The Selma Times-Journal

Two new members of the Selma High athletic department hope to move both sports and academics at the school in a new direction.

Patrick Evans will officially begin duties as the athletics director during the 2008-09 season, and Woodie Jackson will be the boys’ basketball coach and assistant principal.

Jackson, a six-time state champion, leaves Francis Marion to replace Willie Maxey Jr., who won a title with the Saints in 1994.

“I’m going to do just as I’ve done my whole career – I’m going to work hard,” Jackson said. “Prayer and hard work will get it done, and all you can do is your best.”

Maxey is expected to remain assistant principal at Selma, according to Selma City Schools spokesperson Crystal Boykin.

Maxey could not be reached for comment, and football coach and former athletics director Brian Montgomery declined comment.

Jackson is the winningest active coach in Alabama with a 596-262 record and has been voted coach of the year 10 times. He also coached Dillard University from 1992-94, inheriting a 6-22 team and winning 29 games over two seasons.

Evans, a 1987 graduate of Selma High played two years of basketball at Chattahoochee Community College and two more years at Troy University. He received his bachelor’s in human resource management from Faulkner.

The Selma Board of Education voted to hire both Jackson and Evans during its meeting Thursday night.

Evans has been an NCAA basketball official for 14 years and has worked the NCAA Tournament for six years.

“I plan on having a seven-year plan,” Evans said. “I want to start with the students at C.H.A.T. Academy in the seventh grade and continue to their first year of college. Hopefully, they will receive an academic scholarship or athletic scholarship to the college or university of their choice. I want to be involved in that process.”