George Whitfield: Always a winner
May 6, 2015 at 3:34pm
By Bryan C. Hanks / EditorPublished: KINSTON FREE PRESS
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 20:36 PM.
PART ONE
Arendell Parrott Academy won the Eastern Plains Independent Conference baseball championship last week with a remarkable, come-from-behind 4-3 victory against perennial powerhouse Harrells Christian Academy in Kinston.
It was quite an accomplishment for a squad that hadn’t won a league title in recent memory. But what made the championship that much more special was the man who led the Patriots to the championship — 78-year-old George Whitfield.
The word “legend” is thrown around a lot these days. But it doesn’t matter what your definition of the word is, Whitfield qualifies for the moniker on every level. He is currently in nearly a dozen halls of fame throughout the country, including the Kinston/Lenoir County Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the national American Legion baseball Hall of fame.
KINSTON
It’s remarkable Whitfield even made it out of his teens, though. His mother died when he was a toddler and his father passed away when he was 12. Not long after his dad’s death, while on the steps of the gym that would be later named for Frank Mock on the campus of Grainger High School, Whitfield met another Kinston coaching legend, Amos Sexton, who opened up his home and family to the youngster.
It was the perfect situation for Whitfield, who eventually became a spectacular three-sport athlete for the Red Devils in the early to mid 1950s. He learned how to be a championship coach at the feet of Sexton and Mock, two of the best coaches in any sport in Kinston history.
Among the hundreds of fans celebrating after last week’s EPIC championship at APA were six men — Billy McLawhorn, Ricky McLawhorn, Joe Franklin, Jim Bahen, Wells Gulledge and Rasberry — from three distinctly different generations. All six have been positively impacted by the legend, George Whitfield.
GOLDSBORO
Franklin, Bahen and Ricky McLawhorn were part of Whitfield’s first team in 1959 at Goldsboro Junior High School. Whitfield, then just a 23-year-old who was the school’s head baseball and football coach, had left Kinston to become a student-athlete at Lees-McRae Junior College and later graduated from East Carolina College (now ECU).
But in 1959, Whitfield was just another young coach trying to make his mark in the world. That first team was the first of many who won — and won big. The team won all but one game and won the Wayne County junior high championship in the last year of the 1950s.
“I remember those boys back when they were studs,” Whitfield said of the quartet of men who were among several others who came to see APA’s conference championship game last week. “They’re all older now — some in their 60s, early 70s and some even crippled — but they came back to see me coach again. Can’t begin to tell you what that means to me.”
Whitfield’s “boys” — an earned term of affection the coach bestows on those young men who have given their all for him on a baseball diamond or football field — were proud to be on hand to witness last week’s championship.
Whitfield’s passion was fierily evident with that 1959 squad.
“He was a ‘rah-rah’ coach, for certain,” Bahen, now 71-years-old and a Wilmington resident, said. “We loved playing for him. We were a bunch of old country boys who loved to play for Coach Whitfield.”
Franklin agreed with Bahen’s assessment.
“Only six or so games into that (1959) season, we knew he was a winner,” Franklin, now 69, said. “We focused on winning for him, because he hated losing. If you lost, you were going to run wind sprints until it got dark outside.”
It was a unique situation for the core of that squad as Whitfield followed them from junior high to Goldsboro High School, where their only loss as seniors was in the Eastern 4A championship game to eventual state champ Rocky Mount in 1963.
Billy and Ricky McLawhorn are brothers who both played for Whitfield at Goldsboro junior and high schools; Ricky played football for Whitfield while Billy played baseball and basketball.
Both said they were excited to support Whitfield at last week’s game.
“We respect him as a person and a ball coach,” Billy McLawhorn, 68, said. “He’s the best.”
Ricky McLawhorn, 70, said, “We’ve talked about coming to support him because we still care a lot about him.”
