NCHSAA HALL OF FAME: Class of 2019 includes former Freedom coach Terry Rogers

HobbsDailyReport.com

CHAPEL HILL – Terry Rogers, the former head boys’ basketball coach at Freedom High who guided the Patriots to 505 wins, is headed into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) Hall of Fame.

Rogers, who also had 98 coaching wins at Oak Hill High before starting his tenure as head coach at Freedom in 1993, is part of a six-person Class of 2019 for the HOF.

Terry Rogers, whose high schools basketball teams in Burke County won more than 600 games — the majority of them at Freedom — is in the Class of 2019 for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) Hall of Fame./BURKE COUNTY HALL OF FAME PHOTO

The NCHSAA announced the new class, picked by a select committee, in a press release on Wednesday.

Joining Rogers for induction will be Delano (Cobby) Deans of Ayden, Stacey Lail Jr. of Rutherfordton, Roland (Dixon) Sauls of Farmville, W.A. Wall of Reidsville and Gerald Whisenhunt of Goldsboro.

Rogers was also athletic director at Freedom for many years. He coached the Patriots to 18 league titles, 13 conference tournament titles and state 4A championships in 1994 and 1998. He retired after Freedom went 30-1 and won the state title in 1997-98 by beating Pine Forest 74-59, leaving with 603 career victories (603-194).

He also coached college basketball as associate head coach at Western Carolina and as head coach at Mars Hill and was head coach of the World Youth Games U.S. team that played in Moscow, Russia (that team won a gold medal).

Rogers’ son, Casey, is currently in his 13th season as head coach at Freedom.

With the induction of Terry Rogers, both of the first varsity head basketball coaches at Freedom will be in the NCHSAA Hall of Fame – girls’ head coach Marsha Crump was last year’s class and will be inducted in March.

The class of 2019 will be formally introduced on Jan. 30 with a press conference at NCHSAA headquarters in Chapel Hill, with an 11 a.m. start. It will be streamlined live on the NCHSAA Facebook page.

The formal induction ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 10 at the Embassy Suits in Cary. Tickets are $50 per person and will go on sale in May.

Here is additional information about other members as the class, as provided by an NCHSAA press release.

Delano “Cobby” Deans

Deans was a highly successful boys’ and girls’ basketball coach in Pitt County at Bethel, North Pitt and Greenville Conley. He also coached at Farm Life High in Craven County for one year (1966-1967).

He began coaching the Bethel girls in 1967 and the Bethel boys two years later. His girls’ teams won four conference titles before Bethel was consolidated into North Pitt.

At North Pitt, Deans led the girls’ basketball team to an open classification state title in 1971-72. He gave up coaching girls after that season and had a 152-16 record – 96-3 at Bethel and 44-0 at North Pitt.

In 1989, Deans left North Pitt for Greenville, where he served as the head boys’ basketball coach and athletic trainer from 1989-1997.

Deans won a boys’ state basketball title at Conley (3A) and had a career record of 444-214 in boys’ basketball.

Stacy Lail, Jr.

Lail began his career as a teacher and girls’ basketball coach at New Hope Middle School in Rutherford County in 1973. Four years later, he began teaching and coaching at R-S Central and he coached there through 2003 while also coaching girls’ and boys’ cross country and baseball for the Hilltoppers.

Lail coached R-S Central’s boys to a record of 253-54 with six conference titles, four district titles, four regional titles and state titles in 1980 and 1986. His 1980 team went 32-0, and the R-S Central gym is named after him.

He left coaching in 1988 after his wife was involved in an auto accident but continued to teach at R-S Central until retiring in 2003.

Roland “Dixon” Sauls

Sauls made a name for himself coaching football in Pitt County, where he served as head coach at Ayden-Grifton and Farmville Central.

His teams at Ayden-Grifton went 48-27 from 1976-1984. He was head coach at Farmville Central from 1984-2010 with his teams going 198-92.

Sauls was also head track and field coach at Farmville Central from 1985-2004.

Nine Sauls-coached teams won conference titles in football, and his 2003 team won the East 1AA title and lost in the title game to Albemarle.

He also umpired high school and college baseball for 22 years, winning the East Carolina Umpire’s Association Bill Suggs Memorial Award as the group’s most outstanding official in 1988.

Woodrow “W.A.” Wall

Wall was a long-time girls’ basketball coach at Bethany and Rockingham County from 1959 to 1990 who also coached baseball, boys’ basketball, volleyball and softball during his career.

His Bethany girls’ basketball teams went 233-92 and his teams at Rockingham County went 310-100. His overall career coaching record is 543-192.

In baseball, Wall coached teams to six conference titles, going 160-60, and his softball teams won six league titles and went 188-70.

Gerald Whisenhunt

Whisenhunt began his coaching career at Goldsboro High in 1960, where he served as the school’s athletic director, and head coaches in football, wrestling, baseball, swimming and track and field.

Whisenhunt left Goldsboro in 1986 to coach and teach at Eastern Wayne.

His football record was 147-72-3, his wrestling teams were 142-34-1 with state titles in 1966 and 1974 and he was a head coach for the North Carolina Shrine Bowl football team and a head coach in the East-West and North-South football games.

Whisenhunt also served as president of the North Carolina High School Coaches Association.

 

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