By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
Tom Watson, left, was honored Tuesday by Southern District 7 Athletic 2A officials for his years of service to the league as executive secretary. At right is Brandon Harbinson, athletic director at Bandys, and this year’s president of the conference.
MAIDEN – The Southern District 7 Athletic 2A honored its retiring executive secretary on Tuesday.
At a conference meeting at Brookwood Café and Catering in Maiden, Tom Watson was presented a plaque recognizing his work for the SD-7 2A.
The conference’s four-year run has ended, as statewide realignment reshuffled the schools, moving six of the eight teams into the South Fork 2A. The other two, Bunker Hill and West Caldwell, will move into the Northwestern Foothills 2A and Northwestern 3A-4A, respectively.
Executive secretaries for high school conferences address a wide range of needs, from reporting league information to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) to formulating all of a conference’s sports schedules to running the point on drafting a conference’s bylaws.
Watson — a former high school teacher, coach and administrator for 29 years who was inducted into the Catawba County Sports Hall of Fame earlier this month — is retiring after more than 30 years of serving as a conference executive secretary.
He helped launch the Catawba Valley Classic prep basketball tournament in 1988 and was tournament director through 2004. He’s was also a board member, vice president and chairman of program sales for the now-defunct Greater Hickory Classic.
Watson has also served on the Catawba County Sports Hall of Fame for 10 years (two as chairman).