It’s not hard to find Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School Principal Randy Maxwell during the hours of 3:00pm and 6:00pm and often times, well beyond those hours during the school year. The Bamberg School District One Administrator of 21 years can be found alternating between and cheering on one of the more than 20 different sports teams the school fields during the year.

Maxwell was recently named the South Carolina 2009 Class-1A Athletic Administrators Association Principal of the Year, at the associations’ Spring Conference for Athletics, on March 18, in Charleston SC. at the Marriott Hotel, which brings together the high school principals and athletic directors of the state. The award was also given in conjunction with the South Carolina High School League, and the Secondary Administrators Association.

Mr. Maxwell was nominated by athletic director Tracy Fleming. “Maxwell’s continued support of athletics, student athletes, and coaches at the school show his enthusiasm for improving this important part of the lives of students and the community. The SCAAA Board of Directors chose Mr. Maxwell from the other Class 1A nominations to represent the group as the 2009 1A Principal of the Year. We are proud to have such an outstanding leader working with the students of South Carolina,” John Carlisle, Executive Director of the association said in a press release Monday.

The association’s website states that the honor: “Is awarded each year to a principal in each classification who has shown outstanding support in athletics at the school, region, and state level.”

Randy Maxwell, who is the son of legendary B-E Football Coach Leon Maxwell, was a coach himself for four years at Edisto High School, and six years at B-E before going into administration, was quick to give others credit for the award.

“It’s very nice to get the award, Maxwell said Thursday, but it’s a reflection of the support we get from the Red Raider Booster Club and the community, we’re fortunate in the Bamberg community that we get so much support” Maxwell said.

Maxwell admitted that it’s a tough job keeping up with the (20) different sports teams that range from the middle school level to the high school level, that well over 50 percent of the students that attend school participate in during the year, with many students participating in more than one sport because of the size of the school. But, again he credits Athletics Director Tracy Fleming and the B-E coaching staff for doing an outstanding job of keeping the trains running on time.

“It’s a time consuming job, it stretches you a little bit from time-to-time, we are fortunate to have an excellent athletic director, and coaching staff, and sports are important to our community,” Maxwell said.

Overall, Maxwell stated that he viewed sports as being important to the development of the total student: “We think that participating in sports and other extracurricular activities make for a well rounded student, while academics are our number one priority, sports do play a very important part in our student’s development,” Maxwell said.