Wolfe's Cougars were 103-99-3 during his tenure at the school.

"I just felt like there was a time for all good things to come to an end, and that this was a pretty good time to do it," said Wolfe, 62.

"It's one of those things that I had been leaning towards for the last month or so. It just felt like it was time to let someone else come in and take it over. It's been a great 18 years, I tell you."

When Wolfe took over the program in 1994, the Cougars were on a streak of 12 straight losing seasons. He was promoted from assistant to interim coach just weeks before the season, after a surprise resignation from the Apex head coach.

"I didn't seek the head job out," Wolfe said, adding that he tried to turn down the promotion in favor of current assistants who had been there longer, only to find out they had recommended him.

"I just had a feeling that God had put me here for a reason, and I didn't know what that was at that time. But I would have never imagined that it's been like it's been."

From 1998 to 2008, Apex went 11 straight seasons with a winning regular-season record, including two co-conference championships and nine consecutive playoff appearances.

The Cougars went to the third round in the 2008 season, which still stands as the farthest Apex has ever gone in the postseason.

"That got to be a pretty big thing for our players," Wolfe said. "Our kids were afraid to break the streak."

Over Wolfe's last three years, Apex was 6-24-1.

"If you look at just the winning and losing part of it, I would've probably been a lot better off retiring after the 2008 year," he said. "But I had a lot of kids that I wanted to work with and enjoyed working with."

In 2003, he was honored by the Carolina Panthers as high school Coach of the Year for the Carolinas.

He was a member of the 2007 Shrine Bowl coaching staff, a former assistant at Enloe and Goldsboro and former head coach at Kinston and Wilmington Laney.