The Spring Garden history and special education instructor Tony Benefield was recently named as the county's nominee from grades 7-12 for Alabama Teacher of the Year and the Jacksonville State University Teacher Hall of Fame.

Benefield, who also coaches sports at Spring Garden, graduated from Jacksonville State in 1990. He subsequently enhanced his degree at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he earned a master's degree in special education in 1994.

Benefield has previously served in the U.S. Army. He also previously instructed students at Lee High School in Huntsville and just down the road at Gaston High School.

Benefield said his early years growing up in rural Alabama created a lifelong drive that he credits with his success as a teacher.

"I believe I inherited an individuality and a sense of perseverance that probably doesn't come with the territory in many areas," he said. "When you add to the equation a childhood raised in near poverty, the results -- at least in my case -- were a person with the will to succeed that will not be stopped."

If his name is called out during JSU's annual award ceremony in May, Benefield would become Cherokee County's first-ever winner of the honor.