New Southeast AD Allie Turley wants to build connection with alumni

The first person Allie Turley met at Southeast High School was Paul Maechtle. Earlier this decade, Southeast played host to a district track and field meet, and Turley, who was the head coach of the Ruskin Lennard girls basketball team at the time, was helping run a handful of the jumping events.

They were loading some equipment onto a golf cart and then rode it together to John Kiker Memorial Stadium. They talked for a little while riding, and Maechtle learned Turley’s background was in basketball. Later that afternoon, the football coach called John Harder, the Seminoles’ girls basketball coach, down to the site of the long and triple jumps. He spent about an hour talking with Turley, the new Seminoles’ athletic director remembers.

“That family connection is what I kind of related to and I kind of like seeing that,” said Turley, who took over as the Seminoles’ athletic director earlier this month. “I’d like to see if we can get more people involved, just because I think the more the community gets involved, it’s a better resource that’s there. It’s very valuable for our student athletes.”

Furthering the Seminoles’ community connection is one of the primary goals for Turley this school year, which will truly begin Monday when fall sports teams officially begin practicing. Southeast already has made a concerted effort to dig into its past during recent years — boys basketball head coach Floyd Watkins is an alumnus and Rashad West, a former standout quarterback for the Seminoles, is about to begin his second season as the head football coach — and Turley wants to build it even more.

It was one of the primary draws for Turley. He’s known for the past few years he wanted to one day become an athletic director. When the position became vacant for the Seminoles, the memory of his meetings with Maechtle and Harder a few years earlier drew him to Bradenton. As he learned more about the high school, he learned the Seminoles’ two most well known coaches weren’t outliers.

“I love the fact that there’s a lot of alumni that actually work here,” Turley said. “I would like to just see if we could outreach and just get more of the people outside of the school that actually physically work here, and just try to get some of that excitement back.”

Turley, who comes from a basketball background, will take the lead of an athletic program whose success in the sport in unrivaled by Manatee County’s other public schools.

Turley’s basketball career began in Kentucky, where after a standout high school career he went on to play at Southeastern Illinois College, a junior college Harrisburg, and then serve as a de facto director of basketball operations for Eastern Kentucky before the position had an official name.

A brief return to Southeastern Illinois as an assistant coach eventually led to a high school coaching career, first with Brandon and then at Lennard. At Southeast, he finally found the role he’s been looking for.

“The basketball part didn’t matter. I just wanted to get in somewhere that just felt like a good community feel just overall with athletics,” Turley said. “From the outside looking in, I felt like Southeast was definitely one of those places.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 7:49 PM with the headline "New Southeast AD Allie Turley wants to build connection with alumni."