This man coached a lot of local Girls and Boys Basketball Teams:RIP Rodney Westmoreland(Former Three-Sport star at Dudley HS has passed away)

Local Greensboro Youth Basketball Coach Gone….
Here is the obituary for Rodney Westmoreland from the Tuesday News and Record:
GREENSBORO Rodney Westmoreland, Sr., “Spot”, 63, died Thursday, May 16, 2019. A funeral service will be held at 12 p.m. Wednesday, May 22 at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 408 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Perry J. Brown Funeral Home is assisting the family.

RIP Coach Rodney Westmoreland
I first saw this note today/Thursday on Twitter from Tre Turner, WR from Virginia Tech University and it hurts to see this, because it is so well known how good a coach Rodney Westmoreland Sr. was, and how he put so much of his heart into coaching basketball and into helping kids, in the Greensboro Community….

Tre Turner went on to say on Twitter:
It hurts me, but I’m glad you’re at peace now. Love you Coach

CLICK HERE to see the photo of Tre Turner(Northwest Guilford HS/Virginia Tech) back when he was playing for Coach Rodney Westmoreland Sr., as Coach Westmoreland was coaching the Greensboro Galaxy boys team in the photo of Tre and Coach Westmoreland…
(In this photo, this is the Tre Turner I remember seeing over at Dudley High School, many moons/years ago…Sharpe little kid back in his day and some kind of wunderkid basketball player back when he was younger.)

Rodney Westmoreland Westmoreland played three sports at Dudley High School, and served at Dudley High School, as assistant basketball coach for both boys and girls.

Here is a post on some of the players that played for Coach Rodney Westmoreland and his Galaxy organization back in the day on the girl’s side of the ball….
Posted by Andy Durham on March 12, 2010
Rodney Westmoreland of Greensboro Galaxy

Rodney Westmoreland the director of the Greensboro Galaxy AAU organization has
worked hard to keep the youthful organization in tact over the years. He directs
most of his energy towards the younger non teenage group but has coaches in place
to oversee that the teenage girls teams stay active and winning. The Galaxy squad
has had many young student athletes to come through their program whom once they
reached the ninth or tenth grade they ventured off to other programs that what they
perceived would offer them better exposure and opportunity. In many cases it did
because the older squad had practically vanished. They had players such as Helen
Terry the former Dudley and now Charleston Southern player. Nicole Hargraves who
help Grimsley rule this county for three years and now plays for UNC- Charlotte.
Breonna Patterson the Dudley star and recent UNCG signee and many more that have
climbed the ladder to sort of speak. So for a while it made things
pretty difficult to find players that would stay and help the organization to have
a presence on the AAU scene. So it was pretty much like starting over again.

Then something happened in the Summer of 2006 when Coach Ursula Williams became the
head coach and John Newman assistant coach. They added a few pieces to the puzzle
that already had future good players in Brittany Drew of Page and Desiree Drayton
of Dudley whom were now seventh graders but had already been in the organization
probably since they were wearing diapers. They added Jamila Pickard the Eastern
Alamance star, Asia Milton who starts for Northern Guilford, Khadejah Wilkerson who
now stars for Greensboro Day after transferring from Dudley, Taneesha Williamson of
Northern Guilford and Miranda Jenkins of Eastern Guilford. They had a pretty good
squad that competed and was now beating teams like the Greensboro Gaters whom had
been the powerhouse of the AAU circuit and the Lady Phoenix. They won locally and
played in the Nationals but with out much success. Some of the players on this squad
did not attend the Nationals. The following year 2007
many of the players left for greener pastures accept Brittany Drew, Khadejah
Wilkerson, Desiree Drayton and Miranda Jenkins. They added Leandra Hicks (Dudley),
Precious Tonkins (Grimsley), Haley Newman(NWG) and Brooklyn Davis (Smith). This
group played hard and went on to do something that had never been done before in
Greensboro History of AAU women’s basketball. They won the “National AAU Division II
Championship for 13 & under” in Kingsport, Tennessee by going 8-0 during their run
and went 23-9 for the year.

