A former high school wrestling coach who resigned under a cloud of controversy in December has now stepped down from his day job with the office of Alamance County’s sheriff, as well.
According to county personnel records, Jim Giannotti formally ended his career with sheriff’s office on Wednesday, February 26 – roughly two and a half months since he resigned as the head wrestling coach at Southern High School.
Giannotti had originally joined the sheriff’s office on April 8, 2019 and he served, for a time, as a school resource officer at E.M. Holt Elementary School.
Giannotti’s position as a corporal with the sheriff’s office came under scrutiny in December when allegations surfaced about an incident at Southern High School, in which the wrestling staff allegedly failed to report a concussion that a student wrestler had reportedly sustained during a practice on December 3.
Although school system officials have been mum about the allegations against Giannotti, other sources have informed The Alamance News that they concerned a draconian drill that one student-athlete reportedly endured after a spat with a teammate.
ABSS officials did not explicitly attribute Giannotti ‘s subsequent resignation as the head wrestling coach at Southern on December 9 to the alleged concussion but did confirm for the newspaper that an internal investigation was underway.
Some Southern High School community members later described the injured athlete as an underclassman who was forced to wrestle every member of the team, one by one, as a form of “punishment” for an argument with fellow wrestler. That wrestler, Carson Giannotti, is a junior at Southern High School and the son of the now-former wrestling coach. The newspaper has been unable to verify that the allegations stem from some intra-team disagreement involving the coach’s son.
The newspaper was unable to verify claims that, after the argument, coach Giannotti told the underclassman he could “either be suspended from the team, or face the circle of death,” which was likened to the “bull in the ring” drill in football, where one player is placed at the center of a circle, while the other players take turns running in and tackling him.
The underclassman wrestler reportedly became sick, leaving the gym at one point to vomit; while coach Giannotti was said to have left the practice with his assistant coaches in charge, none of whom reported the wrestler’s injuries. The injured wrestler was later taken to a hospital, where he was treated for a laceration to the head, diagnosed with a concussion, and released, according to a source who declined to speak on the record but said he knew the wrestler’s family.
The Alamance News has been unable to verify any of the claims about the alleged injuries to the wrestler on December 3.
No one directly involved with the incident – including the head coach or the injured wrestler’s family – would agree to be interviewed on the record.
Outside employment must be cleared with sheriff
Alamance County sheriff Terry Johnson recently told the newspaper that he was unaware of Giannotti’s employment as the head wrestling coach at Southern High School.
Johnson said he has a policy that all of his employees must have his permission prior to accepting any outside employment. Giannotti had obtained the sheriff’s permission to work as an assistant football coach at Western High School but had not sought permission to work as the head wrestling coach at Southern, Johnson said in an earlier interview.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office launched its own investigation of Giannotti after the allegations regarding the wrestler’s injuries came to light in early December. He was subsequently reassigned on February 2 as a detention officer in the jail’s transportation division, according to Alamance County attorney Rik Stevens.
Alamance County district attorney Sean Boone said that an investigation into Giannotti’s role in the incident at Southern High School was referred to the State Bureau of Investigation.
“Because the case involves people who have employment with law enforcement, the SBI was asked to investigate,” Boone said in an interview Monday morning. The D.A. confirmed for the newspaper that it’s standard procedure to ask the SBI to step in if the subject of an investigation “is employed in law enforcement in the same jurisdiction that would be investigating.”
Boone referred case to Caswell/Rockingham County D.A.
Boone added that the case has been turned over entirely to the Caswell/Rockingham County district attorney’s office, which he said is part of one prosecutorial district overseen by D.A. Kathryn Gregg.
The case has been sent to Gregg’s office so as to avoid a conflict of interest, or the appearance of one, for him, Boone elaborated.
“Once I knew some of the names involved, it was a very expedited process to determine where it needed to go,” Boone explained. “I’ve kept myself distanced because it would be improper for me to involve myself in something that is not going to be dealt with in this office.”
Boone also confirmed that he had “worked directly and indirectly with that individual” – Giannotti, to whom he did not refer by name – during his tenure with the D.A.’s office over the last 15 years or so, including the last six as the county’s D.A.
Boone emphasized that his rationale in referring the case to another D.A.’s office is building and maintaining public trust in the judicial system so that Alamance County citizens will know, regardless of the outcome, “it was not influenced by local politics” or relationships.
As of his last day on Wednesday, Giannotti’s final salary for his position with the sheriff’s office was $77,197.96, county officials confirmed for the newspaper.
Giannotti, 47, had been employed with ABSS since January 3, 2000, initially as an assistant coach in the Exceptional Children’s program. In February 2004, he became a substitute teacher and substitute bus driver, based on information that ABSS officials furnished in response to a public records request by The Alamance News.
For his most recent position as the head wrestling coach at Southern, Giannotti had been paid a stipend of $2,133 per season. The stipend for his assistant football coaching position at Western High School was $2,553 per season, based on the information ABSS furnished in response to the newspaper’s public records request.
Haw River police sergeant also implicated in incident at Southern
Giannotti’s December 9 resignation as the head wrestling coach at Southern coincided with the resignation of one of his volunteer assistant coaches.
Jeffrey Ellis resigned from his unpaid position as an assistant wrestling coach at Southern High School on December 9, based on a personnel report recently approved by the school board.
Ellis is employed as a sergeant with the Haw River police department and is currently assigned as the school resource officer at Haw River Elementary School, Haw River police chief Toby Harrison confirmed Wednesday for The Alamance News.
The police chief confirmed for the newspaper that Ellis remains employed with the Haw River police department, where he has been employed for approximately five to six years.
Harrison said an independent criminal investigation had been conducted into Ellis’ alleged involvement with the incident at Southern High School, but said he could not release any details about the investigation because it involves a confidential personnel matter.
“I can’t go into great detail, but he was a coach,” Harrison told the newspaper Wednesday.
Southern High School principal Kristy Mills had informed the wrestling team in an email on Monday, December 9 that a practice and two meets scheduled for that week had been canceled because the head coach had resigned, and several other coaches had been “suspended, pending an ongoing investigation.”
None of the coaches was identified by name in Mills’ email.
“At this time, none of our other wrestling coaches are available to lead the team,” Mills wrote her email to the team. Citing the school system’s practice of providing confidentiality for “personnel matters,” Mills’ didn’t explicitly address the alleged injuries to the student wrestler in her email to the team but did say that the “safety and well-being of our student athletes remain our top priority.”
There appear to be no criminal charges or civil suits pending against Giannotti or Ellis in connection with the incident at Southern High School, according to information currently available through the the state’s online filing system, eCourts.
The online court database has been launched in 62 of the state’s 100 counties; it does not yet include the Caswell/Rockingham County court system, where court files will be made publicly available online in July 2025, according to the N.C. Judicial Branch.
