CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Rossview High School boys and girls assistant soccer coach Ashley Beck is all-in when it comes to supporting the kids on her teams. But she’s also all-in supporting the kids in her classroom, which is few miles away at Northeast High. Beck finds herself both a Rossview Hawk and a Northeast Eagle, having also attended both schools as a student.
“It’s been hard, honestly. A lot of the Northeast team are in my classes, but it’s been a lot of fun banter back and forth,” Beck told Clarksville Now. “I don’t make it known unless someone specifically asks me, because I believe in loyalty. You get the most buy-in from your kids when you put the effort in. It’s not easy to be in two places; it pulls at the heartstrings a little, but it matters to the kids when they see that I care, and am all-in when I’m here.”
Lead player on Rossview, APSU teams
Beck moved to Clarksville at the end of her fifth-grade year, and she attended Northeast Elementary for a few weeks. Rossview Middle then opened her sixth-grade year, and she attended Rossview from then on, playing on some of their first soccer teams. She led the Hawks to three district championships and became an All-State selection.
Beck then went on to play soccer at Austin Peay State University, and at the time she graduated, she was the all-time leader for goals and points, and no one was close. Beck had 16 more goals and 32 more points than anyone else in program history.
Her former head coach at Rossview, Kelley Guth, now the head coach for Kirkwood soccer, emphasized the impact she left.
“To find a local talent like Ashley early on in our program’s history was remarkable,” said Guth. “Ashley was an immediate asset to our team. Her exceptional speed and dynamic presence on the field made her a force to be reckoned with, and I am proud to have coached her. More than that, I feel privileged to maintain what has since evolved into a strong friendship and a friendly, competitive rivalry between us as coaches. I have watched her grow into a Clarksville role model and community leader.”
Soccer at Rossview, science at Northeast
After graduating from APSU, Beck worked with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. During that time, she was an assistant for multiple soccer programs around the area before becoming an assistant at Rossview in 2016 and then a teacher at Rossview in 2021.
Beck is one of the few coaches in the Clarksville area who coaches both the boys and girls teams. “I’d never really coached boys before; it was always girls,” said Beck. “When Seth Ramsey took over the program, he thought I’d make a great assistant, and I just gave it a shot. I haven’t looked back since, and I absolutely love it. Never would’ve thought I’d coach boys, but here we are.”
This year, in the fall of 2024, Beck was moved to Northeast High School to teach physical science and ecology. While it might be easy to focus on the Hawks as she continues to coach with Rossview, she is, as she puts it, 100% in on everything she does, and pours this commitment into her students at Northeast.
Supporting the kids in and out of the classroom takes different forms, and at times it has included dying her hair neon pink because they won districts, or putting on a giant cow suit for testing days.
You won’t find many who care about kids, the community, and her people, like Ashley Beck does in Clarksville.
“I can’t go anywhere in Clarksville without someone recognizing me, which I love,” said Beck. “I love this community, I love giving back to it, and while it’s a unique scenario playing high school, playing college, and now coaching in the same city, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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