If you are a senior here at North Atlanta you probably began your high school career as a freshman in Coach James Aull’s American Government class. That’s to say: most of us know him in the classroom setting and have also seen him on the field coaching the varsity football team on Friday nights. What most don’t know is how he got involved in football or how he arrived here at North Atlanta.  

For Aull, his career in the sport he loves started at age nine when he played in a youth football league in his hometown of Jonesboro. His father pushed him into the sport and the rest was history. “Once I started playing, you could say that I just never wanted to put the ball down,” he said. 

Even at a young age, Coach Aull knew that football was his passion and wanted to stick with it as long as possible. His career continued when he got to Mount Zion High School in Jonesboro, where Aull played as a right tackle on the offensive line. “At that level, what you really enjoyed was the fun and competitive atmosphere that took place during the season. High school football is such a great thing,” he said. 

After high school, Coach Aull went on to attend the University of West Georgia, where he studied history with a political science minor, and where he played on the collegiate level for the West Georgia Wolves as a right guard. As it was approaching time for him to graduate he had to make a decision. Did he want to get a regular 9-to-5 job using his history degree — and political science minor — in a conventional career field or would he follow his passion and go into coaching football? He made the call to follow his heart and to stay within the world of football. “While I was in high school my coaches made a life-long impact on my team and me, which inspired me to want to do the same for those I would be coaching,” he said. 

Aull started coaching in 2005 at Mount Zion High School, his alma mater, where he coached for seven years, and in the last three years of this stint, he was the program head coach, a tenure that ended in 2011. He then moved on to Charles Drew High School in Riverdale as the offensive coordinator, a position he held for two years – from 2012 to 2013. He then coached at Griffin High School, where he was the offensive coordinator for two years, before being named head coach at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Fayetteville in 2015, where he coached until 2017. He became a Dub in 2017 when he came to North Atlanta as coach and teacher, but it was in 2020 when he was ultimately named the head coach. “It’s felt to me since I got here that this is the place I’ve wanted to be all along. I love the culture, I love the school, and I love the community,” he said. 

   When Aull first arrived at North Atlanta, he was coaching alongside Coach Sean O’Sullivan, but after O’Sullivan’s departure he has taken the reigns. Now that the fate of the mighty Warriors is in Coach Aull’s hands, he is making sure to keep the Warriors moving forward towards the championship. “I haven’t made any changes to the way we run the program since taking leadership. Coach O’Sullivan and I created a solid foundation before he left, so I’m sticking to what we built and want to continue the growth in the players, interest in the program, and maintain a winner mindset,” he said.   

With Aull in charge, it’s certain that the team will stay competitive and the Dubs will remain strong.