Holly Springs' Whitesell named Athletic Director of the Year
Holly Springs High School athletic director Rod Whitesell was named the inaugural winner of the HighSchoolOT Honors Athletic Director of the Year Award on Saturday night.
“It is a great honor to win this award,” Whitesell said. “There are a lot of great athletic directors in the area and to be recognized with Holly Springs is pretty great.”
The Golden Hawks are coming off one of their most impressive years in school history. Holly Springs brought home nine conference titles in the very competitive South Wake Athletic 4A Conference, including several first-time winners.
“As a whole I think this has been our most successful year,” Whitesell said. “Football had their first taste of conference title success, along with basketball, and soccer.”
It all got started in the fall when the football and soccer teams finally broke through with conference titles. The football team won a difficult SWAC over likes of traditional powers Garner, Middle Creek, and Fuquay-Varina.
Coach Robert Furth’s team went 7-5 (5-0 in conference) and won its first conference title. The Golden Hawks hosted their first ever home football playoff game. Furth thinks Whitesell helped out tremendously in his team's breakthrough year.
“He handles a lot on game day for us,” Furth said. “He has done so much for me and our program and the coaches here at Holly Springs, and we could not ask for a better athletic director.”
In the winter, the boys basketball team, which had never had a winning record, shined. The team, under new head coach L.J. Hepp, put together an impressive resume. Behind a strong starting five, which was anchored by University of Virginia commit Kadin Shedrick, the Golden Hawks went 20-5 on the year, 12-0 in conference, and won their first conference title. The team made it to the third round of the playoffs.
Holly Springs also had some repeat winners in girls basketball and baseball. The baseball team, which Whitesell coaches, had the deepest playoff run of any Holly Springs sport this season, making it all the way to the eastern regional final where it lost to Corinth Holders.
Others involved with Holly Springs athletics know the impact Whitesell has on the success of the teams.
Doug Poppy is an assistant principal at Holly Springs who oversees athletics. He has been at the school for four years and thinks Whitesell is at the top of the list for athletic directors in North Carolina.
“We have the best athletic director in the state,” Poppy said. “He does his job and goes about it everyday, and he should be proud of the athletic program he has built here at Holly Springs.”
