NORTH DUPLIN STUDENT EARNS NCHSAA’S SIXTH ANNUAL PAT GAINEY STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP
CHAPEL HILL—The North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced today the winner of a special award established in the name of the late Pat Gainey.
James Kornegay of North Duplin High School has been named this year’s winner of the Gainey Student Scholarship Award. He will be honored at the NCHSAA Annual Meeting at the Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus on May 3.
The award is in memory of Gainey, a native of Dunn who recorded a outstanding record in women’s basketball at a couple of different stops during his coaching career and was a great supporter of women’s athletics. His overall record at Pamlico was an incredible 93-6 in women’s basketball and he also coached outstanding baseball teams there. He then moved to Taylorsville, where he coached from 1955-64.
The Gainey Student Scholarship Awards are available to NCHSAA member schools in counties having a poverty rate of 20 percent or more for children 17 and under. Student scholarship recipients alternate annually between a female athlete and a male baseball player meeting the established criteria.
Kornegay is a four-year varsity player in three sports at North Duplin, including football, basketball and baseball, and is already a two-time all-conference selection in baseball. He has also been a starter for his American Legion baseball team.
He is president of the senior class at North Duplin, serves on the Student Council and is a member of the Beta Club. He has also tutored at-risk elementary children in his community.
Kornegay’s goal is to become a teacher and coach, to have the same kind of positive impact on student-athletes that his own coaches have been able to provide.
The award is made possible by a gift from Gainey’s daughter, Mrs. Berry Jo Gainey Shoen, who currently resides in Port Townsend, Washington.
“This award is a wonderful tribute to the legacy of Pat Gainey and all that he did for high school athletics throughout his career,” said NCHSAA commissioner Davis Whitfield. “James is an outstanding representative of the attributes that Pat embodied and emphasized.”
