More Coaches from ‘back in the day’/from the past that are still with us(Local Treasures)

We did that interview back on Saturday, with former Southeast Guilford football and baseball head coach Bill Slayton…Coach Slayton celebrated his 90th birthday back on Sunday, on the Fourth of July…

Sitting around today thinking about more of those old coaches from ‘back in the day’/from the past that are still with us, and you might be able to think of a few/more too…

One of the first names that comes to mind is Coach C.K. Siler…Coach Siler was the head football coach at Southern Guilford/Sumner High School for many years…He also coached some baseball and basketball for the then, Sumner Indians/Southern Guilford Indians..The football stadium at Southern Guilford High School is named the C.K. Siler Stadium…If my numbers are correct, Coach Siler is one year older than Coach Bill Slayton, with Coach Siler at 91 years old…The word on Coach Siler these days, is he is living at Clapp’s Nursing Center in Pleasant Garden, N.C. From what we hear, Coach Siler’s overall health is good, but he has had some problems with memory in recent years…

Coach Marion Kirby is still with us…He coached the Page Pirates to four NCHSAA 4-A State football titles back in 1980’s…Coach Kirby had three out-right state titles and Page shared one…Coach Kirby has the stadium at Page High School named in his honor…Always good to walk into the Marion Kirby Stadium at Page High School…We had Coach Kirby’s top assistant coach Frank Starling on here last year for an interview about Coach Kirby and from what Coach Starling tells us, Coach Kirby is doing OK these days, but he doesn’t get out much…He stays at home, and spends most of his time at his house…Coach Kirby, like Coach Siler, hanging in there these days…Four football state titles, some kind of run of championships there…

Coach Mac Morris, from Page HS, is still with us, and he just got named to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame last week…Coach Morris led the Pirates to three 4-A State Basketball titles ‘back in the day’…The gymnasium at Page High School is named the Mac Morris Gymnasium…Coach Morris was one of the top high school basketball coaches in the history of the NCHSAA…From all indications, Coach Morris is still very active and mobile, and can still be seen at Greensboro Day School basketball games on occasion..

Coach Richard/Dick Kemp is still amongst us, and he took the Ragsdale Tigers to back-to-back State Football titles back in the mid 1970’s…Coach Kemp’s Tiger team tied for the 3-A State Title in 1973, and then his Tigers took the title solo in 1974….Ragsdale was a dominant local force under the leadership of Coach Kemp, with his top running back and superstar Ricky Adams carrying the load…Not sure where Coach Kemp is today, but from what we have heard, Coach Kemp is living somewhere in the Triad, and he is doing good…Hope to get more on him some day, and we would love to know more about what he is up to these days..Coach Kemp also coached at Southeast Guilford, High Point Central and Southwest Guilford High Schools…

Coach David Price, from James B. Dudley High School, is still on the move…He coached his Dudley Panthers to three NCHSAA Basketball titles…Coach Price and his Panthers picked up one 4-A Title, and then they won two 3-A crowns, in boys basketball…Coach Price has been helping his son Damien coach the Morehead Panthers boys basketball teams in recent years…Coach Price is still active, and he is not showing any signs of slowing down….Coach Price is in the James B. Dudley High School Hall of Fame, and some of his top players at Dudley included Brendan Haywood, Vincent Whitt, Braxton Williams, William Graves, P.J. Hairston, Reggie Dillard, Sam Hunt, and others…

We had Coach Jeff Smouse, from Grimsley High School, on here last Summer, and he is doing great these days…He spent nearly 15 years as the head coach of the Grimsley Whirlies’ football team, and he had much success, in his role leading the Whirlies…Coach Smouse left Grimsley for Lumberton, and later coached high school football down in the Triangle region, down below Raleigh..He has returned to Greensboro on numerous occasions, and the Whirlie football fan-base still considers Coach Smouse as a good friend…He is doing well these days, and he did beat Page at least one time, during his time on the Grimsley sidelines…