ROCKINGHAM
After winning state championships at Goldsboro High School, Whitfield was wooed to Rockingham in the south central portion of North Carolina to take on a bigger challenge at Richmond County High School.
It’s easy to say he lived up to the challenge after he won multiple state titles at RCHS and with Hamlet’s American Legion baseball team.
Before becoming one of the most recognizable prep coaching names in North Carolina while leading Kinston High School to three state basketball championships in a heralded 11-year career from 2001-2012, Wells Gulledge was a star basketball guard at RCHS in the early 1990s. His family lived in the same neighborhood as Whitfield — along with other RCHS legendary coaches Hal Stewart and Charlie Bishop.
Growing up, Gulledge spent huge chunks of his summers at Whitfield’s house — one of only two in the neighborhood that had a swimming pool.
Whitfield’s reputation and championship resume was well-established before Gulledge played his first basketball game for the Raiders or stepped foot on the RCHS campus.
“Coach Whitfield was like a rock star in Richmond County,” Gulledge said.
Growing up down the street from Whitfield in Rockingham, Gulledge admits he has sought counsel with the legendary coach at every one of his coaching stops — from being a graduate assistant at Mount Olive College to becoming the youngest 4A coach in the state at Jacksonville High School to coming to Kinston, retiring from the Vikings and then returning to the sideline at Parrott.
Whitfield was also one of the main catalysts for Gulledge coming to Kinston High School in 2002. George Stackhouse was a successful coach who had led the Vikings to the 2001 3A state championship game, but he joined the college coaching ranks after the 2001-02 school year began.
The powers-that-be at KHS were interested in a young up-and-comer Gulledge, who had turned around a moribund Jacksonville program in only three seasons.
“I was out on the tennis courts at Jacksonville High School when (Whitfield) and his son pulled up,” Gulledge recalled. “He called me over to him and said he’d been sent to come get me and take me back to Kinston.”
The rest is history. Gulledge coached the Vikings to titles in 2008, 2010 and 2012 before taking two years off and returning to Parrott last season.
May 6, 2015 at 3:34pm
By Bryan C. Hanks / EditorPublished: KINSTON FREE PRESS
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 20:36 PM.
PART ONE
Arendell Parrott Academy won the Eastern Plains Independent Conference baseball championship last week with a remarkable, come-from-behind 4-3 victory against perennial powerhouse Harrells Christian Academy in Kinston.
It was quite an accomplishment for a squad that hadn’t won a league title in recent memory. But what made the championship that much more special was the man who led the Patriots to the championship — 78-year-old George Whitfield.
The word “legend” is thrown around a lot these days. But it doesn’t matter what your definition of the word is, Whitfield qualifies for the moniker on every level. He is currently in nearly a dozen halls of fame throughout the country, including the Kinston/Lenoir County Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the national American Legion baseball Hall of fame.
KINSTON
It’s remarkable Whitfield even made it out of his teens, though. His mother died when he was a toddler and his father passed away when he was 12. Not long after his dad’s death, while on the steps of the gym that would be later named for Frank Mock on the campus of Grainger High School, Whitfield met another Kinston coaching legend, Amos Sexton, who opened up his home and family to the youngster.
It was the perfect situation for Whitfield, who eventually became a spectacular three-sport athlete for the Red Devils in the early to mid 1950s. He learned how to be a championship coach at the feet of Sexton and Mock, two of the best coaches in any sport in Kinston history.
Among the hundreds of fans celebrating after last week’s EPIC championship at APA were six men — Billy McLawhorn, Ricky McLawhorn, Joe Franklin, Jim Bahen, Wells Gulledge and Rasberry — from three distinctly different generations. All six have been positively impacted by the legend, George Whitfield.
GOLDSBORO
Franklin, Bahen and Ricky McLawhorn were part of Whitfield’s first team in 1959 at Goldsboro Junior High School. Whitfield, then just a 23-year-old who was the school’s head baseball and football coach, had left Kinston to become a student-athlete at Lees-McRae Junior College and later graduated from East Carolina College (now ECU).
