Ware returns to St. James as new athletic director

Larry Ware was an assistant football coach under Jimmy Perry at St. James. He takes over as the new athletic director in May. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

St. James turned to veteran assistant football coach Larry Ware as the Trojans’ new athletic director, replacing Katie Barton after Barton announced in March she was stepping down from the position.

Ware was appointed by former state agriculture commissioner John McMillan as a deputy commissioner and continued to serve in that role under current commissioner Rick Pate, making his appointment as a high school athletic director somewhat of a surprise.

“He’s got extensive experience working with students as a teacher and a coach for nearly 30 years,” said Larry McLemore, St. James head of school. “He has some great leadership experience as a head football coach, as an athletic director and also with the State of Alabama in a leadership role with the Department of Agriculture. He brings a wealth of experience. He will be an excellent, excellent leader for our athletic department.”

Ware will be retiring from his position with the state next week and will begin his new duties at St. James on May 1.

“First, I want to thank God for the opportunity to put me and place me here right now,” he said. “This is not by happenstance, it’s by the grace of God. Second, I want to thank Dr. McLemore for believing in me and I want to thank Katie Barton and the entire St. James’ family.”

While his old duties as a football assistant will continue, Ware is part of a shuffling of the Trojans’ athletic department that began in December with volleyball coach Karen Lee’s decision to retire. Lee’s retirement led to Barton’s decision to resign as athletic director and become the volleyball coach in addition to her current role as the girls’ basketball coach. The Trojans had to replace Neal Posey as football coach after Posey went to Central Florida as an offensive analyst for Gus Malzahn and Nigel Card after Card’s retirement as boys’ basketball coach.

Posey was replaced by Aubrey Blackwell last month, while a search for Card’s replacement has just started, McLemore said.

While Ware’s interest in the athletic director’s job may have caught some by surprise, it didn’t seem to faze McLemore.

“What I see in Larry is his character,” McLemore said. “He leads by example. The kind of leadership impact he has is evident with everything he does. When he’s a part of a team of coaches or any other group, he’s bringing people together.”

Ware was chosen as the state’s “Mr. Football” after leading Robert E. Lee to the 1986 state championship and spent the next four years as a running back for the University of Georgia. After graduation, he got into coaching and landed his first job at Cottonwood High in 1994 and joined the staff at Jeff Davis two years later, helping the Volunteers to a state championship.

Those roles prepared him for a job at G.W. Carver as the head football coach in 2002-07 under athletic director Michelle Simmons before he served at Robert E. Lee in 2008-11 as the head football coach and athletic director. Despite moderate success with the Generals, he was fired in an overhaul of the program and went to work at St. James in 2012 for Jimmy Perry, his offensive coordinator when he was a player at Lee. He worked with the Trojans in 2012-21 and 2023, taking a year off in 2022 to serve as the head coach at Valiant Cross Academy.

Despite his previous role as an athletic director for the Generals, Ware admitted his new job would be vastly different.

“This is hugely different and that’s the attractive part of it,” Ware said. “This is an administrator’s position and at Lee, it wasn’t treated as an administrator’s position. To be able to direct the entire athletic department is major. Even though I was an A.D. at Lee, I wasn’t afforded that opportunity. I pretty much did eligibility and all the other day-to-day stuff was done by each coach.”

Ware said his primary focus is to continue the work of Barton over the past three-plus years.

“This train is on the track and it’s going at a fine pace and I don’t want to derail anything that is already working,” Ware said.”Now, with every challenge, is there an opportunity for me to do things differently that may put my stamp on things? I’ll take those challenges when they come. But just to come in and change everything that’s already working? That’s a recipe for failure.”

Barton, meanwhile, looked forward to adding more coaching duties and stepping away from the demanding role as athletic director.

“Being an athletic director at St. James has been wonderful,” she said. “The parents are wonderful, the community is wonderful, my administration is wonderful and supportive. Athletics is a passion of mine and the school is a passion of mine. But at the end of the day, where my heart lies is in teaching and coaching and that’s what I’m really driven to and pulled toward.

“I’m pulled toward the area of teaching kids and coaching kids and I wanted to get back to coaching volleyball, too, and making connections with those players and helping to build that program and this opportunity came about.

“Also, when thinking about the decision for me to move back into the classroom, my family played a huge part of that. The athletic director’s position is rewarding but is demanding and time consuming. I have three young kids -- a daughter who is a ninth grader, a daughter who is a seventh grader and a son who is a fourth grader and I want to be there in their lives, too.

 “The family aspect of it for me and where I’m at with my children played a huge part in my decision making process. There are no other factors involved with this decision. This decision is solely my decision and I’m so appreciative of the administration for supporting me in that.”

Lee had served the past nine years as the Trojans’ volleyball coach, leading the school to one state championship and inadvertently becoming a recognized symbol for the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Competitive Balance Factor, climbing in classification from Class 4A to 5A and later to 6A because of the volleyball program’s success as the school dropped in enrollment to 3A.  

She had worked for 25 years as an MPS teacher before joining St. James as the middle school volleyball coach in 2011-14. Lee moved up to varsity in 2015, coaching the Trojans to state runner-up finishes in 2015 and 2016 before winning the 4A state championship over Deshler in 2017. She reached the 5A finals in 2018, the 5A quarterfinals in 2019 and the 6A quarterfinals in 2021.

“I love this place,” Lee said. “I love this job. My kids went to school here, we have a long history here. I love volleyball. It’s something I’m passionate about. But now that we have four grandbabies under the age of 3, I want to be available for our daughters and sons-in-law.”

Lee will retire as the program’s second winningest coach with six state tournament appearances in nine years.

“I coached her daughters in JV volleyball and basketball, so I’ve known her for a long, long time,” Barton said. “We work together in the P.E. department and I was her JV volleyball coach for some time. When I was the head volleyball coach for a year, Karen was actually the middle school coach and helped me on varsity (in 2014), so we definitely have a good friendship and a relationship. I’m happy that she gets to move on to the next chapter in her life but appreciate everything she has done here.

“She cares about the kids and is invested in the sport. We’re going to miss her, definitely, but I’m happy she gets to go enjoy some time with her husband and her grandchildren.”

Barton, meanwhile, is already working on volleyball and girls’ basketball youth camps this summer but will continue her role as athletic director through the end of June, spending the next two months transitioning to Ware.