Whenever an organization have a tremendous amount of success, along with it brings
about other unwarranted challenges. Players may decide to move on. Coaches get
offered other opportunities and changing of the gods is not always a bad idea. Like
previous players from the past some did move on and some decided to stay and take on
a greater challenge. They decided that they wanted to challenge for a Division I
title. So Coach Shawn Simpson and Rick McClean took over the reigns. Former Head
Coach Ursula Williams became an assistant at Northeast Guilford after a stint at
Southwest Guilford. Brittany Drew, Khadejah Wilkerson, Desiree Drayton, Leandra
Hicks and Miranda Jenkins remained with additions of Katrina Gibson (Smith) and
Shameka Robinson (Dudley). Galaxy made it into the Division I Nationals by winning
in a tournament in Asheville, North Carolina. During the Nationals in Clarksville,
Tennessee they were the only team from North Carolina to make
it to a Championship game. The Tournament had 57 teams and just about every major
college coach one could see including Pat Summit from Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Brenda
Freese from Maryland, Tasha Butts from UCLA, Notre Dame Coach, Ole Miss, Alabama,
Georgia, Florida etc…. Galaxy made it to the Classic Championship game before
coming up short 66-62 in a hard fought game. They finished the year 27-12 with only
seven players.

In 2009 the coaches decided that they would do tournaments and showcases and again
proved to be successful at it. They even embarked on a greater challenge by deciding
to play up against older competition with their core group still in place with the
exception of Khadeja Wilkerson who had moved on. The group added some older girls
from the Galaxy squad in Lakendra Wilkerson Maryland Eastern Shore signee and Smith
star , Chell Jackson (Dudley), Valarie Beale of High Point Wesleyan, Amerijah
Jamison (Eastern Guilford), Portia Oakley (Page) and Hannah Talton (Page). The squad
got to play some of the best talent in the nation. Players such as Bria Hartley
(Connecticutt), Jennifer Oneal (Kentucky), Shannon Smith (UNC), Kelsey Harris
(Elon), Clair Watkins (Vanderbilt), Cierra Burdick (Tennessee), Chandler (GW) and
many more. The irony of it all is that they beat each one of those players squads at
showcases or tournaments. The team went 28-18 and had a
great year playing up. They won the Lady Phoenix Tournament Championship. They
finished runner-ups in the Deep South Showcase Tournament. They went 4-2 at the
Battle in ‘Boro in Tennessee in front of hundreds of college coaches as well as the
Junior Nationals,Candace Parker Tournament and Southern Premiere.

Many of the young student athletes are now at a different stage in their young
athletic careers. Lakendra Wilkerson who stayed through it all will be playing for
Maryland Eastern Shore next season. Desiree Drayton has verbaled to UNC Charlotte
according to an early publication at a Dudley tournament that they participated in.
Brittany Drew is receiving a lot of interest. Miranda Jenkins has more than two
offers on the table and has received a lot of college interest from many different
college programs from across the nation. Khadejah Wilkerson has received letters
since the Nationals in 2008 when she was with the Galaxy. Chell Jackson is also
receiving interest from colleges. The young athletes that have been mentioned not to
slight anyone else. Everyone that played were a part of the teams success. The path
that each player chose was an individual decision. That 2007 National Championship
team was something special and if one would look at how each
individual high school career has taken off, it will show why it may have happen.

“NOT TOO LARGE TO KNOW YOU ”

**********************from the Greensboro News and Record, October 24, 1992:*********************************
PAGE NAMES TWO
Luke McKeel left some big shoes to fill at Page High School, and the Pirates have chosen two people to fill them.

McKeel was the long-time baseball and girls basketball coach at Page who retired before this school year. A pair of North Carolina A&T graduates have been named to the positions. Rodney Westmoreland will coach girls’ basketball, and Clayton Nance will be the baseball coach.

Westmoreland, who played three sports at Dudley HS, has coached at various levels for many years. Included was a stint at Dudley HS as assistant basketball coach for both boys and girls.

7 thoughts on “This man coached a lot of local Girls and Boys Basketball Teams:RIP Rodney Westmoreland(Former Three-Sport star at Dudley HS has passed away)

  1. I’m shocked to hear the sad news. Rodney was a special coach at Page. He will surely be missed

  2. Very sad to hear that my friend Rodney Westmoreland has passed away. I played Baseball and Basketball back in the day with Spot and he was a phenomenal athlete but I remember him more for his caring attitude. Being in the group of first white students to attend Dudley in the first year of desegregation, I remember many times when Rodney stepped in to ease racial tensions.People followed this natural leader and wanted to be liked by him.He cared deeply for his community and if you were his friend he would do anything he could to help you out. As I coached numerous sports at Southeast Guilford I would run into Rodney from time to time and he always wanted to know if there was anything he could do to help or he would give me a report on what basketball girls were coming up that I needed to watch. He was a special athlete and a special person and he will be missed by myself and the community.

