By By STEVE FRANKLIN, Sports Writer
CHOCOWINITY — The only Athletic Director in Southside High School’s history will officially step down later this month.
After 35 years in education, Seahawks’ assistant principal and athletic director Larry Knox has decided to retire.
The 56-year old Edenton native stepped aside in January to let science teacher Sean White take over the athletic director’s role. Since then, Knox has served as an advisor. In two weeks, he’ll cut ties with the school system for good.
After graduating from East Carolina in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in social studies, Knox had short stints as a teacher in Pitt and Onslow counties before moving to the Beaufort County School System in 1978.
He spent his first 21 years with Beaufort schools as a social studies teacher and assistant principal at Chocowinity High School. He was also the A.D. at there from 1988 until the school closed in 1999 and served as a football coach and girls’ basketball coach.
In 1981, Knox led Chocowinity’s girls’ basketball program to a state championship. It’s a moment he’ll never forget.
When Chocowinity and Aurora High Schools merged in 1999-00, Knox was selected as the school’s assistant principal and athletic director.
Among the many challenges that he had was trying to build a program from scratch.
The NCHSAA officially recognized Southside as a member school in the fall of ‘99. However, construction delays didn’t allow Southside to open until January of 2000, meaning Knox had to schedule practices and games for Southside at both Aurora and Chocowinity High Schools.
Under Knox’s direction, the Seahawks’ program blossomed quickly. In only the fourth year of existence, Southside’s football program advanced to the NCHSAA Class 1-A State Championships and finished with an 11-4 record. In 2004, the Seahawks’ football program was once again state runner-ups.
The track program has also seen it’s share of success having won seven conference titles and finishing top-five in the state on two occasions. Volleyball, softball, basketball, and cheerleading teams have also claimed conference championships since Southside’s inception.