Veteran high school football coach Ron Massey died suddenly on Saturday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 56, according to a variety of media reports.

            He was the head coach at Piedmont High School in Union County and had coached in Friday night’s 74-58 loss to Sun Valley.

            Funeral arrangements have been announced.  The visitation will be held on Wednesday at Whitley’s Funeral Home in Kannapolis, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The funeral is scheduled for First Baptist Church in Kannapolis on Thursday, starting at 4 p.m.

            Massey was in his third year coaching at Piedmont and had been a head coach for over 20 years, with an overall record of 214-77-2. His other coaching stops as a head coach included Fayetteville Seventy-First, Kings Mountain from 1995-99, Kannapolis A.L. Brown and Raleigh Enloe.

            He had an 11-year stint at Brown which started in 2000, where he had a record of 120-32 and guided his team to a North Carolina High School Athletic Association state championship game in 2008. His Kings Mountain teams were 47-15-2 in five seasons, with four playoff appearances and a trip to the NCHSAA 1998 3-A title game.

             Massey was the winner of the NCHSAA’s Homer Thompson Eight Who Make A Difference Award for sportsmanship in 2007, representing Region 6 of the NCHSAA.