FROM STAFF REPORTS

ALABASTER – For the first time in its 13-year history, Evangel Christian School has hired a full time athletic director to run its athletic program and serve as its football and baseball coach. The Alabaster-based private school made up of homeschool students has hired Tim Smith, formerly athletic director and headmaster at Cornerstone Christian School in Shelby County.

In his successful 20-year career at Cornerstone, Smith built, nurtured and grew its athletic program from scratch. He won ten AISA state championships and built an entire sports complex at Cornerstone in Wilsonville. He is also a member of the AISA Hall of Fame.

“This was a tough decision,” Smith said. “But I am one hundred percent committed and excited, and I know that God is leading me in this new direction”.

Evangel’s athletic program has been a perennial powerhouse in all sports, despite being run entirely with the leadership of volunteers. Since beginning in 2004, the school has won numerous conference, state and national championships in football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball and baseball. The school currently competes in the Alabama Christian Sports Conference and moved up from eight-man to 11-man football this past fall. The athletic program is made up of student-athletes from both Evangel Christian—the homeschool “school”—as well as Evangel Classical Christian School.

Many wondered if the recent decision by the AHSAA to allow homeschoolers to participate in public school athletics would affect a homeschool program like Evangel’s. The Lightning, however, have shown no signs of slowing down, winning championships in football, volleyball and girls’ basketball so far in 2016-17. And with the hiring of Smith as the school’s first ever full-time athletic department coach and director, the future is brighter than ever.

“We believe that the blessing of being able to hire Tim Smith further insures our commitment to provide Evangel students the opportunity to compete in athletics at the highest level,” Evangel Christian School administrator Bill Snuggs said. “This kind and humble man brings the character, experience, and skill-sets that will perfectly complement and further our program and its vision.”

Smith succeeds current volunteer athletic director, Howard O’Neal, who during his eight years of leadership oversaw Evangel’s acquisition of a sports complex and was instrumental in facilitating an agreement with the AISA for its schools to compete against Evangel and the other members of the ACSC.

“We are excited about the future of Lightning athletics,” said Snuggs, who has been the administrator at the school since its inception. “With the hiring of Coach Smith the legacy of excellence will only be strengthened as he leads Evangel into the future.”