Legendary sports television anchor Tom Suiter enjoyed a tremendous career at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, and high school athletics was an integral part of it. Suiter, a native of Rocky Mount, attended Christ School in Arden and then went to Erskine College in Due West, S.C. Upon graduation from Erskine in 1971, he joined at WRAL…
The late John Morris was an outstanding coach and athletic administrator prior to his death at the age of 48. Morris graduated from Perquimans High School and then from Duke University in 1958, where he had played football and baseball. He coached football and baseball at Roxboro, posting a record in football there of 62-18-4,…
The late Mike Matheson had his coaching career cut short by his untimely death due to cancer at age 41, but he compiled a remarkable legacy primarily in women's basketball at Bandys High School in Catawba County. A graduate of South Iredell who earned his college degree at Appalachian State University, he had an unprecedented…
Jerry Johnson has had a stellar career in officiating as both a game official and booking agent. A graduate of Central High School in Hillsborough and North Carolina A&T State University, Johnson spent 30 years in education, 26 in the Wayne County system and 15 of those as assistant principal at Dillard Middle School. His…
Although John Frye has spent his entire teaching and coaching career in Moore County, he has had a tremendous impact across the state in the sport of tennis. A graduate of Carthage High School (1962) and Appalachian State University (1967), he started his coaching career in 1968 at Union Pines High School and has coached…
Jimmy Fleming is one of the state’s outstanding coaches in softball but also coached men’s basketball, track, football, baseball and cheerleading during his career at South Granville. A graduate of Creedmoor High and East Carolina University, Fleming is best remembered for his success in softball. His teams did win four men’s conference basketball championships, but…
Sheila Boles compiled an impressive record as a coach in several sports, but is perhaps best known as the first woman to coach a men's varsity basketball high school team in North Carolina. A graduate of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville, where she was a three-sport star, Boles was the first female scholarship athlete at…
Rosalie Bardin has been an outstanding coach and administrator during her career in education. After graduating from Lucama High School and then magna cum laude from Atlantic Christian (now Barton) College, Bardin began a stellar run at Southern Nash Senior High School, where she coached women's basketball for 12 years, volleyball for 18, track and…
Jim Taylor compiled a brilliant record as a head football coach, primarily at Shelby. Taylor, a native of Franklin, attended Franklin High School, then Gardner-Webb Junior College and graduated from Western Carolina, playing football at both Gardner-Webb and WCU. He coached football at Polk Central for four years, from 1970 through '74, while also coaching…
Robert Steele has been one of the state's most outstanding coaches in track and field for a number of years, helping to build North Rowan into a state powerhouse in the sport. A graduate of East Rowan High and then Livingstone College in Salisbury in 1975, Steele coached from 1977 through '86 at Webb High…
