For Steve Bradley, it was another fitting tribute that was well deserved. It was another match that had made and dictated his life.

The Catasauqua resident and longtime coach was recently honored as Liberty’s High School “Teacher of the Year.” It was Bradley’s last year of a 38-year career as a social studies teacher. A $1,000 check for his efforts in the honor is also a good parting gift.

He had mixed feelings about walking away, but it slightly swung in his favor at this time.

“I had so many kids stop by during my last week,” noted Bradley. “I really enjoyed being in the classroom.”

Bradley thoroughly enjoyed working his way through the science department and teaching seniors.

Like any good teacher, Bradley won’t miss the day-to-day rigors of the job, but he will miss the kids.

And the kids will miss him.

Over the years, that has been his trademark. Bradley has done everything for kids, and kids have done everything for Bradley. You can find plenty of athletes, current and former, who would run through the proverbial brick wall for him.

I have spoken to numerous athletes who have marveled at how Bradley has shaped and steered their lives. When you see it as well as hear it, you know it’s true.

It has been a road marked with dedication, commitment, honesty and loyalty. Aside from the practice hours, there have been innumerable ones in which he has instructed, listened, helped, and most importantly, cared.

His peers and supervisors can attest to it.

“Steve has been an extremely dedicated person for our school district and our athletic department for an extended period of time,” boasted Roughies’ athletic director Tom Moll. “He has poured countless hours into coaching both baseball and girls’ basketball.

“He has a great rapport with our student athletes. We are hoping he continues to coach both sports moving forward.”

At Catasauqua, Bradley took over the head baseball job in 2011, and has guided the Rough Riders since then. He has had a long association with Catty athletics, serving as a youth board member, an assistant wrestling coach, and a current assistant girls’ basketball coach.

Along with his Rough Rider commitments, Bradley has been the longtime golf coach at Liberty. He also was an assistant baseball coach at Liberty and Freedom after he played baseball for four years at Kutztown University.

Bradley has never hesitated to fix a problem, rather than have someone else do it. He personally has manicured and readied Catty’s baseball field on his own, taking plenty of half days off from Liberty in the process.

He and his siblings cleared out their parents’ house in Bucks County - where Bradley made his mark at Hatboro-Horsham High - on their own without a company or a dumpster, and Bradley’s purring 31-year-old truck did most of the dirty work.

Bradley has watched his children Zack and Kenzie - two of the more elite athletes at Catasauqua- develop and excel on and off the field. Zack is an attorney and the offensive coordinator at Parkland, while Kenzie recently received her MBA from the University of Southern California and is living in Orange County. His wife, Lorry, also has followed the teaching path as an adjunct professor at Northampton Community College.

During his children’s playing days, the Bradley house was their teammates’ and friends’ gathering place after games and on weekends. Thanks to Steve and Lorry, there was a warm, welcoming presence that was appealing.

During football season, Bradley can often be found on the Parkland sidelines, snapping game photos for his lifelong friend head coach Tim Moncman. Bradley is always proud to be the partner with A.J. Moncman, the coach’s legally blind son, in Parkland’s annual summer golf tournament.

Without the classroom commitment, Bradley hopes to spend more time at a second home in South Carolina, but he doesn’t have any plans to sell his Catasauqua home.

Bradley knows his baseball and basketball coaching careers are winding down, as he has begun to wonder if he still has the zest and physical push - he has battled a bad back - to endure seasons ahead. He does plan to coach golf at Liberty in the fall.

Yet, he has enrolled Catty’s baseball team in an area fall league.

For Bradley, the beat has slowed, but it still goes on. He envisioned one day joining a staff with Zack and teammates Paryss Marshall, Ra’Von Burton, and Jacob Stopay, who are all assistant coaches at Northampton.

It would be another stop for Bradley as the master teacher and coach.

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