  3. Unbelievable!
    He left us way too soon.
    Nice guy and a very committed and good basketball coach.
    I believe if I’m not mistaken, I played football against him in high school from 1970-72.

  4. Coach Westmoreland was an assistant at Dudley when I played football there back in the late ’70’s early ’80’s. His dad also worked at the school. Loved both of them. He was a fantastic guy. he had a great influence on me and we will miss him.

  5. Coach Westmoreland was such a great man. In my time at the Central and Bryan YMCA’s as Sports Director he was one of the nicest men I ever met. The impact made on so many young lives will be many….I put him right up there with Hawk Harris as being a genuine leader of young people without any negative intentions. RIP and You’ll be missed, Coach! Thoughts and prayers to the Westmoreland family….and the kids that he affected in the Triad.

    Jeff Joyce
    Athletic Director
    The NC Leadership Academy

  6. You can tell the impact these leaders like Rodney Westmoreland and Mike Harris had when you look back at the comments that have been shared about them, since they have left us…

    We have seen some outstanding comments made on behalf of Coach Rodney Westmoreland and I spoke with Milton Jenkins this morning and he said it was hard to measure the full impact that Coach Rodney Westmoreland left in his passing…..

    Here are the thoughts on Mike Harris, as he and Coach Westmoreland really influenced a lot of people in the right way…Going back to October 21, 2010….

    In memory of Mike Harris long-time Central Y and AAU basketball coach
    Posted by Andy Durham on October 21, 2010 at 11:50 am under Amateur | 9 Comments to Read | Edit

    Coach Mike Harris passed away last week at the age of 53 and here are some of the thoughts about Mike, that have been shared here at the site this week……

    Mike Harris served the youth of Greensboro and was a great example to the young men who played for him at the Central Y. He was a great coach and competitor! He spent countless hours picking kids up and taking them home just to insure they had a chance to play and that they returned home safely. I will miss seeing Mike at high school games here in Guilford county, as I am sure many other will too.
    Back in the day, he also had a a nice, soft left-handed jumper that he will be remembered for too.
    My condolences to his family.
    Andy Symmes
    Posted by Andy Symmes October 17, 2010

    I coached in those Y leagues with Gary Thomas, Mike Booth , Dave Farris and Mike Harris and man we had some great battles among all of us but we were all friends who loved the game and the kids. Mike Harris was a great guy and its a shame another good man is gone. My sympathies to his loved ones.
    Posted by Rick Melton October 17, 2010

    I want to take time out and talk about a man that changed most of the boys and girls life my age..this man started me on the right path making sure i was on top of my school work and keeping me in the gym…he was more than a coach to me back then he was a father and a person i looked up to ima miss u man and i love you dude r.i.p. COACH HARRIS
    Posted by chris harrelson October 17, 2010

    Coach Harris was instrumental in developing many of our youth. Not only did he help them become outstanding basketball players, he helped them become fine young men. He will truly be missed. R.I.P
    Posted by the Reader family October 18, 2010

    I had the honor and privilege of working with Mike at the Y as the Sports Director for about 6-7 years. Greensboro lost a legend on Friday! Hawk was a person that I looked up too personally and professionally and sought to be like. The only thing that mattered was that kids got an opportunity. He will be missed greatly by the youth of Greensboro. He played a significant role in keeping young men on the right path! He used basketball as a means to teach kids that they had a shot at achieving everything and anything they wanted to do. Spoke with Mike just two weeks ago and he seemed to be enjoying retirement but mentioned that he was just missing the day to day contact with kids. My condolences go out to his family and I hope they know that Hawk is in a better place.
    Posted by Jeff Joyce October 18, 2010

    coach mike harris will never be forgotten one of the best coaches to ever step foot in a gym not only did he teach you the game he showed you how to be a better man in this world. R.I .P MIKE HARRIS
    Posted by wavey boyd October 19, 2010

    Rest In Peace Mike Harris (Coach Harris) an amazing man who did more for young black men like myself than any Government official in Greensboro could ever dream of. we need more people like him in this world and Heaven just got that much better. thanks for everything Coach Harris you will be missed… A Legend as truly been lost
    Posted by Matthew King October 19, 2010

