John Hammett patrolled the football sidelines as a head coach for many years but the former JF Webb coach now finds being athletic director at a small school such as Oxford Prep to be quite satisfying. Even though there are aspects of being a football coach that he misses, one of the reasons he made the change was it began to become more like work.
Being a football coach meant Hammett had to deal with injuries, something he says Oxford Prep takes very seriously. “You have to teach players differently about how to deal with injuries. The more education the better,” Hammett says. “Athletes have to be honest,” according to Hammett. That’s hard he says because the kids are competitive and don’t want to miss any time on the field or the court.
According to Hammett, Oxford Prep is becoming more competitive on the basketball court. After a slow start, the school won a big rivalry game last week over Eno River.
So while Hammett may not be patrolling the sidelines of a football field, Oxford Prep’s AD position seems to be working out for him. “It’s nice, because it’s small,” Hammett summed up.
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