PREP FOOTBALL: James says healthy is top priority

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on July 29, 2018 3:08 AM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

Taking his feelings out of the equation and putting his health first, Elvin James relinquished the reins as Goldsboro High's head varsity football coach.

Shocked faces stared back.

Some players shed tears.

A few grumbled their discontent.

For the third time in four years the senior class will play for a new head coach.

"We're not going to throw a pity party," said the 62-year-old Beaufort native. "We've got a foundation laid, got a nice nucleus coming back so we want to basically pick up where we left off and I do believe that Coach [Tim] Ray and the staff will do a tremendous job.

"I want to thank the administration, the [Wayne County] Board of Education and [former GHS] Principal Miss [Marcia] Manning for the opportunity to come back and coach last year. It was a tremendous honor."

Ray has been named as the interim head coach.

Goldsboro High Principal Christopher D. Horne said a timeline has not been set to find a successor to James. He will discuss the selection process with Dr. Tim Harrell, district athletics director, and Dr. Yvette Mason, assistant superintendent of Human Resources.

Horne added the "focus right now is on supporting our student-athletes, Coach Ray and his staff on a successful season."

The Cougars are projected to return 29 letter-winners off last year's team that finished 6-6 overall and 3-3 in the highly-competitive East Central 2-A Conference. The Cougars filed their first winning campaign since 2012 and dropped an opening-round playoff game at Southwest Onslow.

The entire offensive and defensive lines should remain intact.

Opposing defensive coordinators face the task of containing Goldsboro's dual threat of quarterback Brody Morton and heavily-recruited running back Xzavior Bowden. Bowden rushed for more than 2,100 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2017. Morton threw for 879 yards on 59 completions.

Ray intends to push the program forward.

"It's definitely a blessing," Ray said. "I'm honored to even be considered for this position. We preach to the guys to always march forward, never take steps back and that's the way we're going with the program.

"We all love Coach James. It's a loss for everyone who deals with the program and [a loss] for the community of Goldsboro."

James insists this isn't how his story is going to end.

Once he addresses his medical issues and heals, he plans on saddling up and riding again as a volunteer/assistant coach down the road at either a middle or high school.

However, James prefers Goldsboro High since his heart bleeds maize and old blue.

Passion flickers in his eyes when he talks about the players he's coached under the lights on Friday nights.

"Those kids grew up like I did," James said. "I lot of them grew up in the projects. A lot of them grew up with a single parent. School is where I got my best meals from at times. Because my coach cared about me and believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself, he gave me hope."

Throughout his career, James has diligently worked to pass his experiences forward.

The word "can't" doesn't exist in his vocabulary.

"I'm just trying to get the next kid to understand if I can do it, you can do it," James said. "You have to push beyond [limits], come out of the comfort zone and have someone out there willing to help you. That's why I don't mind going the extra mile to help those kids get in college.

"My coach in high school did me the same way."