By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- It doesn't take much work to find out what kind of reputation Stuart Albright has at Jordan High School.

"One of the coolest teachers at Jordan," said Devin McNeill, a senior and varsity football player there. "I actually voted for him for the homecoming teacher today. A lot of students nominated him to get it this year again. ... Everyone knows him as the cool, fun teacher, and they want to get his class."

"He is a great guy," said LaDwaun Harrison, a special education teacher and the head coach of Jordan's junior varsity football team, for which Albright is offensive coordinator. "He's extremely committed to whatever endeavor he goes about. He loves working with kids, helping kids. He easily goes the extra mile to help out kids."

"He's kind. He can be firm when he needs to be firm. He has the standards. But the sincerity is there," Jordan Principal Richard Webber said. "He wants them to do well, and he has a way of presenting that demeanor to the children."

Albright's reputation extends beyond the walls of his school. In 2006, he was named the district's teacher of the year. In 2007, he was one of 75 teachers, and the only one from North Carolina, honored with a Milken Educator Award. And he has spent part of this year promoting his second book, "Sidelines: A North Carolina Story of Community, Race and High School Football." It's attracted positive coverage in newspapers around the state.

Despite the accolades, the 31-year-old seems just as happy evading the spotlight. "I really wish that some of the publicity would be more focused on [my fellow JV coaches] too -- how inspiring they've been in my life," Albright said.

No fooling. The trim coach -- he stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds -- devotes two chapters in the new book to men, moments and memories from the Jordan JV squad.

"He's still grounded," Webber said. "He's still that same level-headed, compassionate young man who wants to be a teacher. ... He's not going to leave Jordan High School to do something else. He's very passionate about his teaching and about his writing, and so he's getting his children to buy into that passion as well."

Albright's ingrained modesty comes across when he discusses his life in football. "I love coaching so much more than I loved playing," the former high school wide receiver said. "Because as a player ... when you do something well, it's like, OK, I did that for myself and my own individual position. But as a coach, you feel like you're having an impact on the whole team, and I love that."

The Gastonia native has had an impact on Jordan in large part because he found a way to combine two of his great passions: writing and teaching.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in English and creative writing from UNC Chapel Hill, Albright earned a master's degree in urban education from Harvard University. Following a one-year teaching stint in Boston, Albright became an English teacher and assistant JV coach at Jordan in 2002.

A few years later, he completed "Blessed Returns," a nonfiction account of the summer he spent as a 19-year-old college student working at a youth center in blighted Camden, N.J. Albright opted to self-publish the book in 2005 through a company he created called McKinnon Press, believing that would be more lucrative than having a regional publisher produce and distribute his writing.

As it happened, in 2005 Jordan switched to a block schedule. Albright had been hoping to teach creative writing, in part because of his background, and in part because he felt the school lacked creative outlets. He lobbied his students to sign up for a creative writing elective, telling them that if enough requested one it would be offered.

Thirty youngsters did, it was, and Albright's classroom has been packed with students ever since.

"Something about creative writing leads kids to bare their soul," Albright said. "And then when kids do that, kids around them begin to see a different side of them. ... They wind up realizing that some of the stereotypes that they thought existed about their classmates were completely wrong."

That creates an unusual classroom atmosphere, Albright said.

Even more unusual is the course anthology, which Albright realized could be produced through the company he originally created to self-publish his own first work. Every class's work is published; advanced students can write and print their own novels under Albright's tutelage.

"Having this book at the end is kind of like the legacy for that class," said Albright, who is in his second year teaching creative writing exclusively. "I think that that is really what started spreading the word for people -- you need to take this class because not only do you publish this book but it's like a family at school, a neat kind of a community within our school."

Up next for Albright is a project inspired by his students and their stories. It will be his first foray into fiction since college. And on the horizon, he said, is having children with his wife of four years, Jenni, a chronic disease prevention specialist who works for the state's public health division.

But don't look for Albright to change jobs any time soon, even if "Sidelines" is a hit.

"I love what I do," he said. "I think a lot of that comes through in my teaching, that I really am genuinely excited to be there every single day."

What: Stuart Albright reading from and signing his new book, "Sidelines: A North Carolina Story of Community, Race, and High School Football"

When: 7 tonight

Where: The Regulator Bookshop, 720 Ninth St., Durham