One of the area's top basketball coaches and master strategists has resigned his post.
Aaron Williams confirmed Tuesday that he has stepped down after seven seasons as the head boys basketball coach at Castlewood High School.
Williams recently accepted a job with the Norton City school system to teach math. He will begin pursuing his master's degree this fall and take some time off from coaching.
"It was really more from a personal side,"? Williams said of his decision.
The Indiana native certainly left his mark at Castlewood. The Blue Devils compiled a 133-50 record during Williams' tenure and qualified for the Virginia High School League Group A state tournament on two occasions.
Williames served as the head girls coach at Abingdon and as an assistant on the Abingdon boys team, before taking the job at Castlewood.
"I always thought Castlewood was a pretty good basketball school,"? Williams said. "That was one of the reasons I went there. That goes way back. Buddy Poole coached there for 19 years and Randy [Poole] coached there for 16 years. So, there was a pretty good program in place.
"They had a Little League program and nice facilities. When I was in Abingdon, there were about 4-5 places I wrote down that I would like to coach and that was one of them."?
It turned out to be an excellent move on both sides. Williams' teams were known as some of the most fundamentally sound in Southwest Virginia and the Blue Devils emerged as a perennial contender in the Cumberland District and Region D.
Williams also earned a reputation as one of the area's top coaches, due to his preparation and game strategies.
The first of back-to-back state tournament appearances in 2007 marked the school's first state tourney berth in 19 years.
"After about that third year, I knew it looked like were going to have a pretty good run,"? Williams said.
Williams also keeps in touch with most of his former players and noted that a majority of them have gone on to college.
"You hope you plant some good seeds,"? Williams said. "Sometimes the harvest, you don't know how it turns out until years down the road. We were able to win and it was good to do that, but it's also good to watch kids get an education that can help them their whole life."?
Williams becomes the second high profile hoops coach from Southwest Virginia to resign in the last few months. George Wythe's Al Copenhaver stepped down shortly after leading the Maroons to the VHSL Group A, Division 2 state title in March.
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