Cody Baxter is the Athletic Director for Westminster School at Oak Mountain.
Q: What excites you most about 2024-25?
A: I think one of the things that excites me the most here at Westminster School at Oak Mountain about the upcoming season is just the potential. We've got a lot of kids who over the past few years have gained a lot of experience. We've been very young. We've been in a lot of battles and still done well, but have set ourselves up very nicely just for what is to come, I think, both this year and next. I think specifically about our cross country team, our volleyball team, our basketball team, soccer and baseball. I just think they are all really in good positions based on the core groups that they have coming back to really make an impact, not only just in the regular season, but, hopefully, in the postseason as well. So, we're really looking forward to seeing what these teams have to do here at Westminster.
Q: Tell us about some of your new coaches and what they bring to the table.
A: So, we do have a few new coaches here at Westminster this year that we're pretty excited about. Specifically on the boys basketball side, we've hired Coach Greg Bradford, who actually led our girls to an area championship in basketball a few years ago. He is back, but he also brings with him Coach Darryl Butler. Darryl Butler was here at Westminster about eight years ago and led our varsity boys at that time, and he's just— Coach Butler is pretty well known in this community and the surrounding areas from his involvement with AU, he runs his own strength training program that's been really successful over the years and we are really excited to have him back partnered with Coach Bradford. We really believe that team is set up nicely to do some damage and make a good run this coming season. But, we're fortunate here at Westminster to have had a lot of coaches who have a lot of experience and have been doing it for a long time. Our volleyball coach has a seasoned veteran coach who's been here for over seven years. We have a track coach who is a legend in some ways; Coach Dale Carroll. He's been the coach of the year many times, won multiple state championships and he's leading our indoor and outdoor track teams once again. He's been coaching here for over 20 years, and so we've just been really fortunate to have a lot of just solid coaches that have come through many different ups and downs at this school but stayed steady and led us to a lot of success and significance.
Q: What makes for a successful year in athletics?
A: It's an interesting question, what makes for a successful year in athletics, and I think that Westminster, we strive for something a little bit different than just success. I would say we look for significance, and that to me defines a successful year. But, I think most people would define success as wins, championships, playoff runs, things like that. All good things. We just— We believe we're called to something more, and I think that what a lot of people hear when we say things like that is: Oh, well, ok. Yeah, I bet at Westminster, athletically, they probably don't work very hard. They probably don't have a lot of trophies in the cabinets, or things like that. And I say it's actually the opposite. We believe that if we strive for those things that are beyond just what the scoreboard says, we are going to have those successes come along with it. So,for us, what makes a successful year is making a positive impact amongst the community and amongst our students through growing their faith, their ability, but also setting them up in a strong foundation moving forward. That's why one of our mantras here is spiritually strengthened, athletically prepared. We wanna set these kids up that they will be ready to tackle the things that come at them next, whether it be athletically, spiritually, academically, whatever it might be and we're gonna hold a really high standard. Now, does that mean, again, that winning is a bad thing? Absolutely not. And we're gonna do— We're gonna strive for that all the time, but we are just going to look for significance as the higher calling, and that defines how we do it here at Westminster.