    Every once in a while a person crosses your path that epitomizes what it means to give unselfishly of yourself. Mike was that person. I moved here 15 years ago and he was one of the first guys that I met, shooting that left-handed jumper at Lindley Park. I can remember him asking me to volunteer coach at the Central YMCA where I continue to coach to this day. Mike knew every youth in the Triad that ever picked up a basketball and for those youth that didn’t pick up a ball he knew of them through the Guilford County school system. I am blessed and honored to have crossed paths with such a giving soul. I thank him for all he has taught my kids and for what he has taught me as it pertains to volunteering and giving back to his community. He is truly a legend and will be remembered for years and years to come. I’m sure Mike is Heaven right now organizing a basketball league; coaches like Mike just don’t walk away from the game. R.I.P Mike, you will never be forgotten and that comes from Devon, Lauryn, and their Dad Richard.
    Posted by Richard Sherman October 19, 2010

    Hawk will always be remembered in the community. There sure aren’t many people that will take the time to mentor kids and young coaches like Mike did. I hope that all of the people he touched will give back some how. Mike always had encouraging words for me and my 4 boys. The Langleys will miss you Mike. R.I.P.
    Posted by Keyford October 19, 2010

    Sending my deepest condolences to the family of Mike Harris, sad times. Coach Harris worked with my brother when he was a youth during the late 80’s. he has always been around helping kids from as long as I can remember, which is why I made sure my son Jordan got the opportunity to experience one of the greatest coaches ever! Mike, when I finally got up enough nerve to tell Jordan about your passing his words were what taught me everything. I told him that you created a wonderful foundation and his job is to never forget the gifts you gave him, take them and push on in your memory. Just yesterday he came home with a sticker on his shirt pledging to remain drug free…you played a major part in his decision. Coach Harris, Jordan and I will forever miss you. I appreciate you Mike, thank you for everything…You are an angel!!! May you rest in peace now. Kimberly and Jordan Westbrook
    Posted by Kimberly Westbrook October 20, 2010

    witness said,

    R.I.P. COACH HARRIS!!! coach harris was for first ever coach wayyyy back at the central YMCA!! Matthew King and i were teammates on his team.. NOT ONLY WAS HE A GREAT COACH BUT A GREAT MAN WHO GENUINELY CARED ABOUT ALL THE YOUNG PEOPLE HE WAS AROUND.. A GREAT MAN WHO LEFT HIS MARK ON THE GREENSBORO COMMUNITY!!!!

    Bob Lowe said,

    Mike was a kind and personable man who made a positive impact on many people in Greensboro. RIP Coach.

    ED Ross said,

    Mike was one of the greatest basketball coaches i have ever seen at the ymca. He gave so much of his time money and love for these kids He made sure every kid had a chance to play. mike knew the game of basketball and knew how to coach.mike will be hard to replace. mike we all will miss you

    Morty Morgenstern said,

    I knew Coach Harris well. We worked together for a few years at a local school and we competed in rival AAU programs. Mike was a wonderful man who really loved working with youngsters. He will be sorely missed.

    NBA Tickets said,

    He gave so much of his time money and love for these kids He made sure every kid had a chance to play.

    Monty Bumper said,

    I have known Mike Harris for almost 30 years. Coach Harris was one of many people I ran across during my youth that helped to develop my love for basketball. That love helped me compete on successful teams at Greensboro Day School under another great coach in Freddy Johnson and eventually at the division 1 the college level. Mike thank you for all you did in the community and you will not be forgotten.

    C. Christopher Scott said,

    Coach Harris helped me get my first opportunity to coach and was a vital inspiration when I was younger learning the game. I was shocked to hear of his passing. He will be greatly missed.

    Mark Harris said,

    I still read the tributes given to my big brother on occasion. Thanks to all who took the time to write them. There are plans to have a yearly tournament in his honor. If anyone has ideas or resources to make this happen, by all means let’s talk about it. I can be reached at jabbo_az@yahoo.com. I miss you Big Bruh, may you Rest In Peace.

    Allan Hild said,

    Mike was a great guy, great coach and great friend. He was part of our team, our coach, for our City League team back in the 90’s. For 2 summers & 2 winters we won the City Championship – me, Gene, Haywood, Don, Terrell, and a just a few others. Those were great times! I’ll miss him. RIP Mike.

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