FRANKLINTON — Franklinton High School will have a new athletic director for the 2022-23 school year after assistant principal Joe Cobb was promoted after spending one year at the school.

Cobb was initially hired as an assistant principal at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year and then Jan. 1 of this year, he made the jump to athletic director after former athletic director Jimmy Williams stepped down to retire.

This will be Cobb’s first time being an athletic director in his professional career. He started out as a college baseball player for N.C. Central University and graduated in 2010.

After graduation, Cobb worked as the assistant general manager for Minor League Baseball at the Durham Athletic Park (DAP). While working at the DAP, he started his coaching career as an assistant junior varsity baseball coach at Leesville Road High School.

In 2012, Cobb started his teaching career as a math teacher at Northampton County High School. He was named the head varsity baseball coach that same year.

In 2015, Cobb stepped away from teaching to work for North Wake County Baseball Association, a non-profit youth baseball organization in Wake Forest. He served as a board member for North Wake, as well as the director of coaching for The Factory Baseball Institute.

At The Factory, Cobb managed facility operations, directed camps, practices and travel team operations. During that time, he also served as an assistant baseball coach at Bunn High School for the 2016 and 2017 spring seasons.

In 2018, Cobb returned to the classroom as a math teacher at Vine Academy, the alternative learning program in Franklin County Schools. He served at Vine for two years as a math teacher while continuing his coaching career through the non-profit travel organization, North Carolina Amateur Baseball Club in Raleigh.

In his second year at Vine, Cobb began his Masters in School Administration at Barton College. In 2020-2021, he served as seventh grade math teacher and administrative intern at Franklinton Middle School.

After that, Cobb arrived at Franklinton High School as an assistant principal and then later on the athletic director.

“There is a rich history of strong athletic programs in Franklinton,” Cobb said. “My goal is to help bring that back. I want to bring a program mentality to all of our sports where student-athletes will have the opportunity to develop their skills throughout the school year. We are a growing area and with that growth brings the opportunity to build our programs and engage with the community.”