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Pruett to coach KM American Legion team
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Tommy Pruett, longtime suc-
cessful coach in North and
South Carolina, has been
named head coach of the Kings
Mountain American Legion
baseball team for the 2001 sea-
son.
The announcement was made
today by former coach Tony
[L.eigh, who has assumed the
manager and athletic director’s
duties for Post 155.
Pruett, who lives at Moss
[Lake, is in his second year as
head baseball coach, assistant
football coach and assistant ath-
letic director at Blacksburg
High School. Last spring, the
Wildcats, who had gone 1-17
the year before, finished 12-9
overall and won the Region 2A
Conference championship in
Pruett’s first season as coach.
Pruett, whose Wildcats will
scrimmage Kings Mountain
High February 21 at Lancaster
Field, began his high school
teaching and coaching career at
Kings Mountain in 1970. He
spent three years here as head
JV football coach, assistant var-
sity coach, freshman basketball
coach and middle school head
baseball coach. His middle
school baseball team compiled a
three-year mark of 32-1, losing
its last game of the third season.
He later spent 24 years as
head baseball and girls basket-
ball coach at Burns High
School, accumulating 275 wins
in baseball and 375 wins in bas-
ketball. He also served as an as-
sistant football coach with the
Bulldogs.
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Kings Mountain’s Courtney Smith (30) plants for an outside
jump shot in victory over North Gaston.
The Kings Mountain Herald
He completed his 30-year
teaching and coaching career in
North Carolina as head football
coach at East Gaston High.
He served 10 years as
American Legion baseball
coach in Shelby, but he hasn't
been active in legion coaching
since the mid-1980s.
“I'm excited about getting
back into it,” he said. “I think
it’s going to be a challenge.
Legion baseball in that area is
extremely strong and very com-
petitive. I'm just looking for-
ward to the challenge and hope
we can get out there and play
well and do a good job.”
Post 155 will draw most of its
players from Kings Mountain,
but also hopes to pull a few
from Bessemer City and
Blacksburg.
Pruett hopes to be able to
bring at least three pitchers
from his Blacksburg team, in-
cluding his son, Ryan, who
posted an 8-2 record in 55 in-
nings of work iast spring. He
struck out 106 batters and post-
ed a 1.31 earned run average.
He was also a first team All-
State running back in football
and is being recruited by a
number of colleges.
Pruett’s older son, Rodney,
who recently graduated
Western Carolina and plans to
- go into the coaching profession,
will probably serve as his assis-
tant coach.
Leigh and Pruett have
- coached together in the past
and led a Kings Mountain Babe
Ruth team to the state champi-
onship and a berth in the
Southeast Regionals in
Clearwater, FL in 1973.
February 1, 2001 Section A, Page 6
“We're fortunate to have
Tommy,” Coach Leigh said. “He
has a tremendous knowledge of
the game and a lot of experi-
ence.”
It will probably be near the
end of the high school season
before Pruett and Leigh get the
Legion program cranked up,
but Pruett said he will have a
couple of opportunities to take
a look at the KM players in ac--
tion.
“Of course, we scrimmage
them in February and we'll also
be playing Kings Mountain in
the Shelby Easter Tournament,”
he noted. “In talking with Tony,
I know we're going to be pretty
young.”
Pruett said Legion ball is al-
ways a challenge, especially for
a small town like Kings
Mountain which basically
Mounties sweep North
Kings Mountain High's varsi-
ty basketball teams swept
North Gaston in Southwestern
3A Conference action Friday
night at the KMHS gym.
The Lady Mountaineers
maintained their strong hold on
second place with a 52-35 win,
running their record to 7-2 in
the conference and 14-4 overall.
Kings Mountain is two games
behind unbeaten Forestview in
the race for the regular season
championship, but two games
ahead of the rest of the competi-
tion in the battle for the SWC'’s
#2 playoff berth.
The Mountaineers kept their
slim playoff chances alive in the
nightcap, defeating the last
place Wildcats 89-78 behind a
career-high 31-point effort from
6-5 senior center Qwenshon
Goode. The Mountaineers are
now 4-5 in the conference and
one game out of fourth place.
Only the top four teams qualify
for the playoffs.
With three regular season
games remaining, the
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Mountaineers need to win at
least two games to have a
strong shot at the playoffs.
Otherwise, they would proba-
bly have to win the upcoming
SWC tournament to make the
state field.
Kings Mountain hosts South
Point Friday night in its final
home game, then closes out the
regular season with games at R-
S Central on February 6 and
Burns on February 9.
The Lady Mountaineers con-
tinued their recent habit of
starting slow and finishing fast
to defeat the last-place Lady
Wildcats. North Gaston led 10-8
after the first quarter and 16-15
at halftime but the Lady
Mountaineers held the visitors
to just two points in the third
period to take a commanding
29-18 lead.
North Gaston forced the
Lady Mountaineers to win the
game at the foul line. North
Gaston committed 28 fouls and
four of their players fouled out.
They played the final minute of
the game with just four players.
Kings Mountain hit 20 of 36
free throws to just four of 11 by
the Wildcats.
Cherlyn Cole led the
Mountaineer scoring with 14
points, including 6-of-11 from
the charity stripe. Shonda Cole
added 13 points and Anna
Ramey scored 12, including a
perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line.
Jessica Cabe and Johnika
Garden scored eight points each
for North Gaston.
