Jimmy Perry to take job at Mobile high school

What, it’s been about three days since we spoke about the Auburn tackle football team?

Noted.

Anyways, we just got this e-mail into our professional inbox. We figured it was a bit newsworthy.

Jimmy Perry, who served as Auburn’s director of football operations over the past five seasons and had been with the program since 2000, will take over as head coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile.

Here’s the official release from Auburn University.

AUBURN—Jimmy Perry, who worked with the Auburn football program since 2000, the last five as the director of football operations, has taken the head coaching position at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile, Ala. Perry also served as Auburn’s director of high school relations from his arrival in August 2000 until February 2004.

“I’d like to thank Auburn for a great nine and a half years,” Perry said. “I was able to work in a college football setting the same time my daughter, Jana, and son, Danny, both went to school at Auburn, which was very meaningful to me. I was also able to work beside Danny, who was a player here, which was a tremendous experience.

“I want to thank Coach Gene Chizik for the opportunity to stay on his staff at Auburn and also am grateful to Headmaster Marty Lester and Athletics Director Gerry Strang at St. Paul’s for this new endeavor.

“I wanted to be a head coach again, and the opportunity to coach at St. Paul’s will not only allow me to do that, but to also make a meaningful impact on young men’s lives. My wife, Judy, and I are grateful for being a part of the Auburn family, and we look forward to becoming a part of the St. Paul’s family.”

Perry, 51, had a distinguished 21-year high school coaching career prior to his arrival at Auburn. He served as the head football coach and athletic director at Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery from 1995-00. At Lee, Perry earned three 6A Metro Coach of the Year honors while guiding the program to a runner-up finish in the 6A state championship in 1999 and to consecutive area championships in 1997 and 1998.

“Jimmy Perry has been a valuable asset to this football program for the last nine and a half years and I am very appreciative for his hard work and dedication, especially during the last two and a half months,” Chizik said. “I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jimmy and his family for nearly eight years. They are wonderful people and will always be a part of the Auburn family. We wish Jimmy the best of luck at St. Paul’s. They are getting not only an outstanding football mind, but a wonderful individual and family man.”

A member of the Robert E. Lee Hall of Fame, his 1995 and 1996 teams advanced to the state quarterfinals, with the 1996 squad earning a national ranking of 22nd by USA Today.

A 1979 Auburn graduate, Perry began his coaching career at Trinity High School where he was the Defensive Coordinator from 1979-81, before serving as the Offensive Line Coach at Robert E. Lee High School from 1982-84 and Offensive Coordinator at Lee from 1985-95.

Auburn women clinch SEC regular-season title outright

Call the Tigers selfish, but they wanted this thing all to themselves.

Seriously, that T-shirt’s street value would have dropped by at least 50 percent. We don’t need that in these trying economic times.

Your female Auburn Tigers clinched the SEC regular-season title all to themselves today with a complete trampling of poor, poor Arkansas, 94-57, before 5,616 fans at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Auburn’s four seniors, who were honored post-game with quite the ceremony, combined for 60 points and 24 rebounds.

Think they’ll be missed next year?

“They came in here with a brand new staff and got to know us,“ coach Nell Fortner said. “They came to Auburn and they believed in what we were telling them. I’ll always be thankful to them for doing that and for getting this program back to where it needs to be.“

Here were their contributions today, just so we can put their names out there.

Whitney Boddie: 10 points, eight assists.

DeWanna Bonner: 25 points, seven rebounds.

Sherell Hobbs: 18 points, four rebounds.

Trevesha Jackson: 7 points, 11 rebounds.

That’s what we call a solid day at the office. Now let’s all go get Dairy Queen.

Oh wait, it’s cold and snowy. How about we roll Toomers’?

Sounds scandalous, but we’re all for it.

“We don’t get a whole lot of respect,“ Boddie said. “We’re trying to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, we’re trying to show teams we’re for real. So we wanted to come out and do that and we did.“

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)

Great Quotes Compilation, Vol. 2

That potentially dunking gentleman you see at the top of the page is Loachapoka senior forward Tommy White Jr.

Aside from being named Central Region tournament MVP, being named to the Final 48 tournament team, becoming a state champion with the rest of the Indians and knowing how to rock a headband, he also is not the bashful type when the tape recorders come out and all us ink-stained reporter types start asking him questions.

Here are some of his choice nuggets from after the state championship game Thursday:

White sat out most of the third quarter before coming back to score 10 in the fourth. So I asked him what was going through his mind when he was on the bench.
“I told my team, when coach (Terry) Murph let me back out there, that I was gonna go ham. We made it to Ham, so go ham in Ham. You know?“

Now, urbandictionary.com informs my perpetually uncool self that “going ham” is “To go mayham: the equivelent of spasing out.“ Youtube also informs my perpetually uncool self that “Go Ham on ‘Em” is, in fact, a Soulja Boy song.

I assumed he meant something to that effect, because I had heard of “hamming it up” and other perpetually uncool sayings like that. And I assumed he didn’t mean he wanted to be like this guy.

White also talked a little bit about getting his team’s picture up on the wall of the gymnasium, to stand next to the picture of the 1997 state championship team.
“We’re about to put a brand new one up there. I hope they put chrome around it, though.“

I’d also like to point out the answer junior Quindravius Richardson gave me when I asked him what he was doing 12 years ago, the last time Poka won a state championship.

He said, “Probably sleeping.“

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was probably exactly right. Because he wouldn’t have been more than 5 at the time and, if the 1A championship was the late game like it was Thursday, it wouldn’t have ended until about 10:30. And I would hope young Quindravius was asleep at 10:30 p.m.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I might have to go ham on this tuna sub I’m holding.