Parry McCluer High School has hired Adam Haynes, who has been the athletic director at Rockbridge County High School for the past four years, as its new athletic director.
Buena Vista City Public Schools announced the hire at its monthly School Board meeting on Tuesday evening.
Haynes replaces Mike Cartolaro, who was the Fighting Blues’ athletic director for the last six years and is retiring. Cartolaro coached the PM boys basketball team for six years, from 2016-2022, leading the Blues to their first state title in program history in 2021.
During Haynes’s tenure at RC, the Wildcats’ girls lacrosse team won the last five Region 4D championships and have made five Class 4 state semifinal appearances and have played in two state championship games, finishing runner-up to Western Albemarle twice.
The Wildcats have also had a lot of success in volleyball, swimming, wrestling and competition cheerleading, with all of those teams competing at the state level. The swimming teams had two state champions, Spencer and Ali Pfaff, while Haynes was serving as athletic director.
Working with retiring principal Mike Craft and a committee, Haynes started the RC Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 2022.
Prior to his time with the Wildcats, Haynes coached boys basketball for six years at Bassett High School in Henry County, and he also taught social studies.
He grew up in Martinsville and graduated from Martinsville High School in 1994 before attending High Point University in North Carolina, where he graduated from in 1998 with a degree in sport management and history.
While at High Point, Haynes was a student assistant coach for the men’s basketball team, and High Point was making the transition from Division II to Division I. With only one full-time assistant coach, Haynes said he became kind of a director of operations, gaining a lot of administrative experience. In addition to coaching, his tasks included making travel plans for the team and scouting the opponents.
Haynes then started his education career in Patrick County in 2003-04, teaching social studies and coaching junior varsity football, basketball and baseball at Fieldale-Collinsville High School in Patrick County.
After the consolidation of area schools in 2004, Haynes became an assistant coach for the varsity boys basketball team and for the football team at Bassett High School in 2004 and stayed in that position until 2009. He served as the head cross country coach at Bassett in 2007 and 2008. With Haynes’s help, the Bassett boys basketball team made it to the state semifinals in 2006.
Haynes then took a job at Patrick County High School as the head boys basketball coach in 2009 and stayed in that position for five years, helping the team make its first regional tournament in 12 years. Haynes returned to Bassett in 2014 as the head boys basketball coach, and he coached there for six years until 2020, continuing to teach social studies.
Haynes and his wife of 23 years, Shannon, a 1993 RC graduate, have four children, two twin daughters and two twin sons.
For the full story on this hire, please see our June 25 newspaper.
