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Edgewood Academy welcomes new headmaster

By Kyle Austin-Sports Editor
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Sonny Vandevender is the newest addition to AISA Blue Ribbon School Edgewood Academy.

For those who have trouble pronouncing Vandevender’s name, there’s no reason to fret. Most people just call him “Coach V” anyway.

“A lot of people just seem to have trouble with it,” he said with a grin.

Coach V comes to Edgewood with some impressive credentials. A Glenallen, Miss., native, Vandevender played two years of football for Mississippi before having to make a choice between his two dreams: playing football and flying.

Vandevender chose flying, and joined the Advanced ROTC program at MSU. After college, Coach V was a pilot with the United States Air Force for 18 years, spending five years flying the T-38, and flying the F-4 Phantom the remaining 13 years.

Coach V also spent some time in Vietnam.

“That was a real challenge,” he said. “You always had to see if you could get away with whatever you had to do.”

After Vietnam, Coach V spent three years at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, and decided to leave the Air Force when he couldn’t fly anymore. He enrolled at Faulkner University, earning bachelor’s degrees in biology and history. He also earned an MBA in 1975 from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Since then, Coach V has spent 21 years in education. He spent 15 years at Jeff Davis High School as a football, baseball and softball coach in addition to serving as a strength and conditioning coach. He also spent two years at Robert E. Lee.

In 2000, Coach V joined Montgomery Academy as a history teacher and football and softball coach.

“But I always wanted to get into administration,” he said, and he got his chance for a short time at South Montgomery Academy.

This summer, Coach V got a call from a friend about the vacancy at Edgewood Academy, and the rest is history.

“I’ve kept up with Edgewood through baseball ever since I’ve been in AISA,” he said. “I knew this place and I would make a good fit, so I put my resume together, and two interviews later, I got the job.”

One of the things Coach V said appealed to him the most was Edgewood’s campus.

“I believe in the aesthetic view of a campus,” he said. “When I first drove in the front gate and looked around, I liked the cleanliness of the campus. That’s usually the parents’ first observation, too.”

He said he was also impressed by the athletic facilities, including the air-conditioned gym, and the self-contained classrooms.

“It helps a lot for students to be able to get around without having to worry about the rain,” he said.

Vandevender said he hopes to maintain the high standards which he’s already seen in the school.

To do that, he remembers what his first principal at his first teaching job used to tell him.

“You have to be a teacher before anything else,” he said. “Regardless of what you hear or say, your first priority should always be academics, and you have to impress that on athletes, too.”

Although Coach V has only been on campus for about six weeks n an one week of classes n he has some tentative plans for his new school.

“I’d like to look into implementing a volleyball program,” he said. “I’d also like to see some advanced placement classes in the curriculum.”

Overall, though, Coach V just wants to maintain what others before him have started.

“I mainly want to continue our strong academic program and make it stronger to appeal to the college-bound,” he said.

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