“We are continuing to have
slow starts,” noted KM Coach
Kevin Moss. “It’s good that we
respond and play much better ’
in the second half, but in the
four loses that we have we have
started slow and could not
catch up. We need to do a better
job starting games.”
In the boys game, the
Mountaineers built a big lead,
saw it evaporate, and’then fin:
ished strong to post their sev-
enth win against 13 losses.
KM led 21-18 after the first
quarter, 45-38 at intermission
draws from one high school.
Many of the other teams draw
from many different high
‘schools.
“It’s going to be tough,” he
said. “Shelby draws from
Shelby, Crest and Burns;
Cherryville draws from all
around, including Cherryville,
Bessemer City, West Lincoln
and Burns; Rutherford County
draws from Chase, East
Rutherford and R-S Central.
We're just going to go out and
do our best and try to put the
best nine we've got on the field
and just hustle and play hard. If
we can get good pitching and
play good defense we can keep
the games very close and com-
petitive.”
Area IV preseason meetings
are scheduled to begin soon.
Gaston
and 66-63 going into the fourth
quarter.
The lead was still only three
points (75-72) with 2 1/2 min-
utes to play, but the
Mountaineers went on an 11-0
scoring run that put the victory
on ice.
Jamal Byers scored 16 points,
and Tyler Adams and Brandon
Roberts 10 each to give the
Mountaineers four players in
double figures, the most bal-
anced scoring in any game thus
far.
BOYS GAME
KM (89) - McClain 6, Goode 31,
Byers 16, T. Adams 10, Gash 5,
Roberts 10, Gingles 1, Hardin 4,
Smith 2, Houze 2, K. Adams 2.
NG (78) - Howell 20, Beard 22,
Conner 2, McLean 21, Mays 3,
Bolick 8, Ratchford 2.
GIRLS GAME
KM (52) = Ramey 12, Bennett 5,
C. Cole 14; E. Moore 5,S. Cole 13,
Gill 1, Dee 2.
NG (35) - Cabe 8, J. Garden 8,
Esiet 6, Boggs 2, Sanders 5, S.
Garden 3, Sexton 3.
KM girls beat East
Kings Mountain's girls
bounced back from their disap-
pointing loss to Forestview
Monday with an impressive 63-
42 win over East Rutherford
Wednesday night at the KMHS
gym.
Kings Mountain’s boys con-
tinued their slide in the night-
cap, losing 81-47 to the
Southwestern 3A Conference-
leading Cavaliers.
The Lady Mountaineers came
out smoking and never let up in
recording their sixth conference
win against only two defeats -
both to the defending SWC
champion Forestview five.
“The team really responded
well after the disappointing loss
to Forestview,” said second-
year head coach Kevin Moss.
“We need to continue to keep
improving and playing hard in
order to keep second place in
hand. Now that we have started
the second go around in the
conference, the teams we beat
he oe
pt
8:30am.
with us.
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Come Join Survivor Month
Starting February 11th through March 4th
we will be focusing on the theme
“How to Survive”. &
Come and listen to messages on:
eHow to Survive Conflict (Feb. 11th)
e How to Survive Finances (Feb. 18th)
eHow to Survive Marriage (Feb. 25th)
eHow to Survive Parenting (March 4th)
The month of “How to Survive” will take
place during the Celebration Service at East
Gold St. Wesleyan Church.
The Celebration Service takes place in the
fellowship hall of the church each Sunday at
This is a contemporary service with a praise
band, multimedia and friendly atmosphere,
casual dress and a love for Jesus. |
Everyone's invited to come and worship
the first time will be looking for
revenge. We can't afford to let
down at any point.”
Letdown wasn’t an option
Wednesday. Led by the strong
inside-outside leadership of
Shonda Cole and Anna Ramey,
the Lady Mountaineers rolled
to a 17-9 first quarter lead and a
33-23 halftime advantage. KM
increased the margin to 48-32
going into the fourth quarter.
Cole led the scoring with 20
points, including 12 of the
Mountaineers’ 18 third quarter
points. Ramey contributed 14,
which included a pair of long-
range 3-point field goals.
Teyaunki Hardy led the
Cavaliers with 19 points, with
most of them coming from the
outside. She hit three 3-point
field goals and scored 13 of the
Cavaliers’ 19 points in the sec-
ond half. The other six were
scored by Jessica Hamilton,
who finished with eight points.
East Rutherford’s Logan scor-
ing machine continued its as-
sault on SWC opponents in the
nightcap. Guards Brad and
Dontay Logan combined for 47
points, with Brad scoring 25
and Dontay 22.
East Rutherford led 19-15 af-
- ter the first eight minutes, then
began breaking the game open
with a 17-8 run in the second
quarter, giving East a 36-23 half-
time lead. East outscored the
Mounties 28-10 in the third
quarter to take a 62-33 lead into
the fourth period.
The victory left the Cavaliers
undefeated in the SWC with an
8-0 mark.
GIRLS GAME
KM (63) - Ramey 14, Bennett 7,
C. Cole 8, E. Moore 2, S. Cole 20, -
Gill 4, Miller 4, S. Moore 2, Leigh 2.
ER (42) - Hardy 19, Hamilton 8,
Watkins 8, Sparrow 2, Curtis 2.
BOYS GAME
KM (47) - Goode 19, Gash 9,
Byers 7, McClain 6, T. Adams 2,
Smith 2, Houze 2.
ER (81) - B. Logan 25, D. Logan
22, Stroud 10, Barnette 10, Watkins
6, Phillips 4, Petty 2, Turner 2.
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