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Lowndes Academy announced a much-anticipated appointment late Tuesday, naming veteran coach James “Speed” Sampley to head up its football program in the fall.

Sampley, who is currently coaching and teaching at Fort Dale Academy, accepted the opportunity of head football coach and will return to the place where his coaching career began.

“It’s an opportunity to go back and coach where I started,” Sampley said. “I’m from Lowndes County and have lived there my whole life. It gives me the opportunity to coach kids [whose] fathers I coached and that’s always something neat to do.

One of those he coached is Lowndes Academy Athletic Director Matt Marshall, who credits Sampley with inspiring his desire to shape young student athletes.

“Coach Speed is the man that got me interested in coaching nearly 27 years ago,” Marshall said. “He shaped my life into the person I have become and the coach I most want to be like. He taught me as a student as much about life as he did about Xs and Os.”

Sampley worked as assistant football coach at Lowndes Academy for seven years before taking on the role of head coach in 1994. In 1999, he began coaching at Fort Dale, where he has been for 26 years.

According to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society, Sample holds a 156-78-0 record and coached his first Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) State Championship team at Lowndes Academy in 1997. He was named as the AISA Coach of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association in 2008.

Marshall explained that the Lowndes Academy board of trustees hires the head football coach through an application and interview process and by recommendation from the athletic committee.

“I’m grateful that the board made this decision and extremely grateful for Speed accepting,” Marshall said. “Ninety percent of our coaching staff is familiar with or played for Speed when he was in his 20s. Some of us have wired with him at Fort Dale or at Lowndes.

“We feel this transition will be seamlessly beneficial for the entire school as we move to a new era.”

Sampley fills the position left vacant by former head coach Shane Moye, who moved to coach at Prattville Christian in January. The school will host a meet-and-greet for the community to get acquainted with Sampley on Feb. 24. The exact time has yet to be determined.