Matt Vaughan Herald Sports Editor

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ROANOKE RAPIDS -- There was an unexpected changing of the guard at Roanoke Rapids High School May 24 when Athletic Director David Brown was forced to step down from the position he'd held for seven years.

“The superintendent (of the Roanoke Rapids Graded School District Dennis Sawyer) told me he wanted to go in a different direction with the athletic program,” Brown said in a phone interview. “It came as a total surprise.”

Brown was inclined to be in a state of shock after being relieved of his duties following a season in which the Yellow Jackets won nine conference championships in the Northern Carolina 2A Conference, as well as being awarded the Wachovia Cup.

The Cup goes to the school in the conference that ends the athletic slate with the most total points at the end of the season, based on how each sport finished in the conference standings. Roanoke Rapids also boasted five coaches of the year and seven conference players of the year in various sports.

Messages left at the office of the superintendent for Sawyer in regards to Brown's firing were not returned.

“I really didn't get much information on why it happened when I asked (Sawyer),” Brown said. “There was some talk of kids that were academically ineligible, but that was all I was really told.”

Brown was offered to stay within the school system as a physical education teacher at Belmont and Manning elementaries.

He will also join the football staff at Roanoke Rapids and remain the head coach for men's and women's swimming.

The 2007-2008 school year will mark the first time in 22 years Brown won't be a staff member at Roanoke Rapids High. Before he became the AD, he held different posts such as golf coach, JV basketball coach and even baseball coach for 10 years.

The athletic director position is currently listed as a vacancy by the school district's personnel department.