NDS has announced the hiring of Jim Crowder as the new varsity football head coach for the
2025-26 season.

Crowder brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Green Wave coaching
staff.Originally from Birmingham, where he graduated from Hoover High School and University
of Alabama at Birmingham, he began his coaching career in Birmingham at John Carroll High
School.

He was also part of coaching staffs at Homewood High School and Pinson Valley High School
in Alabama before moving to Greenwood. While in Alabama, Crowder worked under two
coaches in the Alabama High School Football Hall of Fame and has coached multiple college
football players, as well as two current NFL players in Zach Cunningham and Ameer Abdullah.
Crowder moved to Greenwood in 2013 to accept a coaching position at Mississippi Delta
Community College. After a two-year stint with MDCC, he was hired as an assistant football
coach at Pillow Academy.

After his first stint at Pillow Academy, he left to become the head football coach at Central
Holmes Christian School in Lexington. After two years as the Trojan’s head coach, he returned
to Pillow Academy where he has been teaching and serving as the Mustangs head football
coach for the past four seasons.

Crowder and his wife, Shea, have one daughter, Ann Rogers, a current junior at Pillow
Academy. He is excited to join the NDS family and get to know the students.
In addition to welcoming Crowder, the school also announced the promotion of coach RJ Hulse
to Jr. High football head coach.

Hulse graduated from Foley High School and continued his athletic and academic career at
Delta State University where he played football for five years, winning a GSC championship in
2014.

His coaching and teaching career began at Bayou Academy and includes stints at Straughn
High School in Alabama, as well as Washington School in Greenville, before becoming a Green
Wave.

Hulse is in his second year at NDS where he teaches seventh grade science and eighth grade
computer applications, as well as served as the assistant boys’ basketball coach, the offensive
and defensive line coach, and the defensive coordinator.