Fairmont selects Atkinson as next football coach

By Brad Crawford, The Robesonian

FAIRMONT — Pending approval by the Public Schools of Robeson County, James Atkinson has been selected as Fairmont’s next football coach, replacing Keith Wood who resigned in February.

Atkinson played at Shelby during his prep career and has spent the last few seasons as an assistant at Lexington High. Prior to his years with the Yellow Jackets, Atkinson was an assistant at Kannapolis.

Atkinson’s hire was first tweeted Wednesday afternoon by Chris Hughes of Carolinapreps.com. This marks Atkinson’s first gig as the leader of a football program.

“I’m very excited to get down there and get started,” Atkinson said Wednesday night. “It’s hard leaving the kids here (at Lexington) but they’ll be fine. The news kind of got out last night, so today was real emotional for the players.”