The four former Mountaineers pictured will be
inducted into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall
| of Fame at its 28th annual ceremony Saturday,
|| May 9 at Central United Methodist Church.
| Clockwise from upper left are Dale Hollifield
| while he was playing football at Western
|| Carolina in the early 1960s; Morgan Childers
| Caddell pitching for USC Upstate; Tony Leigh
|
5
|
| | when he was coaching baseball at KMHS in
| the late 1990s and early 2000s; and Priscilla
| Rickenbacker, former basketball and softball
Childers,
Hollifield going into Hall of Fame
Four athletes who stood
out on the high school and
collegiate level will be
inducted into the Kings
Mountain Sports Hall of
Fame at its 28th annual cer-
emony Saturday, May 9 at
Central United Methodist
Church.
They are Morgan
Childers Caddell, whose
pitching talent in softball
spanned the high school,
collegiate and professional
levels; the late Tony Leigh,
a baseball and fast pitch
softball standout and a suc-
cessful high school coach;
Priscilla Rickenbacker a
two-sport high school and
collegiate athlete; and Dale
Hollifield, who has been
a part of Kings Mountain
High athletics since 1957.
Caddell, now pitching
coach at Wingate Univer-
sity, holds all of the pitching
records at KMHS and the
University of South Caroli-
na-Upstate.
As a Mountaineer, she
pitched the softball team to
back-to-back state champi-
onships in 2005 and 2006.
The KM ladies finished
third in the state during her
senior season of 2007 and
made it to the Western Re-
gional championship game
during her freshman year of
2004.
Her season and career re-
cords may never be equaled
at KMHS. They include a
four-year pitching record of
91-8, a career ERA of 0.44
(a 0.04 her senior year in
which she gave up only one
run), four-time all-confer-
ence player, and two-time
State MVP. In the 2006
state championship (her ju-
nior year), she pitched all
35 innings of a three-game
series, winning all three
games by 1-0.
At Upstate, her pitching
records include 113 career
wins, 1,338 career strike-
outs, 106 complete games,
and 42 shutouts. She was
Atlantic Sun Pitcher of the
Year in 2008 and All-At-
lantic Sun three years. Her
jersey was retired during her
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
The Kings Mountain Herald | www.kmherald.com
eigh, Rickenbacker,
senior year, making her the
only athlete in school his-
tory to have a jersey retired
while she was still playing.
She played professional
softball with the Akron
Racers in 2012 before going
into the high school and col-
legiate coaching ranks.
Tony Leigh was an
All-Conference outfielder
See KMHS HOF, Page 11
Fourth quarter comeback
lifts KM over North Forsyth
Kings Mountain’s Moun-
taineers broke their silence in
the fourth quarter and came
from 16 points down to de-
feat North Forsyth 70-66 in
the first round of the state 3A
playoffs Saturday in Win-
ston-Salem.
Kings Mountain trailed by
13 points at halftime and 16
after three periods and seemed
destined to end their season.
But the Mountaineers went
to a full-court press at the be-
ginning of the fourth quarter
and turned numerous steals
and North Forsyth turnovers
into baskets.
“We began picking up the
tempo and speeding up the
game,” noted Mountaineer
coach Grayson Pierce. “It was
now or never and we didn’t
want to leave anything out on
the court.”
Sophomore Kavin Mosley
set the tone for the upset.
“We started him at point
guard because we figured he
could speed us up a little bit
more,” noted Pierce. “That
enabled Nelson McClain to go
to the wing and get his shot.”
McClain finished with
18 points and Mosley 16 to
lead the Mountaineer attack.
Demetrius Hill added 11,
Jacob Skidmore 10 and Josh
Helton 8.
The Mountaineers took the
lead with two minutes remain-
ing and never relinquished it.
“Everybody was pretty si-
lent until the fourth quarter,”
Pierce noted. “Both of our
6-7 men (Skidmore and Hel-
ton) were in foul trouble and -
ended up fouling out. We hit
some big free throws down
the stretch to seal it.”
Kings Mountain improved
to 16-9 heading into a second
round game at Waxhaw Cuth-
bertson Monday night.
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Mountaineers (hopefully)
to host Huskies, Bulldogs
Weather permitting,
Kings Mountain’s Moun-
taineers hope to get their
baseball season under way
this week.
All of their scheduled
scrimmages last week
were cancelled due to the
weather. They were sched-
uled to open their season
Tuesday night with a South
Mountain Athletic Confer-
ence game at East Ruther-
ford.
The schedule for the re-
mainder of the week has
the Mountaineers playing
at home tonight against the
Hunter Huss Huskies and
Friday against SMAC rival
Burns. Next Tuesday, they
travel to Shelby.
Barry Gibson, former
Mountaineer player and
head coach of the 1980
Western NC championship
team, will throw out the first
pitch against Hunter Huss;
and Stuart Spires, a pitcher
on the state championship
1989 team, will throw out
the first pitch at Friday’s
game against Burns.
With bad weather in
the forecast for last night,
Mountaineer Coach Matt
Bridges noted that if the
KM-East game is postponed
it would probably be made
up Wednesday and the Huss
game moved to Saturday.
The Mountaineers
showed some promise in the
few days of practice they’ve
had, and they’re ready to see
how they do against some-
one other than themselves.
Bridges basically has a
young team and a lot of un-
tested sophomores and ju-
niors could play a big role.
The veteran coach has 12
See BASEBALL, Page 10
Third baseman Miranda Ellis fields a hot grounder during
softhall game last year. The talented junior will probably
move to first base this season
Lady Mountaineers
host Burns on Friday
Kings Mountain High’s
girls softball team finally
got in some scrimmage time
Friday and Saturday and
have a full week of regular
season games this week.
The Lady Mountain-
eers were scheduled to go
to defending state champ
East Rutherford for their
first SMAC game Tuesday.
They go to Fred T. Foard
today for a non-conference
game, host Burns Friday at
6 p.m., and travel to South
Point for a non-conference
game Saturday.
Despite the. slow start of
practice because of inclem-
ent weather, Mountaineer
coach Craig’ Short said his
ladies got in some qual-
ity scrimmage time. They
faced Bessemer City Friday
afternoon and Butler, South
Point and North Gaston Sat-
urday, all at Lancaster Field
#3.
“I thought we played
really well, especially on
defense,” Short said. “We
communicated very well on
the field.
“Just like in football, it
See SOFTBALL, Page 10