How 2 legendary highschool coaches impacted college students, neighborhood, civil rights and Alabama’s future
Congressman Terri Sewell, Coach Andrew Anthony Sewell and Nancy Sewell. Photo via Bob Farley / f8Photo.org
Terri Sewell’s father Coach Alabama Anthony Coach Sewell had a saying:
“Anything worth doing is worth doing your best.”
Let me tell you a story about two remarkable men who grew up in Selma, Alabama. Both men were educators. Both men were trainers. Both men were pioneers and community builders.
Let’s meet with AA Sewell and Joe Evans for Black History Month.
Cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Edmund Pettus Bridge in February 2021. Photo via The Bama Buzz
Coach Evans was destined to become a high school hall of fame basketball coach, college coach, athletic director, and the assistant executive director of the AHSAA.
At the tender age of 16, he was gassed in tears on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as he marched for the right to vote. Known as Bloody Sunday, the violent event made headlines across the country and got a nation going. A week later, he crossed the bridge with Martin Luther King Jr. and his fellow marchers to continue the 50-mile hike from Selma to Montgomery.
When I asked him about those fateful days in 1965, Evans was humble. He focused on why he was marching and what it accomplished.
“It was very, very important to the world, the sacrifices made by the people of the city (Selma) and Dallas County. We caught the world’s attention because we can’t choose. “
Double a
Sewell Family – Nancy Sewell, Terri Sewell, and Coach AA Sewell. Photo courtesy of the Sewell family
Trainer AA Sewell also grew up in Selma. Known to friends as “Double A”, he was a little less than a decade older than Coach Evans. Both gentlemen actually attended RB Hudson High School, the separate all-black school in town.
One last Saturday afternoon, I interviewed Coach Sewell’s daughter, US Representative Terri Sewell, Alabama’s first black congresswoman. She was in Selma visiting her mother, Nancy, who also answered the call.
Both wanted to talk about Coach Sewell, who passed away in 2017 after a long illness.
“Let me just say first that I’m a father’s girl!” Rep. Sewell immediately explained. “My father influenced me a lot, his love and his love for teamwork. His tenacity and courage inspire me today. ”
Sewell told me that her father was a great athlete, who wrote in six different sports in high school and received a scholarship to Alabama State University. He would lead the Hornets soccer and golf teams. His heroic deeds on the fields, courts, lanes and greens were legendary.
Coach AA Sewell plays golf. Photograph of the Sewell family
For example, he learned to play golf in high school when he was a caddy at Selma Country Club. Due to segregation in the late 1950s, caddies could only play in the evenings when it was dark. Despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, he played the sport in college and as a professional golf player, and has won countless tournaments and trophies throughout his life.
Lots of victories: two careers as basketball coach
The school administrators must have seen something special in both men when they first closed college. Not only did they get high school teaching jobs, but in their freshman year they were also given the responsibilities of head basketball coach and sports director. Talk about training in the workplace!
Sewell began teaching (he was a math teacher) and coaching career at the William Hooper Council High School in Huntsville before returning to Selma to coach at his alma mater RB Hudson and an integrated Selma High School. He won 465 games and suffered only 161 losses. This included a period of seven consecutive 20+ winning seasons at Selma High School.
UAB basketball team in the 1990s. Coach Evans is 2nd on the left. Photo via UAB archives
In 16 seasons at Keith High School in Dallas County, Coach Evans scored 378 wins. In the late 1980s and 1990s he trained in Birmingham alongside UAB’s Gene Bartow. He has dedicated the last decade of his career advancing college sports in Alabama as the Associate Executive Director of AHSAA, the organization’s second-highest executive.
Both trainers were part of the integration and consolidation of the black and white school systems in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Photo of Coach Joe Evans during his tenure at UAB. Photo via UAB archives
“The integration owes a lot to the trainers and administrators at the schools,” said Coach Evans. “It went smoothly. I cannot give you enough superlative words to tell you how much the coaches have sacrificed to support the children and athletics in their community. “
Giving back and role models
“It gives everything back to the community.” Rep. Sewell told me it was one of the most important lessons she learned from her father, the coach, and her mother, who was a high school librarian for over 40 years.
“I think athletics in high school solidifies and grows the community,” she added. “Papa took his role as a role model for these young men seriously. Many of them did not have fathers at home. He was a father figure to so many of them. “
Hidden figures
Coach AA Sewell at RB Hudson High School in the 1960s. Photograph of the Sewell family
Coach Evans compared the high school’s many black teachers, coaches, administrators, and community leaders to the behind-the-scenes heroes in the 2016 Oscar-winning Hidden Figures.
“The story has been hidden in many ways. It’s good to see what the blacks have brought to the table at all stages, ”said Coach Evans.
In celebration of Black History Month, Rep. Terri Sewell said best about the rich history of Black High School athletics, which includes Coach Evans and her father.
“Those of us who benefit from their courage, determination and excellence should celebrate this every day, not just during Black History Month, but 365 days a year.”
Mark your calendars for the basketball final
Another reminder: The AHSAA is hosting the State Basketbal Final in Birmingham from March 1st to 6th.
Pat ByingtonLongtime conservationist. Former executive director of the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Editor of Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in creating Alabama’s Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preserving special places throughout the east through the Wilderness Society, and strengthening (exacerbating) cancer in Alabama Risk and Mercury Standards.
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