence.”

Son Jody, who works for Sen. Johnny Isakson, and his wife Deidre have two children, Brice and Blake.

Like his older brother, Blake will have the advantage of learning baseball from one of Colquitt County’s finest coaches — his grandmother.