But in 1959, Whitfield was just another young coach trying to make his mark in the world. That first team was the first of many who won — and won big. The team won all but one game and won the Wayne County junior high championship in the last year of the 1950s.
“I remember those boys back when they were studs,” Whitfield said of the quartet of men who were among several others who came to see APA’s conference championship game last week. “They’re all older now — some in their 60s, early 70s and some even crippled — but they came back to see me coach again. Can’t begin to tell you what that means to me.”
Whitfield’s “boys” — an earned term of affection the coach bestows on those young men who have given their all for him on a baseball diamond or football field — were proud to be on hand to witness last week’s championship.
Whitfield’s passion was fierily evident with that 1959 squad.
“He was a ‘rah-rah’ coach, for certain,” Bahen, now 71-years-old and a Wilmington resident, said. “We loved playing for him. We were a bunch of old country boys who loved to play for Coach Whitfield.”
Franklin agreed with Bahen’s assessment.
“Only six or so games into that (1959) season, we knew he was a winner,” Franklin, now 69, said. “We focused on winning for him, because he hated losing. If you lost, you were going to run wind sprints until it got dark outside.”
It was a unique situation for the core of that squad as Whitfield followed them from junior high to Goldsboro High School, where their only loss as seniors was in the Eastern 4A championship game to eventual state champ Rocky Mount in 1963.
Billy and Ricky McLawhorn are brothers who both played for Whitfield at Goldsboro junior and high schools; Ricky played football for Whitfield while Billy played baseball and basketball.
Both said they were excited to support Whitfield at last week’s game.
“We respect him as a person and a ball coach,” Billy McLawhorn, 68, said. “He’s the best.”
Ricky McLawhorn, 70, said, “We’ve talked about coming to support him because we still care a lot about him.”
ROCKINGHAM
After winning state championships at Goldsboro High School, Whitfield was wooed to Rockingham in the south central portion of North Carolina to take on a bigger challenge at Richmond County High School.
It’s easy to say he lived up to the challenge after he won multiple state titles at RCHS and with Hamlet’s American Legion baseball team.
Before becoming one of the most recognizable prep coaching names in North Carolina while leading Kinston High School to three state basketball championships in a heralded 11-year career from 2001-2012, Wells Gulledge was a star basketball guard at RCHS in the early 1990s. His family lived in the same neighborhood as Whitfield — along with other RCHS legendary coaches Hal Stewart and Charlie Bishop.
Growing up, Gulledge spent huge chunks of his summers at Whitfield’s house — one of only two in the neighborhood that had a swimming pool.
Whitfield’s reputation and championship resume was well-established before Gulledge played his first basketball game for the Raiders or stepped foot on the RCHS campus.
“Coach Whitfield was like a rock star in Richmond County,” Gulledge said.
Growing up down the street from Whitfield in Rockingham, Gulledge admits he has sought counsel with the legendary coach at every one of his coaching stops — from being a graduate assistant at Mount Olive College to becoming the youngest 4A coach in the state at Jacksonville High School to coming to Kinston, retiring from the Vikings and then returning to the sideline at Parrott.
Whitfield was also one of the main catalysts for Gulledge coming to Kinston High School in 2002. George Stackhouse was a successful coach who had led the Vikings to the 2001 3A state championship game, but he joined the college coaching ranks after the 2001-02 school year began.
The powers-that-be at KHS were interested in a young up-and-comer Gulledge, who had turned around a moribund Jacksonville program in only three seasons.
“I was out on the tennis courts at Jacksonville High School when (Whitfield) and his son pulled up,” Gulledge recalled. “He called me over to him and said he’d been sent to come get me and take me back to Kinston.”
The rest is history. Gulledge coached the Vikings to titles in 2008, 2010 and 2012 before taking two years off and returning to Parrott last season.
