ASHEBORO ? Hit the ground running, thrown into the fire, jump right in.
Take your pick of any of the above and it can be used to describe what new Southwestern Randolph High School Athletic Director Tyler Clapp must be feeling.
Just a few weeks after taking over for Randy Key, who resigned the post at the end of the school year, Clapp finds himself in a tough position almost immediately as he is in charge of hiring a new basketball coach for the Cougars.
Derrick Stokes, who held that position for the past three seasons, turned in his resignation Friday after accepting the head basketball coaching position at West Davidson High School. Stokes graduated from West Davidson in 1997 and later coached there before heading to Trinity and then Southwestern Randolph.
?Southwest is a great school to come to, so I don?t think we?ll have much of a problem filling that position,? Clapp said. ?It throws us for a loop because no one expected Derrick to leave. We hate losing him.?
Stokes, who was 25-44 during his three years as the head coach at SWR, said it was a tough decision to leave SWR, but the lure of going home and coaching where he experienced success as a player and a coach was too much to ignore.
?It?s a sad day, but also a happy day,? said Stokes. ?I get to go back home and coach where as a coach and a player I have a lot of great memories. But I?m leaving a place that took me in and treated me like one of their own. There are some mixed feelings.?
Stokes, who was married less than a month ago, said the opportunity to raise a family near where his relatives reside in Davidson County also played a factor in his decision.
?At first I said no (to the new position) because I enjoy it so much here, but the more and more I thought of it, it leaned me back this way.?
Stokes coached at West Davidson from 2005-07, serving as an assistant football coach and head jayvee basketball coach. As a player, the Green Dragons tasted a lot of success.
?For about 20 years, in the 80s and 90s, West was one of the better programs in the area,? said Stokes, who will return as a Physical Education teacher. ?We won some conference championships and had some success.?
West Davidson is about to enter a very tough league with the likes of Thomasville, North Rowan, Salisbury and Lexington. Stokes said he is looking forward to the challenge.
?It?s going to be a more athletic and tougher league,? Stokes said.
?You can be doing this for 30 years and it?s like you?re thrown into a fire when a coach leaves,? Clapp said. ?No one is prepared for it. We?ll post it at the (NCHSAA) Coaches? Clinic next week and see what happens. We really haven?t considered anyone because we thought he?d be back.?
Now Clapp and SWR administrators will have a big decision to make. It?s going to be the first of many tough decisions an athletic director must make each year.
?It used to be I would do the baseball schedule, hand it to someone else and wash my hands of all that,? Clapp said. ?Now I?ll be more involved in rescheduling games, booking agents and paper work. All the paper work and having everything buttoned up is new to me. But you can probably run Southwest for a year and do absolutely nothing. It?s a great school. The kids are great and the community is great. I know there is going to be a hiccup here or there. We?re in great shape now.?
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