This is the third story in a three-part series looking into the athletic programs of the Recovery School District.

For more than two years, Allen Woods’ space in the RSD offices near the Industrial Canal weren’t exactly Spic And Span clean.

He had a lot on his mind.

Chad Bower

Alan Woods

Woods, the athletics director for the Recovery School District, is in charge of seven high schools and 23 elementary schools (grades K-8).

All were devastated in some way by the floods following Katrina.

Woods, however, didn’t have a blueprint to help restart the programs at the schools that came back soon after nor the one that have since come back. No guide whatsoever.

Well, he did have one guide.

“The blueprint that I used when I was given this position was my personal experiences of what was available and what I’ve experienced through my lifetime,” said Woods, a one-time principal, coach and teacher.

Woods, 52, recently took a new job with Douglass High as the Freshmen Academy Leader. But he’ll certainly be missed as the AD for the RSD, what with the years of experience in administration and sports in his background.

Woods grew up in New Orleans’ Ponchartrain Park neighborhood, attending Brother Martin before heading to Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond.

His love of sports comes from his parents. His father was an athlete and an official in the black college football officials association, while his mother was a 32-year health teacher.

“I grew up following behind him, going to various games,” Woods said. “I’ve always been actively involved in athletics in some sort of way my entire life.”

And as his father guided him when he was young, Woods is leading the next generation of teachers and coaches and athletes.

Carver’s Brian Bordainick is one of them. At 23, he’s the youngest athletic director in the RSD. But without Woods, Bordainick said he would be lost.

“I probably would have been fired after a week if not for the RSD,” Bordainick said. “Allen Woods has been like a second father to me. I’ve woken that guy up God knows how many times in the morning and late at night.

“He’s always on the horn with me ready to go, whatever I need. He has really taken me under his wing.”

Bordainick isn’t the only one praising the efforts of Woods.

Said Rabouin football coach Wallace Foster III, “I’m really grateful for the amount of help they have given us. You can’t point the finger at the school board as far as athletics. We’ve got everything we could want. We’ve got everything we could need.”

Added Carver football coach Shyrone Carey, “Mr. Woods does a phenomenal job of just talking to all the coaches at the RSD and making sure you have everything you need. If you don’t, he’s always a phone call away and willing to help with coaching or anything you need. I have great respect for Mr. Woods and the process he took with me.”

For Woods, answering the phone at all hours of the night is just part of the job. And he wouldn’t change it for anything.

His love of seeing high school students compete on the athletic fields of New Orleans is why he does his job and takes it so seriously.

“That’s always the No. 1 thing, being able to go to a game on a Friday night and see young men and women compete,” Woods said. “That’s the essence of athletics, to compete to the best of your abilities.”

By doing his job as hard as he can, he’s giving RSD athletes the opportunity to do just that, to compete at their best.

He understands that it will be a long process to get RSD schools on the same footing as his alma mater or McDonogh 35 or McMain. But he’s in it for the long haul, and thinks in the next few years, New Orleanians will see positive progress on football and baseball fields and basketball courts for RSD schools.

“As time marches on, just like the city, step-by-step and month-by-month gets better and better, our programs will get better and better,” Woods said.

As a former coach and administrator, Woods is well positioned to know what the people he works with need on a day-to-day basis.

“He knows what we have to go through,” Cohen girls basketball coach Gerald Grandpre said. “Whenever you call and have a question, you ask him. He gets back to you.

“He’s pretty much available 24 hours a day. That’s pretty big.”

It’s just the name of the game for Woods.

“When someone gets down, being there for them and explaining to them where they are and where they came from and what’s the picture,” Woods said, “sometimes we get down on ourselves for things we can’t control. I have to remind them where we came from.”

Woods is doing things the only he knows how.

For that, those coaches at RSD schools are likely thankful and ahead of where they could be at this point.