The last time Laurel High School hired a new athletic director, Torrence Oxendine was 12 years old.
Now, 22 years later, he's the one moving into that position. For the first time since 1989, someone other than Terry Parfitt sat in Laurel High School's athletic director office to start the school year.
"It's been busy to say the least," Oxendine said. "There's a big learning curve, but Coach Parfitt left the department in great shape, and Coach Jones has been very helpful."
The boys basketball coach-turned-administrator said he was informed of his promotion to athletic director just before the school year.
Laurel High Principal Dwayne Jones said Oxendine was chosen from a pool of about 10 candidates based on his familiarity with Laurel High, his teaching availability and his two interviews during the search process.
"It was a tough choice, but we just tried to find the best fit," Jones said. "And Coach Oxendine is the best fit even though he's new to the position. All of them were going to be new, so he gave us the best fit."
Jones said the search – which was done by a three-man panel of himself, Parfitt and Assistant Principal Michael Dinkins – included two interviews, which included about 25 questions graded on a 1-10 scale. Questions included how the candidate would handle punishment of an ejected coach or deal with a coach who knowingly let an ineligible athlete play.
"It was all to determine how the individual would fit with how we do things here at Laurel," Jones said. "There was one other candidate who was very close, but they were an outside hire. We didn't want someone who was 100 percent new to Laurel."
Jones said he could not elaborate on the other candidates. He also said Oxendine will continue his current duties as head basketball coach and will teach three periods of physical education.
Jones also said that Parfitt has offered some help for Oxendine as he deals with his first budget.
For his part, Oxendine said he jumped at the chance to apply for the job.
"I had some conversations with Coach Parfitt early on and knew I needed to take the opportunity," he said. "I'm already a coach here, so I have a vested interest in seeing all the school's programs flourish."
From teaching to coaching to administrative role
Though he is new to the role of athletic director, Oxendine has plenty of athletic experience having coached for eight years.
The 34-year-old played basketball at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. After a short-lived pro basketball career in Germany, Iceland and Portugal, Oxendine returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Norfolk State to seek a master's degree in education.
He graduated in 2003 and was promptly hired to work at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Va., where he coached football and track and was the head coach of the basketball team. Among his players at Norcom was 2006 McDonald's All-AmericanVernon Macklin.
After three years in Portsmouth, Oxendine moved to North Carolina to coach and teach at West Charlotte High School, before eventually moving to Prince George's County in 2008 to take a job at Potomac High School.
Now, in his second year at Laurel High, Oxendine has moved from teaching and coaching to an administrative role. Those eight years of coaching, Oxendine said, have prepared him well for his new role.
"The different regions and different cultures and different personalities I've encountered, I think, have prepared me a lot for this," he said. "It's fun trying to learn new things and take on new challenges."
Though his previous experience has prepared him, Oxendine said the athletic director position has still thrown him some curveballs.
"(It's) hard to fathom how much paperwork you have to complete," he said. "I understated the paperwork needed to make this department work in top shape."
And though he underestimated how much of his time would be consumed by paperwork, Oxendine said the biggest part of the job still comes down to transportation and scheduling.
"Especially with this weather lately, there's a lot of moving parts to rescheduling, and then making sure the transportation is rescheduled and making sure that the right people are at the right place at the right time," he said.
So far, so good if you ask Jones.
"You really didn't realize how much (Parfitt) did until he was gone," Jones said. "But (Oxendine) is doing a very good job so far."