AJA Athletic Update
Mr. Theophilus Bellamy, AJA’s new Athletic Director, is a “competitor.” Ever since he was a young boy living in Louisville, Kentucky, Mr. Bellamy has had a strong connection to athletics. “From football, and basketball, to track,” he has “played sports all [his] life.” In the neighborhood Mr. Bellamy grew up in, kids “played outside a lot.” Mr. Bellamy remembers sports keeping him out of trouble as a young kid, and he enjoyed the environment of playing with his peers. When he got to high school, he grew more serious about playing organized sports and found the most enjoyment in playing basketball.
After excelling in high school sports, Mr. Bellamy had the opportunity to play collegiate basketball. Compared to many kids in his hometown, who prayed for a D1 scholarship to pay their way through college, Mr. Bellamy’s procurement of substantial government-funded financial aid due to high academic achievement gave him a leg up over others. When it came time to decide whether he would accept an offer to play at the next level, he no longer needed the athletic scholarship he was offered to make it through college, so he respectfully declined, realizing that he would rather focus on helping the next generation of athletes than play a college sport. “I enjoyed being a college student a little bit more than being a college athlete,” he summarized.
Entering his freshman year of college, Mr. Bellamy realized that the time was coming for him to decide his life’s path away from being an athlete. The choice for him, following some careful consideration, was obvious. Mr. Bellamy eventually received his undergraduate degree in physical education (PE) at Eastern Kentucky University, after recognizing that he wanted to pursue a career in the field he so enjoyed. He then went on to graduate with a masters in education at Indiana University. While in college, he met his now wife, mother of his five children, all of whom share his passion for sports, which he has both supported and encouraged. Throughout all of his kids’ childhoods he made sure to use his knowledge of athletics to ensure his children were in the position to succeed.
Post schooling, Mr. Bellamy has gained an extensive background in sports education. Following 12 years of working as a PE teacher, he eventually made his way to becoming an Athletic Director. As an AD he managed to take his schools to multiple state championships in multiple sports, winning many of them over his career. One of his fondest memories is winning the football state championship as AD at Westport Middle School, in Louisville, Kentucky. Furthermore, his coaching experience covers the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels. He enjoys coaching because he believes he is here “to help [his] student athletes achieve some of their goals, whatever that may be,” and being a coach allows him to do this. However, as an Athletic Director Mr. Bellamy now mainly coaches other coaches, helping them find the best way to motivate and educate their athletes and mold them into the best players and people possible.
With 25 years of total experience, Mr. Bellamy knows what he wants when it comes to athletics. Prior to accepting the job offer at AJA he “wanted to make sure that the administrators back their athletic director and back the athletic program.” He wants to be on the same page as the administration in that everyone is focused and “going to strive to be excellent” in the athletic program. He explained that no matter what teams AJA currently has or what teams are added in the future, he wants “all teams [to be] capable of winning a state championship.” He continued, “There’s a long way to go, but that’s how I am. I’m a competitor. So when I play, we compete and I believe we can. We’re going to have good sportsmanship, good character and integrity, but we’re also going to compete.”
Mr. Bellamy finds AJA athletics are unique due to the small size of the school, yet he doesn’t see that as a reason not to offer the aspects of larger, more competitive athletic programs such as tryouts. While most AJA teams don’t have a tryout policy, Mr. Bellamy believes that they can be valuable to a serious athletic program. “As we can continue to improve our athletic program, and more and more kids want to come out and play,” he explained, “there will have to be some type of competition embedded within the team.” Mr. Bellamy stressed that tryouts bring good and healthy competition, which will positively impact the future of AJA graduates by getting them accustomed to real life experiences like competing for a job. Additionally, Bellamy plans to focus on the quality of AJA’s coaches. He believes that coaches must “have the understanding that they’re here to help develop kids’ skill set[s], evaluate their skill set[s], and put kids in a position where they can be successful.”
Mr. Bellamy wants students to develop “athletic prowess, where, if they play a sport, they can compete at the highest level they are able to.”
To help athletes achieve their highest potential on the field, he wants to make sure they also reach this peak potential off the field. Mr. Bellamy understands that “being a student athlete means being a student first, and an athlete second.” He added that he is “a proponent of education based athletics,” and, therefore, is focused on using “athletics to make sure the kids come to school, their attendance [and] behavior [is good], and, more importantly, make sure they excel in the classroom.” To accomplish this, Mr. Bellamy devised a system of “Grade Sheets,” which he already implemented into the high school. These sheets are mandatorily completed by in-season athletes, retrieved at the beginning of the week and returned at the end. They monitor students’ behavior and grades in all of their classes to determine their athletic eligibility. Mr. Bellamy believes that this holds students to high academic standards that will prolong their success both in their sport and in the classroom.
From being a student athlete himself to a PE teacher, and finally now the Athletic Director at AJA, Mr. Bellamy is confident in his ability to leave a lasting impact on AJA. From the leadership experience he gained at Westport Middle School as an AD, and his ability to make connections with students through his coaching, Mr. Bellamy achieved the many skills needed to be a successful AD. “Being here at this school” now, Mr. Bellamy realizes, “The schools that I came from and the places I have coached [at before], prepared me for this moment.”
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