Selma honors Coach Willie Maxey with 'May for Maxey Day'

Saturday was deemed May for Maxey Day as citizens from all walks of life gathered at the steps of Selma High School to honor educator, mentor, administrator, father, friend and Coach Willie E. Maxey. 

Community leaders such as Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr., Dallas County Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn and several members of the Selma City Council and County Commission were on hand with proclamations and gifts.

“I consider this an amazing day,” Maxey said. “I am so appreciative of all the accolades I’ve received from the entire community. I’m just overjoyed and blessed to be here and a part of this community.” 

Vivid, funny, emotional and inspiring stories rolled for over an hour about a man so renowned in this community that it could have gone on for several more. Coach Maxey was aptly commended as Selma High School’s winningest basketball coach with more than 350 victories while leading young men in the largest classification in the state of Alabama during his tenure. 

That doesn’t even count the 300 plus victories he amassed from 1970-1988 while feeding skilled players to Selma High as Head Coach of the Westside Junior High School Raiders, now known as R. B. Hudson Middle School. He coached football for more than 20 years, grooming some of the best gridiron players in Selma’s history at Hudson and Westside. 

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Maxey could be found on city playgrounds during the summer, providing recreational activities and a sense of peace and safety for parents whose children were under his charge. After a long day, he would coach and pitch on an ultra-successful commercial league softball team, espousing the need for adult exercise, competition and family fun. 

He is the only coach in Selma High School history to make two Final Four appearances, winning the crown in 1994. His athletic resume is very impressive and worthy of selection in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. 

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Coach Maxey has tutored the likes of Air Force Academy graduate and pilot Col. Otis Jones, the NFL’s Ben Obamanu and Chico Cleveland, Major League Baseball’s Jai Miller, Auburn University All-American Doc Robinson and International basketball star Wendell Lewis. And there are hundreds who have gone on to conduct productive and successful lives as doctors, lawyers, teachers, administrators, coaches, fathers and business leaders. Many of them were on hand Saturday to demonstrate their appreciation. 

His role in the school system is even more impressive as he was the leader and disciplinarian that showed love and compassion for students from all walks of life, while never wavering from the expectations he held for them. He would find children without a niche and carve out one for them as basketball managers, office aides, part-time custodians and other creative roles. He used those strategies to lift their self esteem and confidence, while building a cohesive team of achievers, often like his ball clubs.

His office desk would be adorned with school photographs of so many students who loved and wanted to be remembered by him. The large desk expanded to his office walls as the years rolled on. 

On a typical day at Selma High, you could see a parade of former students enter the halls of the school to visit the man who doled out the school punishment that resulted in them returning to the straight and narrow. You could witness military men and women in dress uniform return to see him beam with pride. Young families visited to show off their growing families with babies in tow. 

Generations were present on Saturday to pay tribute to a man who has had such a large impact on this community that you would think he was a longtime politician or businessman. 

As anyone who knows him well knew he would, Maxey deferred to his assistant coaches, former coworkers and administrators after a plethora of speakers and beneficiaries expressed gratitude, adorned him with gifts and showered him with acknowledgement of his service to this community.