Coach Kim Furlough is stepping down as the girls head basketball coach at Northern Guilford High School…She is the only girls basketball coach that the NG Nighthawks girls program has ever known…Coach Furlough has led her girls to State Championships, she has coached some outstanding young ladies along the way, and Coach Furlough has been the ultimate example of what it is to do things the right way, on and off of the basketball court when it comes to leading her players…
Coach Furlough played high school basketball for the Southeast Guilford Falcons and Coach Jim Clontz back in the day, and she want to have much success as a college basketball player at Appalachian State University, and then she played in the pros overseas…She also became an assistant coach for Lynn Agee at UNCG back in the day, and went back to Southeast Guilford, as the assistant coach and then later as the head coach for the SEG Falcons….
Coach Furlough was the first-ever girls basketball coach for the Northern Guilford Nighthawks, and she is the only girls basketball coach the school has ever had…
I first remember Coach Furlough when we attended the same church down in Pleasant Garden, N.C., and that was the Pleasant Garden Methodist Church…I always sat near the back of the church, since I was flying in there at the last minute every Sunday morning, and Coach Furlough, always sat with her family up front, and she was with her husband John, her son Matt, and her daughter Sammi…..
(Fine Family, the Furloughs.)
Very loyal and tightly knit family the Furloughs, and John was in charge of the Financial Department for the church, and that was a volunteer position…The pastor back then was Don Shuman, and this was back around the mid-1990’s…
Coach Furlough, that is what I will always call her, Coach Furlough led her girls to NCHSAA 3-A State Championships back when they had Elissa Cunane, Kassie Robakiewicz, and Mercedes Wampler…Cunane was in the post, Robakiewicz was the two guard, Wampler was the point guard, and Sammi Furlough, Coach Furlough’s daughter, she was on this team also…They won two NCHSAA 3-A State Titles, and I remember me and Dennis White driving down to Fayetteville to broadcast the game, when Coach Furlough and the Nighthawks were playing at Fayetteville State University, and they were going for the 3-A East Regional Title…
I saw Elissa Cunane’s dad, Dan Cunane, out back by the loading dock as we were entering the gymnasium/arena there at Fayetteville State, and I figured that must have been good luck, and then we also ran into John Furlough, Coach Furlough’s husband, on the way into the game, and by seeing some local hometown fans and bodies, that should have been enough to help out the Lady Nighthawks body of work, and it was…
I kept on telling Dennis White that the NG girls needed to get a stop, create a turnover, or get a takeaway, and that is exactly what they continued to do…Sammi Furlough made some big plays, Wampler was diving all over the place, Kassie was nailing shots, and Elissa Cunane was able to stay in the game, and I don’t think she fouled out…
I looked up at the scoreboard, where you could see the game clock, and when it read 3:16, I knew we were in good shape…Made me think of John 3:16, from the King James version…We had John, we had Dan(Daniel) and we had Coach Furlough leading her Nighthawk Army to victory…
Those were great times, and whenever I see the game clocks hit 3:16, I still think back to that Saturday night in Fayetteville, at Fayetteville State University, when Coach Furlough and her NG girls were winning that so important 3-A East Regional Championship, and they were on their way to the 3-A State Title…
Every Northern Guilford Girls Basketball story has a part of Coach Kim Furlough in it, she had Coach Josh/Josh Evans, Haley Hackett, Whitney Clendenin, and the other Nighthawk assistant coaches from over the years, right there at her side…And Coach Furlough was always at her best when the chips were down…She would not get down…She would not let Cancer take her down….She was a fighter, and when she took that Northern Guilford girls basketball coaching job, Coach Furlough took that job at face value, for better or worse…
When you thought you had Coach Furlough stopped, you better look up, because she was still going…Going weak or at full strength, you always got her BEST!!!!!
That is why she is one of the best basketball coaches in the history of Guilford County, and why she will soon be receiving induction into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame…It is because she would not take or accept second-best as a solution…You had to give her your best, because that is what you were getting every time out, from Coach Kim Furlough…
We all need to take time to thank her for the memories, because it has been a great ride with Coach Kim Furlough leading the Northern Guilford Girls Basketball Team…All the way back to Samantha and Amanda Coffer, with Amanda now a Guilford County sheriff, and doing SRO work at Northern Guilford High School, plus you had Molly Taminsab, and Tessitore, and so many moree over the years, under the leadership and guidance of Coach Furlough…
And let’s begin to close out by saying, that this year’s edition of Northern Guilford Girls Basketball is not too shabby either…Now at (21-0) with one more regular season game to go….Harris, the Gram twins, the Newsome sisters, the Delisa sisters, Zlotkowski, Burnham, Skylar and all of the Nighthawks will want to finish strong for Coach Furlough…
Coach Furlough will soon be taking a Furlough, and she will step away from Northern Guilford High School..The word is she is 56 years old, and being only 56, Coach Furlough has lots of good years left in her…She seems a bit older than 56, and that is because she has been working so hard, and has given us so much, for so many years…Seems like she has been around forever, and we know she had to draw a finish line somewhere in the sand, and that line has been drawn…
Coach Furlough has earned all the off time she has coming to her, because while she was on the job, she never let up, and if we learned anything at from her it was, “If it is worth Doing”, “It Is Worth Doing Right”….
She has set an example that will be hard to follow, but she did, Kim Furlough did it the right way, and for that she was successful without measure…We will just never be able to measure all the good work this lady did…She really did lead by example and she blessed all of those that she came in contact with…
Thank-You Coach Kim Furlough, for a Job Well Done…
**********We sort of took off in and on our own direction with this post, but here is what the News and Record is saying, with the key numbers and quotes on Coach Furlough’s career….**********
CLICK HERE
Well said Andy.
Much respect to Kim who I have the opportunity to coach against on several occasions. A class act and always had her teams well prepared.
Enjoyed our pregame talks and conversations off the court.
I will definitely miss seeing her on the opposite sideline and local high school basketball is losing a great ambassador for women’s basketball.
I was blessed to have been able to have teams that competed against some really great teams, players and coaches in the years that women’s basketball saw some dominant teams from Guilford County and some really good coaches like Kim, Darlene Joyner and Rachel Clark.
All of those coaches did it the right way and the way they conducted themselves, on and off the court, provided great examples for coaches to follow.
Good luck to you Kim and enjoy your retirement!