Satterwhite seeing instant results one year in at Carolina Forest
Tripp Satterwhite was approved to take over the athletics director job at Carolina Forest one year ago Tuesday, and his capacity with the school officially began on May 1 last spring.
Before he even had a chance to learn the names of all of his varsity athletes, Satterwhite is finding the move to have already paid off. Since he moved into his office, the Panthers baseball team made a run to the Class AAAA Lower State finals for just the second time in school history, football earned its first Class AAAA playoff berth, and now basketball has won its first two postseason games in program history.
“It is a great place to be,” said Satterwhite, who joined the staff after previously serving in the same role at South View (N.C.). “We’ve got a lot of great coaches. I kind of felt that when I took the job. It’s just the way that it is. It is impeccable timing.”
Satterwhite pointed out that it wasn’t just the most visible boys sports that have also broke new ground in recent months. Volleyball, a perennial region-title contender but one without much playoff success, advanced to the second round there for the first time since joining Class AAAA. And track and wrestling can also boast region crowns in their most recent seasons since Satterwhite took over the department.
He doesn’t believe any of the recent success has much to do with him. He called many of the problems he encountered during his first few weeks on the job as “cosmetic.”
Either way, he has appreciated his front-row seat.
“I don’t know how much of it is cyclical here. I know other places I’ve been, it’s been cyclical,” he said. “But I don’t know that any of our coaches are doing anything that they haven’t always done. … Getting into it, you don’t know what to expect. You only know the coaches who are there and seeing how they operate and seeing what they do.”
Ian Guerin: ian@ianguerin.com, @iguerin
This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Satterwhite seeing instant results one year in at Carolina Forest."