Pam Wilkins is stepping down as the head coach of the Addison volleyball team after 13 years with the program she shaped into a perennial contender.

Wilkins informed the school of her decision Monday and shared the news with her squad on Tuesday.

The biggest factor in her choice is her son, Logan, a student-athlete who’s literally on the rise. The 12-year-old is already 5-foot-10, wears a size 13 shoe and is coming into his own as a basketball and baseball player.

Wilkins anticipates Logan starting up football this fall, the same time she’d usually be knee deep in volleyball. As bittersweet as it is to toss in her coaching towel, she’s excited for the opportunity to take a more permanent seat on the sidelines as a mom.

“I’ve put many, many years into Addison athletics and loved them all, but you don’t want to miss your kids playing,” Wilkins said. “I want to be a parent. I missed a couple games because of me coaching, and I didn’t really like it. You don’t feel like you’re doing your job as a parent when you can’t be there the majority of the time.”

Wilkins joined Addison as an assistant in 2002, the program’s first of 13 straight years to qualify for the state tournament. She ascended to the top spot the following season and proceeded to lead the Lady Bulldogs to seven state titles, including last year’s Class 2A crown.

The blue map was the small-school powerhouse’s second in 2A. The other five were secured on the 1A stage, highlighted by a three-peat from 2003-2005 and back-to-back titles in 2009-10. Though earned in different classifications, the last two championships were also collected in consecutive seasons.

Wilkins’ rèsumè is capped off by five state runner-up trophies — one as an assistant — too many regular season tournament titles to count and the highest winning percentage (.934) by a prep volleyball coach in state history. Her final record stands at 731-52.

More than finishing any fall with a championship, Wilkins’ favorite aspect of the job has been watching players better their futures — educationally and athletically — by signing college scholarships. Sure, she’s sent many a girl out into the world with a state title ring on her finger, but the end goal has always centered around obtaining a different set of accessories — high school and college diplomas.

“Just showing up at practice and playing, that’s not what happens at Addison,” Wilkins said. “We expect them to stay out of trouble, and we expect them to make good grades. That’s the big part of it: You just expect so much more out of them.”

This is not Wilkins’ first attempt to step down at Addison. She’s tried to hand over the reins twice before, only for fate to intervene and hand them right back in each instance.

Wilkins doesn’t see the sequence playing out in similar fashion a third time, though she didn’t count out an eventual return to coaching. In the meantime, she’ll continue teaching physical education and remedial math at the high school and stay involved with volleyball by conducting lessons and helping as needed.

“I’ve never regretted coaching,” Wilkins said. “I’ve enjoyed all of it. But I also want to be free when I need to be.”

Even with the departure of a legend like Wilkins, Addison’s coaching cupboard is far from bare. Kayla Woodard, Susie Brewer and Lana Hines would all be seamless internal options, though the job will surely be opened to outside applicants as well.

Woodard returned to her alma mater after an outstanding collegiate career at Mississippi State, serving as Wilkins’ right-hand woman each of the last two championship seasons.

Brewer has kept the developmental and talent pipelines flowing through the junior varsity ranks, leading last fall’s squad to a spotless 42-0 record.

Like Woodard, Hines is one of Wilkins’ former standouts. Hines continued her athletic career at Judson College and later Northwest-Shoals Community College before heading back home. She’s currently the leader of Addison’s junior high volleyball team, which went 26-2 in 2014, and pulls double duty as the school’s varsity softball coach.

“I feel confident between the three of them,” Wilkins said. “I’m not the least bit worried our program won’t move on.”

Addison High principal and athletic director Micah Smothers was in complete agreement.

“We don’t know anything besides her,” he said of Wilkins. “She’s established a great program here, basically a dynasty I think is what some of y’all have called it. She’s left it in some good hands, some capable hands. All three of them are good, quality coaches.”

Though they’re clearly the leaders in the clubhouse, the three early candidates are still just that — candidates. Smothers said tryouts will be held as usual in the late spring and that it will probably be summer before a replacement is officially named.

“We’ll just wait and see,” he said. “You never know, something else could happen. Somebody else could come in.”

Smothers acknowledged no matter who eventually earns the title, they’ll have some Logan-sized shoes to fill.

He wasn’t solely referring to X’s and O’s, either.

“The main thing is she’ll be missed because you can’t replace somebody with that much experience, that much knowledge,” Smothers said. “She just knew how to handle things, and you can’t replace experience like that.”