Retired educator competes in Golden Olympics

By HARVEY SIMPSON

Dispatch Sports Editor



ROCHELLE — After spending 45 years coaching track and field participants, retired Wilcox educator Jim Culpepper is switching roles from teacher to student so to speak.

Instead of just telling formerly youthful charges how they could make themselves better athletes in the sport, Culpepper is now showing them through his participation in Golden Olympics competition.

He’s done so well in that respect that he won silver medals in a couple of events held at the Georgia Golden Olympics hosted recently by the Warner Robins Recreation Department.

His throws of 28’5” in the shot put and 90’3” in the discus were just four and 11 inches, respectively, off the winning heaves posted by Pat O’Leary of Forest Park in the age 65-69 category.

Were it not for a physical problem that kept him from participating in the events this past spring, Culpepper would have qualified for national competition held last June at Louisvlle, Ky.

“You become eligible for the nationals in two ways — either by meeting qualifying standards in a sanctioned meet or by placing in the top three in your state competition and I plan to do that next year,” Culpepper said.

Started years ago for former regular Olympians who still wanted to compete as they get older, the edvent divides competitors are into five-year age increments (50-55, 56-59, etc) until they become octogenarians. They’re then separated into 10-year increments 80-90, 91-100, etc.).

Even though there are no monetary rewards offered participants, Culpepper says he’s aware the competition for gold, silver and bronze medals is very keen.

“It’s just like the regular Olympics in that you enter them so that if you do well you can say you was one of the best athletes in either the state and/or national events,” Culpepper said.

“If all goes well physically for me, then I expect to do much, much better next year. I’ll be very, very disappointed, in fact, if I don’t qualify for the nationals.”

Reflecting upon his recently-ended career in education, the well-traveled Culpepper said he took his first job in 1962 at Clyattville Elementary where he started the football program and also coached boys and girls basketball, baseball and track.

Having first moved to Wilcox right after his graduation from Meigs High School in 1958, he returned there in 1963 to serve in football as assistant varsity and head B-team coach and in basketball as coach of the B-team and junior high girls and boys teams. He also was the track coach.

Culpepper’s next stop was in Unadilla where he again launched a grid program this time in the 1964-65 school year. He also served as athletic director as well as the girls basketball coach and boys track coach.

Next came a year at Twiggs County High in Jeffersonville as athletic director and boys basketball and track coach. He then moved on to Stockbridge High for three years as an assistant varsity football coach and head boys track coach.

Then came the lure of working at the college level where Culpepper was hooked long enough to spend a 12-year stint at Georgia Tech where he toiled in the football program until Pepper Rodgers’ arrival in 1974.

While at Tech, the Mississippi native started the women’s athletics program, serving as the basketball coach from 1974-80 during which he compiled an overall 70-83 won-loss record.

Culpepper, a former gridder and graduate of Middle Georgia College and the recipient of bachelors and masters degrees from Mississippi State, had his best years with the Lady Yellow Jackets from 1976-79. That’s when they posted a 60-20 mark that remains as the school’s best record for a similar period.

The 23-4 mark posted by his 1997-78 team still is the school’s all-time best for a women’s team. It also earned him recognition as a finalist for the National Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year award.

Culpepper left Tech in 1981 to become the athletic director and P.E. department head for six years at Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute where after visiting England and Oregon for ideas he designed a school facility that was chosen the most beautiful in the world.

That honor earned him an invitation to a worldwide convention of the Tennis Court and Track Builders Association’s annual gathering held in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

While at WPI, he also served as the school’s baseball coach from 1984-86. His final diamond team still holds the school’s best single season mark at 16-13-1.

Culpepper, who while teaching did additional graduate study at the universities of Georgia, Tennesssee and Florida, then left the cold of Massachusetts to return to the warmth of the Peach State.

Back in Georgia, he become the athletic director and head football and track coach at Riverview Academy in Albany from 1987-89.

Next came a stint at Charlton County High in Folkston where he worked as a football assistant and the head boys track coach from 1989-95. His final team at that school won the Class A state title and also set a record for team points (104) that stood until Landmark Christian tallied 107 some four years ago.

From Folkston, Culpepper went to West Nassau County High in Callahan, Fla., where he was the head football and boys track coach. He took the 1996 team to its first grid playoff appearance in 18 years.

When 2000 rolled around, Culpepper opted to return to Wilcox where he stayed until retiring after the 2006-07 school term. During that time, he was the middle school football and softball coach for three years and the school’s varsity girls and boys track coach for seven seasons.

“I look at the Donnie Clacks (Wilcox High’s retired head football coach and current athletic director) of the world who go some place and stay there a long time and I envy them for their continuity and the influence they have on a lot of people,” Culpepper said.

“And then on the other hand, I think about the fact that I’ve been places and done things that most people don’t get to do. That wouldn’t have happened had I stayed in just one place so it’s pretty much six of one and a half-dozen of others as to which route is really the best to take.

“I do regret that my four children don’t really have any place they can call home, but I don’t think they’re any worse for the wear as they, too, have gotten to see and do some things most people don’t get to do.

“Any career of any length offers regrets as well as rewards, though, as there’s always something you wish you could change one way or the other. If you can simply be satisfied that you did your best then I have to say you’ve had a successful career and I feel I’ve had exactly that.”

Married to the former Pat Laster, a 1962 Wilcox Central High graduate who captained the school’s basketball team her season year, Culpepper said even more travel is in the couple’s retirement plans.

“We’ve bought a motor home and since I retired on June 11th we’ve already spent 41 nights away from home. Hopefully, that number will continue to grow.

“We’ve joked that we’re planning to run the tires off it as we go out and see what we can see until we run out of money. Then we’ll come home, save up some more money and take off again.”

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