Joan Riggs enjoyed a career as one of the most successful volleyball coaches ever in North Carolina. A graduate of Swansboro High and UNC-Wilmington, she returned to her high school alma mater and helped it become a state powerhouse in volleyball. Her Swansboro teams posted a collective record of 363-65 from 1974 through 1995, winning…
Tommy Hunt has made tremendous contributions in high school athletics as a game official. Currently the coordinator of football officials for the Atlantic Coast Conference, Hunt officiated approximately 240 NCAA Division I football games, including 10 bowls, during his distinguished career. He also officiated football on the high school level for 18 years, including working…
Charlie Gregory compiled an impressive coaching record in a number of sports at Randleman High School. Gregory is probably best known for developing Randleman into a football powerhouse. He coached that sport 28 years, winning over 200 games, and earned three consecutive NCHSAA state 2-A football titles, from 1981 through ’83. He served as Randleman’s…
The late Pat Gainey, a native of Dunn, recorded a phenomenal record in women’s basketball at a couple of different stops during his coaching career and was a real supporter of women’s athletics. A graduate of Atlantic Christian College, Gainey began his career at Lee Woodard High in Wilson County and then moved to Pamlico…
Al Black’s involvement in high school athletics in North Carolina came in five different decades and at a number of schools. A graduate of Lillington High School, Black went on to Campbell College and then graduated from Wake Forest in 1951. His high school coaching career included stops at Anderson Creek (1954-59), Boone Trail (1959-75),…
Ronald Scott was involved over an amazing five decades at one school and built Chatham Central into a strong baseball program during his 36 years as head coach. A graduate of Bennett High School and Elon College, Scott went to Chatham Central in 1959 and stayed until 1995, winning 520 baseball games in a stellar…
Bill Rucker was one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches in North Carolina prep history. His teams won a whopping 638 games in that sport against 252 losses in a 37-year career as Rucker guided squads at Tri High, Cool Springs and East Rutherford in Rutherford County, and then at Charles D. Owen and…
Fred Lanford enjoyed a stellar coaching career, with the vast majority of his time spent in Caldwell County. A native of Woodruff, SC., and a 1965 graduate of Appalachian State University, Lanford began his coaching and teaching in Woodruff and won a pair of South Carolina state baseball championships there. Then in 1965 he moved…
Elton Hawley is one of the pioneers of sports medicine as it related to North Carolina high schools. A graduate of Midway High School in Dunn and then a ’70 graduate of Appalachian State University, Hawley was one of the first teacher-athletic trainers in the state and received the inaugural North Carolina Athletic Trainer of…
Bill Carver has made significant contributions to high school athletics as a coach, administrator and game official. A graduate of Fayetteville’s E.E. Smith High School and Hampton University, Carver spent 37 years of his career in Cumberland County, first as a successful coach in several sports at his high school alma mater. He coached at…
