WILSONTIMES.COM NEWS  •  SPORTS  •  LIFE  •  OPINION  •  OBITUARIES  •  PHOTOS  •  VIDEOS  •  CONTACT  •  CLASSIFIEDS  •  SPECIAL SECTIONS

Monday, May 25, 2009

Inaugural Coach D Classic a hit

A new tradition was started at Fike on Thursday evening in the form of the Coach D Classic, an exhibition basketball tournament honoring outgoing Fike boys basketball coach George Drawhorn.

Drawhorn is retiring in a few weeks after 19 years as the Golden Demons head coach, the longest tenure of any of the school's boys basketball coaches. For that matter, 19 years is probably the longest anyone has been the coach of one sport at any Wilson County high school since the 1978-79 merger. So this is a great way to honor an outstanding coach and teacher who has impacted so many lives here in Wilson.

The proceeds of the Coach D Classic, I am told by Charles Howard, will go towards establishing a scholarship fund in Coach Drawhorn's name. The event was dreamed up by Christopher Barnes, a marketing teacher at Fike. The tournament was a round-robin with teams from Wilson's three high schools participating and the crowd support, Charles said, was "fantastic."

Fike beat Hunt in the first game but the Warriors took out their frustrations on Beddingfield in the second game. Finally, the Bruins got revenge by defeating Fike in the final game. Beddingfield was awarded the championship by virtue of the highest point total and assistant principal Marquis Spell was named Classic MVP.

But wasn't Spell a former multi-sport star at Hunt, leading the 1989 Warriors to the state 4-A baseball championship series (which they almost won)? And Howard was a star on the '84 Fike state championship basketball team? Hmmmm....

Anyway, here's a shot of the victorious team and congratulations to the Bruins for winning not only the inaugural Coach D Classic but also claiming the unofficial old school Wilson County championship!

Front row: Maitland Barnes, Jeremy Howard and Tyrone Johnson. Back row: John Walston, Glenn Reaves, Marquis Spell, Phillip Johnson and Charles Howard

No comments:

Post a Comment