Another coach to add to this list would be former Northwest Guilford HS baseball and basketball coach Sandy Gann…Coach Gann coached the Northwest Guilford baseball team to the NCHSAA 4-A Baseball title back in 1998…That was the very first year that Northwest Guilford was competing as a 4-A team…Coach Gann came up through the local ranks, having attended and played baseball at Guilford College, back in his college days….Coach Gann had much success coaching the NWG basketball and baseball teams, and he, like many of our other coaches that have been listed above, he is in the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame….I saw Coach Gann at a Northwest Guilford baseball game about a month ago, and he is still up and moving, and still driving his big tan Lincoln Town Car…He used to always sit in the Gann’s Roost, out behind the fence in right field, but the night I saw him, he was sitting down by the fence, along the right field line, running down past the third base dugout…Coach Gann, still on the go..

Plus still another local coach that is still with us, but he is still young, is Brett Stell…Coach Stell led the Western Guilford Hornets to back-to-back 3-A Baseball Titles back in the mid 1980’s…Coach Stell has been retired for a few years now, but he is probably in just his mid-sixties, and not that old, at all…He got it all done early in his career, and in addition to coaching baseball, he was also the head boys basketball coach, at Western Guilford High School, and was an assistant football coach for the Hornets….Coach Stell is still very active in the local sports community, and works as one of the lead forces in putting together the Western Guilford High School Sports Hall of Fame…

That is most of the men’s coaches that we can remember that are from the past, and they had lots of success here in our area, but if you know of more that we need to add to this list, please let us know…

From the women’s side of things, we still have the former Western Guilford girls head coach of just about every sport that the Hornets offered, and that would be Mickie Tuttle…Coach Tuttle led the Western Guilford girls track and field team to an overall NCHSAA Title back in 1977…I think back then you didn’t have the 1-A, 2-A, 3-A, 4-A classifications, they were all rolled into one…And that makes it tough…Coach Tuttle also coached volleyball, basketball, maybe softball, golf and there was the Track team too…She was inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame, just a couple of years ago…She might be our oldest girl’s coach still kicking around here, and she his doing good…

Darlene Joyner is not that old, but she does have at least two women’s 4-A State Basketball titles to her credit…She coached the Northwest Guilford Vikings, and she has only been gone a couple of years, and she is doing great these days….Saw her and Coach Tuttle, at the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame announcements ceremony a few years back…

Other women’s/girl’s coaches from ‘back in the day’, that we need to recognize…

YES, here you go…I would be remiss if I did not mention this name here….Give us Phil Weaver….One of the best boys and girls coaches to ever coach in Guilford County…Phil Weaver, now the top administrator for the NCCA…That would be the North Carolina Coaches Association….Coach Weaver, from Grimsley High School….He was the head coach for the Grimsley boys basketball team, and then later on, he was the head coach, for the Grimsley Girls Basketball team…It seemed like Coach Weaver was doing it all, ‘back in the day’….He took the Grimsley boys to a 4-A State Title game, and he took the Grimsley girls to a State Title game…His softball teams at Grimsley, were outstanding…He had many a great battle versus Page coach Mac Morris over the years…Phil Weaver was, and still is a legend, at Grimsley High School, and does a super job in his role leading the NCCA East-West All-Stars Games…

Wow, I am glad I remembered Coach Weaver, and he is still doing great these days…

More coaches, do we have more?????

There was Sharon Parks, the volleyball coach and also possibly the girls basketball coach, at Southern Guilford…Coach Parks was a Southern Guilford High School mainstay for many years…Coach Parks was the first-ever volleyball coach, at Northern Guilford High School….Pretty sure she is in the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame…Coach Parks attended and played several women’s sports at Guilford College…

How about the old Ragsdale wrestling coach Mike Raybon??? Coach Raybon had a load of high school wrestling State Champions, while he was coaching the Ragsdale Tigers…I saw Coach Raybon at a Ragsdale baseball game about a month and a-half ago, and he is still moving around, and getting around quite well…Coach Raybon in one of the top Ragsdale Tiger supporters of all time, and he is in the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame…Mike Raybon won NCHSAA State Titles, and he is still going strong….

