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New Ashbrook AD takes crash course
GASTONIA - Chad Duncan's first trip to Ashbrook didn't go so well.
He had traveled all but the final two miles from Wilmington when another driver pulled in front of his vehicle, causing a wreck that totaled his car.
Moments later, he was on the hot seat, telling a committee why he should be Ashbrook's choice for its next athletic director.
That was the easy part.
Duncan, assistant athletic director at Wilmington Ashley High School the past two years, aced the interview. Ashbrook administrators offered him the job a few days later and on Thursday made the hiring official.
"I think everybody on the interview committee was amazingly impressed that he steps out of a car that's totaled and comes right in," outgoing athletic director Lloyd White said.
"I offered to give him a few extra minutes to get himself together and he said, ‘No, I'm ready to go.' He walked in there and you would have never had a clue that the guy had a car totaled and his wife was bruised up with somebody he doesn't even know (even though it's my wife)."
Duncan, 34, will begin his new role no later than Aug. 1, or as soon as he can relocate to Gastonia. He takes the place of White, whose last day before retirement is June 19. White will stay on as teacher and swimming coach through the first semester of next school year.
The search committee chose Duncan from among 19 candidates and five finalists. They were impressed by much more than his composure after a car wreck.
He's taken four courses to become certified in athletic administration. And although he's been an assistant athletic director for only two years, he's learned a lot on the job.
"We didn't give him extra points for having experience as an AD but those experiences gave him the ability to go into some detail," Ashbrook principal Page Carver said. "He could answer our questions with depth."
Duncan, an Ohio native, has taught and coached at Ashley since 2001. He's taught psychology, sociology and exceptional children and coached boys basketball and boys golf. He was voted Mid-Eastern 3A/4A Conference boys basketball coach of the year in 2005 and Ashley teacher of the year by the students in 2003-04.
He served as assistant to athletic director Roy Turner, the current president of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association.
"I was ready to go on my own," Duncan said. "I wanted a bigger school, but I also wanted a place that had a lot of athletic excellence and this place definitely has a lot of tradition."
Duncan will teach psychology at Ashbrook but won't coach any sports. Steve Hudgins will coach boys golf alone after he and White shared the job.
Prior to Ashley, Duncan taught and coached at Wilmington Laney High School from 1999 to 2001, at Liberty Union High School in Baltimore, Ohio, from 1998-99 and at Bloom-Carroll High School in Carroll, Ohio, from 1995 to 1998.
He graduated in 1995 from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, with a bachelor's degree in secondary education.
You can reach Phillip Gardner at 704-869-1843.
