AHSAA HOF: Perry joins former Capital City greats in high school Hall

New AHSAA Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Perry (third from left) is joined at Monday’s ceremony by his son, Danny Perry, former coaches Jim Tuley and Jim Arrington. (Staff Photo)

By TIM GAYLE 

Jimmy Perry said the best advice he could give a young coach starting his career today would be to measure his success by the impact he makes on a young athlete’s life.

The winningest coach in St. James history was honored on Monday with his induction into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa Convention Center. As a press conference held prior to the induction banquet, Perry was asked what advice he would give to a young coach starting a career in the profession. 

“Probably, they’re all like I was when I started,” Perry said. “It was all about being a competitor, being competitive every week, trying to win. As we start to get more gray hair, the shift goes from our success to your significance. What are you doing for this child? What are you doing for this player? Every day. And I think that’s just maturity taking place. But if a young coach starting out will just concentrate on his significance in a young person’s life, the success will come.”  

Perry was among 12 inductees selected for the Class of 2021-22. The two classes were combined after last year’s convention was put on hold by the COVID pandemic. Joining Perry in Monday’s induction were administrator Larry DiChiara; former Alabama High School Athletic Association Director of Officials Mark Jones; track and cross country coach David Dobbs; girls’ basketball, volleyball, tennis and softball coach Jana Killen; football coaches Stacy Luker and Danny Powell; boys’ basketball coaches Johnny Shelwood, Tim Smith and Ronnie Stapler; and selected in the “Old-Timers’ Division” were track coach Donald Wayne Murphy and basketball coach Wade Robinson, both of whom are deceased. 

Perry is the seventh Hall of Famer representing Robert E. Lee High, joining John Tatum (2015), Alan Mitchell (2015), Jim Tuley (2013), Spence McCracken (2004), Jim Chafin (1992) and Tom Jones (1992). Jones passed away in 2014, while Tatum and Chafin both died in 2020. The other three Generals were all present at Perry’s induction on Monday. 

McCracken, a former player and coach for the Generals, promoted Perry from an offensive line coach to offensive coordinator when McCracken left Montgomery Academy for Lee in 1984. Perry, McCracken and Tuley guided the Generals to three state championships in the 1980s and early 1990s and Perry earned his first head coaching job in 1995 when McCracken left for Opelika.  

“The biggest influence on my life in coaching was my father,” Perry said. “He was the father of five boys and, bless his heart, he had to coach every day to keep all of us straight. In the professional coaching realm, it would be Charlie Williamson, who gave me my first job (at Trinity in 1979) and then on to Spence McCracken, who’s a Hall of Famer. He really taught me to coach with passion. Everyone knows how passionate Spence is.”

Perry left Lee as well after the 1999 season to join the Auburn University staff of Tommy Tuberville, first as director of NFL relations, then as director of football operations. Perry returned to the high school ranks in 2008 as head coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal before taking over at St. James in 2012.

“I was a high school head coach, then I went to Auburn and was an assistant -- learned a ton of stuff,” Perry said. “It was a great time to go back, take what I had learned from the high school and college level and get back in a high school setting. I wanted to be significant again.”

He has certainly been significant. Last year, he became the winningest coach in St. James’ history and his first game in 2022 will make him the longest tenured coach (11 seasons) in school history. With two playoff wins, he will own as many playoff wins as the previous 14 coaches combined in school history. St. James has five 10-win seasons in school history and Perry has four of them. In addition, three of his teams finished unbeaten in region play -- the only three since football converted from areas to regions in 2000 -- and his last eight teams have compiled a 48-6 region mark. 

Wins and region titles are a nice legacy to leave behind, but it’s not what Perry has treasured the most in his 43-year career as an educator and coach.  

“Whether it’s the players -- when you get a call in the middle of the night, ‘Hey Coach, I just want to talk to you’ to the times they say ‘Coach, will you come to my wedding?’ -- you know you’ve made a difference, you know you’ve made an impact,” he said. “Then, the coaches you work with, that’s the icing on the cake. Somebody asked me one time, why don’t you retire? And I said if I do, I’ll lose all my friends. All my friends are in coaching and I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Among the 30 Hall of Famers with ties to the River Region, he is the 10th from the Capital City Conference, joining former Trinity coach Randy Ragsdale (2018), former MA coaches John Tatum (2015) and Joe Mooty (1999), former Trinity athletic directors Jim Tuley (2013) and Jim Chafin (1992), former Trinity baseball coach Ken Whittle (2012), former ACA softball coach Denise Ainsworth (2013), Montgomery Academy tennis coach David Bethea (2017) and Montgomery Academy volleyball coach Julie Gordon (2013).