When discussing the state of Washington athletics, the name Jon Blank is usually brought up within the first couple of sentences.

He’s the mastermind behind one of North Carolina’s most notorious front sevens, the 2014 Pam Pack defense, and the coach of a perennial conference champion boys’ track and field team. Now, Washington’s latest coaching commodity is taking on another position, boss.

Last week, Beaufort County Schools named Blank the new athletic director at Washington High School, a position that has seen immense turnover since the year 2000. With the hire, Blank becomes the eighth AD in the last 12 years, but if success is contagious, it’s a position that will remain occupied for quite some time.

“It’s really simple for me. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly where I want to be for the next several years of my career,” Blank said. “The direction always keeps pointing back to Washington High School …  I saw the athletic director position as the next possible step up for me if I’m going to stay put. My goal is to just do the best possible job I can to make it easier for the other coaches to do what they need to do, which is coach.”

Coming on board in 2002, Blank began his career as a jayvee assistant football coach in an era where turmoil, rather than achievement was associated with the program. From 2002 to 2004, the football team posted a dreary 9-26 record at the 3-A level, defense efficiency being the primary concern down the stretch.

“That happened kind of quickly for me,” Blank said. “With the track program also working in conjunction with football, I definitely committed to doing track to make both sports as good as possible. That’s where it all began for me.”

Blank was promoted to varsity defensive coordinator in 2005, uniting with head coach Sport Sawyer (who took the position in 2004), and the duo has restructured, reformed and reinvented the Pam Pack football program. Since Blank’s elevation from jayvee, the Washington football team has posted eight winning seasons in 10 years.

But in the century-old tradition of Washington football, there was no season more revered than last. Sawyer and Blank piloted the Pam Pack to the 2-A state championship, it’s first since 1956, and came just two points shy of the school’s first title. Unlike a decade earlier, it was defense that carried the team to its 14-2 finish in 2014.

As the Pam Pack brand of defense became better known, so did the man behind the numbers. Following the historic season, Blank received a collection of calls inquiring about his availability as a defensive coordinator, positions Blank referred to as “pretty good situations.” But after building his current program from the ground up, loyalty was ultimately the deciding factor in whether to stay or leave.

“This is where I started my career and I’ve gotten some great opportunities to rise quickly,” he said. “I do feel a sense of loyalty to the people around here, the various coaches I’ve worked with and the administration because they have given me the opportunity to succeed.”

Blank’s vision for the future of the Pam Pack program, all sports, mirrors that of football — with better grades and increased freshman interest, success is sure to follow.

“We lose a lot of them their freshman year, just because they don’t know how to be good students,” he said. “That’s one thing I’d like to work on, targeting our freshmen to make them better down the road. We have some facility needs that I want to be a big part of. That’s going to be a big challenge for us, but I think we have a lot of support in the community. We’re going to work hard to make that happen.”