Jordan has high expectations for Darlington athletics
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Michael Jordan is ready to take Darlington athletics to the next level but that doesn’t mean that he’ll let his student-athletes slide on their grades; far from it. Jordan knows that it takes skills and the brains to back them up for students to be successful.
Michael Jordan
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, the self-described Navy brat traveled all over the country and the world with his family before entering high school and finding himself on the football field at Kellam High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His skills there took him to North Carolina on a scholarship, where he soon discovered that he had more to learn.
“I went to Livingstone College on a full football scholarship,” Jordan said. “That was an experience. I left Kellam High School as a so-called star football player, played offensive linebacker. I got to Livingstone and I was a little guppy in a big pond. That opened up my eyes immensely; it was a big shock to me.”
After graduating with a degree in education, Jordan returned to Virginia to begin his teaching career; he also began coaching.
“I started teaching in Pennsylvania County, Virginia,” Jordan said. “They say at that time it was the largest county in Virginia and also the poorest. I started at the junior high school and coached basketball, football and track. Eventually I got to the high school, coaching not teaching, and I was the defensive coordinator. We started out the first year 0-10, gave up over 40 points a game as a defensive coordinator. Two years later we were playing in the semi-finals of the state championship.”
Jordan said that even before the school year kicked off in Darlington County, he had plans in mind to keep his athletes on the right track.
“I will have access to PowerSchool so I will be able to monitor students’ progress along with my assistant AD, Coach Sandifer,” Jordan said. “Where I came from in Jasper County we had a 2.0 (Grade Point Average) rule. At the same time, I am not one of those coaches who say that a player doesn’t have the 2.0 so we’re going to discard them. What we would do is they would have to get tutored and get help to bring those grades up.”
He will also make sure that his athletes understand that getting recruited takes more than just being able to make the play.
“We are looking at doing a recruiting seminar for our student-athletes and their parents,” Jordan said. “Our athletic booster club is sponsoring that and sponsoring the program that we purchased. Our athletes can sign-up under our school name and number and it helps them see if they are on track for an athletic scholarship and on what levels. A lot of our parents don’t understand what it takes to be recruited. A lot of them think their child is a great athlete and they should just get a D1 scholarship. Character and discipline goes a long way in that too. This program also speaks to them about that. I told a young man registering for ninth grade (the other day) that his academic and athletic recruiting starts now; everything that you do from now on will be scrutinized by college coaches.”
Jordan said that he credits all of his success to having a partner every step of the way.
“A great deal of the successes that I have had…have come because I have been blessed with the most beautiful, outstanding wife that anyone could have,” Jordan said. “She has never, in 24 years, complained about what I do athletically; the time, the phone calls, never. There is a saying that behind every successful man is a strong woman. My wife doesn’t walk behind me; she walks beside me. I cannot thank her enough.”
His successes have been great up to this point but Jordan said he has big dream for Darlington as well.
“My expectations are big and they are high; I truly believe that if we set the bar high as administrators, that our coaches and our student-athletes will obtain that goal,” Jordan said. “My expectation is to have the best athletic department in Darlington County, the 4A classification, Region 6, the Pee Dee, the lower state and the state. That is my expectation and in order to do that, we have to get those programs that are not winning as much as we would like, we have to get them there. You do that through academics by having your better athletes academically eligible. Ms. Gehrke expects that too. She wants to win. She wants to win on the field and she wants to win in the classroom. She wants the kids to win out in the community. She wants them to be able to compete in a global society.”
