Whitfield gets nod to lead NCHSAA

Davis Whitfield, a product of eastern North Carolina who cut his teeth as an Atlantic Coast Conference assistant commissioner, is expected to be named as the next executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association today.

Whitfield is the ACC's assistant commissioner for championships. His duties have included a wide variety of jobs, including marketing, facilities, sponsorships and media relations.

He will succeed Charlie Adams, who has held the job since 1984. Adams has announced his retirement effective Feb. 1, 2010.

ACC commissioner John Swofford announced Wednesday at the ACC meetings in Miami that Whitfield is expected to accept the position today.

Reached Wednesday, Whitfield said he could not talk about the job.

Asked about Whitfield's chances for the job last week, Swofford told The News & Observer, "Davis has worked with our championships, and that takes in a lot. He has been involved in every sport we have. If this works out, we are going to miss him, but high school athletics in North Carolina will be getting a great person."

Norm Loewenthal, the director of the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, received a recommendation from an eight-person search committee a month ago and is expected to announce Whitfield's new position this afternoon.

Adams recently told a group of athletic directors, principals and superintendents that the No. 1 choice of the search committee was expected to accept the position.

"He is a person with unique qualifications," Adams said at the NCHSAA Region 3 meeting at N.C. State's Carter-Finley Stadium last week. "I can tell you the search committee did an outstanding job. The person that I expect to take the job appears to be a perfect fit."

Whitfield is a native of Kinston and grew up in Wayne County. He attended Rosewood High near Goldsboro and played football and baseball there.

After graduating in 1988 from Rosewood, he played baseball at East Carolina for two years before transferring and playing for two years at North Carolina.

He is a 1993 graduate of UNC with a degree in exercise science and received his master's in sports administration from UNC in 1995.

He later served internships with UNC's Beth Miller, who is the school's senior associate athletic director for Olympic sports, and with UNC's Willie Scroggs, who is UNC's senior associate athletic director for operations and facilities. He is married and has a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter.

Whitfield was an assistant athletic director of operations and facilities at Campbell from 1995 through 1998 and later was an assistant athletic director for operations and facilities at Wake Forest from 1998 through 2002. He joined the ACC office in 2002.

Whitfield does not have high school athletic administrative experience, but Adams said the executive director's job has evolved into an athletic administrative position.

"I don't do the playoff brackets anymore," Adams said.

Whitfield would be joining the NCHSAA at a time of change.

The NCHSAA was founded as a part of the University of North Carolina in 1914, but the university and the NCHSAA are expected to sever their ties by May 15, 2010.

The NCHSAA raises its own money through membership dues, corporate sponsors and the revenue from playoff games.

The NCHSAA has had only three full-time executive directors -- Hap Perry (1948-1966), Simon Terrell (1967-1984) and Adams (1984-2010). UNC professors E.R. Rankin (1924-1942) and C.E. McIntosh (1943-47) preceded Perry as head of the organization.

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