Southside High School athletic director Cedric Brown is leaving his alma mater to take a job with McAdory High School.

Brown, a 2003 graduate of Southside, has taught special education, physical education and health education at Southside at the school for the last eight years. He’s probably best known in the community for coaching the Panthers’ boys basketball team, which he’s done since 2008. Brown led Southside to the class 3A state championship game in 2013, where the Panthers lost to Madison Academy.

Brown will serve as the assistant principal at McAdory High School. He won’t be coaching any sports for the time being.

“It was never my dream to be on the staff of Duke or North Carolina,” Brown said. “My goal is, and it’s a personal goal for me, is to be a high school principal and one day I want to become a superintendent of a school system. I knew in order to reach those goals, it is minor goals and taking that step. This was going to be one of those steps to get me closer to where I need to be.”

Brown started in the Dallas County School System at four years old and stayed in the system through his high school graduation. He attended college at Alabama State University and returned to Southside.

He coached his first basketball game with the Panthers at age 22, only four years older than the high school seniors on that team.

In his first game, Southside rallied from 14 down against Brewbaker Tech and won that game in overtime. He said that comeback stands out as much as any of his games with the Panthers.

“I can never forget that first game where I was 22 years old walking out of the gym as a head basketball coach here at Southside,” he said.

All those memories probably made it tough to leave now, especially after an entire summer and fall of working out with players for basketball. Brown will still be leading practices through Friday, his last day at the school.

Although he’ll be teaching at McAdory, Brown and his wife Rosalyn and daughter Reaghan will still be living in the area for the time being. Brown said he’ll probably still make several Southside games this year.

“There are going to be games on Friday night where it’s Southside-Keith, Southside-Selma, of course I’m here if I don’t have to work, I’m here, just to support those guys and to be a supportive alumnus of Southside,” Brown said.

Brown said the hardest part will be sitting on the sidelines and watching.

“That’s going to be real hard,” Brown said. “We are still going to support. We are just going to have to take a different role in support now.”

Brown said the school has not announced who will coach the boys’ basketball team this season. Southside’s first scheduled game is Nov. 8.