Vickie Peoples was an outstanding high school athlete in Iowa who really made her mark as a coach in North Carolina. Peoples was an Iowa high school state finalist in swimming and diving and then a Big Eight gymnastics champion at Iowa State. But it is her stellar career as both the men’s and women’s…
Jim Maxwell has made significant contributions to high school athletics in a couple of different ways. A native of Hampton, Va., Jim attended Randolph-Macon College and then the Duke University School of Law. He has been the NCHSAA’s legal counsel for many years. But he has also achieved fame as one of the top swimming…
Bruce Hardin has been a very successful football coach at both the high school and collegiate level. A graduate of Chase High School who earned his undergraduate degree at Appalachian State, Hardin’s teams have earned two state football titles and three runner-up finishes in 27 years as a high school head coach. Most recently he…
Gilbert Ferrell enjoyed a stellar 38-year career as a teacher, coach, and athletic administrator. Born in Wilson, he was a graduate of Charles Coon High School there and then graduated from Atlantic Christian College. He spent the bulk of his career in Wilson County, including 20 years as head baseball coach at Wilson Fike, during…
Bradley Faircloth is one of the top officials that North Carolina has ever produced. A graduate of Greensboro Senior (now Grimsley) High School and Duke University, for almost 20 years Faircloth worked as the coordinator of football officials and chief financial officer for the Atlantic Coast Conference. But he also enjoyed an outstanding career as…
Carolyn Rogers has spent the majority of her outstanding teaching and coaching career at Perquimans High School. After graduating from Western Carolina University, she eventually wound up at Perquimans and coached there from 1972 to 2009, including 21 years as volleyball coach but also coaching cheerleading, track and field, and basketball. Her volleyball teams won…
The late Joe Hunt put together an outstanding record as a head football coach in western North Carolina. Born in Wilkes County, Hunt graduated from the old North Wilkesboro High School in 1942. Then after World War II, Joe graduated from Western Carolina in 1950 and then embarked on a highly successful career in coaching,…
Bob Catapano has made significant contributions to high school athletics in a couple of different ways, including as one of the state's best soccer coaches ever as well as serving as an outstanding athletic director. His career in North Carolina was entirely at Raleigh's Sanderson High School after he earned four varsity letters in soccer…
Tom Brown is one of the state's most successful football coaches at the high school level. A native of Pennsylvania, Brown came South to attend Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, where he earned all-conference honors in both football and baseball, and basically never left the area. He compiled a brilliant record as a head football coach,…
Alton "Tunney" Brooks compiled an impressive record as a coach in several sports, serving at Edenton Holmes and Lumberton. A graduate of Wilson's Charles Coon High and a two-sport captain at Wake Forest, Brooks coached at Holmes from 1953 to '57 and then went to Lumberton as head baseball and basketball coach and assistant football…
