He only spent one year at Pillow Academy, 10 years ago, but Barrett Donahoe knew it was a place he would love to return one day.
He got his chance this January when the former Mustang football assistant jumped at the chance to be the Greenwood private school’s head of school.
“It may have been just one year, but it was evident Pillow Academy was such a special place for the kids and to so many in this community. I knew I would love to come back if the opportunity presented itself,” said Donahoe, who moved to Greenwood this summer with his wife and three of his four children.
Donahoe, who grew up in Crystal Springs and graduated from Copiah Academy in 1997, has worked at several schools in the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools as a teacher and coach and began to make the transition to administration in 2012 while coaching football at Heritage Academy in Columbus, where he also served as athletic director and high school principal.
That career move helped open up a path to become the headmaster at Marshall Academy, a job he held for the last three years before settling into his new office at PA in June.
“I was a part of the 2010 state football championship staff that was blessed with some really good athletes but even better people, and that’s what stood out to me the most during my first stint here at Pillow Academy,” said Donahoe, 40, who graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2002 with a double major, history and political science.
“I like the culture at Pillow and the people in and around this school, so it was a pretty easy choice when this opportunity presented itself. It’s a move that gets my family closer to home, that being Crystal Springs.
“I am a firm believer of the private schools and the MAIS. I grew up in private schools, and I have made a lot of connections and know a lot of great people in the MAIS. I am just really excited about the opportunity.”
PA football coach Tripp McCarty has known Donahoe since Donahoe first got into coaching. McCarty said Pillow hired the right man for the job.
“He is a proven leader who is perfect for trying times like this,” said McCarty, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic and the school’s decision to start in-person classes, beginning with a half-day on Aug. 7. “He has a strong passion for education and athletics.”
Donahoe said Pillow will release its policy for returning to classes on Wednesday.
“It’s important to do everything we can to get back in the classrooms,” he said. “Our mission is to educate the entire student, and that starts with being in school.”
Donahoe spent about a year and a half in the Ole Miss business school before realizing his true passion was coaching football.
“I was floundering around business school while I figured out I wanted to coach football, so I changed my major without going through the educational school at Ole Miss and chased my dream,” he said. “I never really set out to be a headmaster, but after years of teaching and coaching, I felt like I had a great perspective on what was needed most at the administrative level in our organization.”
This will be only his second year since finishing at Ole Miss that he won’t be coaching football in the fall. He coached the sport all three years he was at the Holly Springs school.
He missed the 2005 season due to a brief stint working with his father.
Donahoe lives in Greenwood with his second wife, Ryann.
They were married in 2012 and have three children: Addie Rivers, who will be in the second grade; Hayes, who starts 5K this year; and Anne Purser, 2. His oldest son, Hardy, 12, lives in Oxford with his mother.
•Contact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