Coach Jerry Fuqua, the former girls basketball coach at Ragsdale for many years, he is still with us, and he is still getting around and moving well…Saw Coach Fuqua at a Ragsgale girls basketball game, back in February, he is still helping out, and supporting the Ragsdale Tigers…

Clayton Nance is a former Page HS assistant football coach, and he was the Page HS head baseball coach ‘back in the day’, and Coach Nance is still going strong, and these days, he is the assistant Athletic Director at Grimsley High School, helping Grimsley AD, Ethan Albright….

If you want to add in some more coaches, let it rip…We have given you a good list to start off with….And we may think of more, and if we do, we will add them in….

More coaches that came to mind, earlier this afternoon…As far as we know, and as far as we can tell, they are all doing well…

Tommy Pursley from Northeast Guilford High School…Coach Purlsey led the NEG Rams football team to two NCHSAA 3-A Football Championship games…Coach Pursley took his Northeast Guilford football teams to playoffs for something like 20 straight years…He won numerous conference championships…Coach Pursley’s last coaching stop was at Tuscola…

Coach Charlie Groves from Northwest Guilford High School…Coach Groves had much success as the head football coach for then Northwest Guilford Vikings….He coached Rusty LaRue during LaRue’s time at Northwest Guilford…LaRue quarterbacked the NWG Vikings for four years…The last time we saw Coach Groves, he was attending a Northwest Guilford basketball game, a few years back…

Coach John Harder, from Ragsdale High School, and from Morehead High School, in Eden…Coach Harder coached the Morehead Panthers to the NCHSAA 3-A Title, and he had some great teams at Morehead HS…Coach Harder’s son Matt, is the current Athletic Director at Page High School…A very good man, nice and helpful to all those he came in contact with….You could often see him at Page High School basketball games, and he was a Page HS assistant coach for the period of time, when his son Matt was the Page HS head boys basketball coach…Coach John Harder would always do anything to help out anyone…

Coach Jim Clontz, from Southeast Guilford High School….Coach Clontz was the girls basketball coach at Southeast Guilford High School, and he was also the head football coach for the Southeast Guilford Falcons…Coach Clontz won a ton of games as the SEG girls basketball coach…When he was finished at SEG, he moved over to Western Guilford HS, where he was the Hornets athletic director…Last we heard on Coach Clontz, he was having some back problems, and his heath was declining to a certain degree..

Coach Jim Horney, from Southern Guilford High School…Coach Horney was the long-time wrestling coach for the Southern Guilford Storm, and he was a very successful high school wrestling coach…Coach Horney wrestled in high school, for Coach Mike Raybon, at Ragsdale High School…Coach Horney was a very tough wrestler back in high school…As far as we know, he is doing good today…

Coach Cox, and probably Joe Cox, from Southeast Guilford High School…Coach Cox was in charge of the wrestling team for many years at Southeast Guilford HS….Coach Cox must have led the SEG wrestlers for at least 25 years…When he stepped down at the SEG wrestling coach, his son Jed took over…Jed Cox has kept the Southeast Guilford wrestling tradition going…One his dad built, and got the Cox name going at SEG…

Rusty Lee, the former AD, at Page High School..Rusty Lee was in charge of the Page Pirates athletics programs for over 25 years…Rusty did not coach at Page, but he was the baseball coach at Southwest Guilford, and the assistant baseball coach at Northeast Guilford High School…Rusty Lee with nearly 40 years in the Guilford County Schools system, and always working in athletics at GCS….You find Rusty Lee these days on Facebook, and he still follows all of the athletes that come through Page High School….

There you go, and if you know of more, send them in….