Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / May 8, 2003, edition 1 / Page 6
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TI IT REE (Last in a four-part series on the 2003 inductees into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame. The induc- tion ceremony is Saturday, May 17 at 6 p.m. at the H. Lawrence Patrick Senior Life and Conference Center. Tickets are $10 each and available at McGinnis Department Store or from any member of the Hall of Fame). By GARY STEWART Editor of The Herald When Dale and Diane Hollifield’s children were -small, Mrs. Hollifield proba- bly considered trading her career in education for a black hat and limousine. For as long as anyone can remember the Hollifield boys - Aubrey, Ryan and Andy - have been involved in sports, just like their father before them. “Everything that was out there, we played it and our mother basically chauf- feured us around,” says Aubrey, the older of the three brothers. He will be inducted into his home- town’s Sports Hall of Fame The Kings Mountain Herald on May 17. Hollifield began playing baseball, football and basket- - ball in the local youth leagues and got involved in track in the seventh grade at Kings Mountain Junior High. As a high school athlete, he played football, basket- ball and track and excelled on the gridiron, where he - was an All-State linebacker, Area Player of the Year and ~ a Shrine Bowl participant his senior year of 1986. He went on to play foot- ball for four years at Wake Forest University under Coach Bill Dooley and is now an assistant football, basketball and track coach at A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis. Following in his mother’s steps as a school teacher never entered his mind until he graduated Wake Forest. He was living in Chapel Hill and doing graduate work at N.C. Central when he came home one weekend to watch the Mountaineers play in the Western Regionals Basketball Tournament in Hickory. Denny Hicks, Hollifield’s FREE Diabetic Socks With Fitting - 602 S. Lafayette Street * Shelby 482-8653 Mon.-Sat. 9-5:30 Hollifield going int high school football coach and the KMHS athletic director, was sitting in the stands and Hollifield sat down beside him. “I had always wanted to be an FBI agent,” Hollifield recalled. “But Coach Hicks ~ told me that Coach (Chuck) Gordon was going to Dorman and asked if I want- ed his job. I was tired of writing papers and doing school work, so I said ‘heck, yeah!” and he told me the steps to go through to get certified.” Hollifield did his student teaching at Winston-Salem Carver and actually took an interim job as a history teacher at KMHS for the lat- ter part of the 1992 school year. He was hired full-time beginning in the fall of 1993. He taught and coached at KMHS through the 1999- 2000 school year and then followed head football coach Ron Massey to Kannapolis. Hollifield started on both offense and defense for the Mountaineers from 1984-86 and in ‘86 helped the Mountaineers win their first Southwestern 3A Conference title in 22 years. The team knocked off the top-ranked team in the State, Brevard, 17-14 in the opening round of the State playoffs before losing to Brad Johnson and Owen High in the second round. Johnson was also largely responsible for the Warhorses eliminating Hollifield and the Mountaineers in the Western Regionals Basketball Tournament the following winter. “That's one of the big things I remember from my \ IFT [2 LS amd HANGING BASKETS 510-0 CREPE MYRTLE $3()-00 Sft.-61t. HOLLY 3540-0 LEGLAND CYPRESS 61.40" DOGWOOD PINK ¢ WHITE $] 5-00 AZALEAS AUTUMN BLAZE MAPLE 10 ft.-15 ft. WALL BLOCKS §]-80 GROUND KEEPER LANDSCAPING & NURSERY Landscaping & Lawncare 206 E. King Street, Kings Mountain Jason Butler 704-692-0858 Home 704-739-4192 high school career,” Hollifield said. “Now Johnson's the quarterback of the Super Bowl champions.” During the ‘85 season Hollifield was part of KM'’s first playoff team since 1964. The Mounties defeated a powerful Canton Pisgah team 14-13 in the first round when Calvin Stephens, who went on to make All- American at South Carolina and play in the NFL, blocked a late field goal attempt with less than three minutes to play. Hollifield, - who was always big and strong, was playing fullback and carried the ball right up the middle on the last six plays of the game to pre- serve the win. “I took some cheap shots,” he said with a laugh. The next week the Mountaineers stunned their arch rival and SWC champi- on Shelby 7-0 before being eliminated in the third round by Brevard, 3-0 in the rain at KM'’s John Gamble Stadium. The Mountaineers finished 11-3 overall and Hicks, whose club went 1-9 the year before, was named the NC Coach of the Year. Hollifield said Kings Mountain was blessed with a lot of great athletes during those two seasons. “The thing I remember most about playing football in Kings Mountain is that it was very competitive,” he said. “There were a lot of tal- ented athletes in my class. If you didn’t work hard in practice you'd lose your spot quickly. That's one of the main things that helped me. There was always someone there to push me. “The coaches might have 4% done a good job of fooling © us, but that’s how I per- ceived it. If you weren't on the top of your game some- one would take your spot.” Hollifield and his Mountaineer teammate, Rusty Bumgardner, signed with Wake Forest and had some good years there. Bumgardner started as a true freshman. Hollifield was red-shirted in ‘87 but started from 1988-91. His entire career at Wake, and now his entire coaching career, have been on the defensive side of the ball. BRIDGES HARDWARE. AND HOME CENTER 100 S. Cansler St. at East King St. Mon. - Fri. 8-8 « Sat. 8-6 704-739-5461 YOUR f KEN, Hardware Supplier in Kings Mountain Bring in this coupon | for ONE FREE KEY Per Visit » Sales Tax Not Included — — — — | Gee , KM Hall May 8, 2003 i Fame Former Wake Forest University football player Aubrey Hollifield will be inducted into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame on May 17. Hollifield was a “rush end” and defensive lineman for the Deacons. He coached the defensive line at KMHS from 1993-99 and at A.L. Brown from 2000-2001. He is currently coaching lineback- ers. About the only major adjustment Hollifield had to make at Wake was getting away from a smash-mouth brand of football. With Steve Spurrier at Duke, ACC teams were going more to a passing game, but Hollifield knew that “first down was still going to be a run down” and he developed quite a reputation for stopping run- ners dead in their tracks and forcing subsequent plays longer. Hollifield said Wake. Forest was the ideal place for him to go to college. “ “It was small enough that you wouldn't get lost, but big enough that you were playing ACC football,” he said. “It was probably the best move I ever made. “Coach Dooley was a lot like Coach Hicks, so there wasn’t a whole lot of adjust- ment for me.” Hollifield still commutes every day from his home in Kings Mountain to Kannapolis, and hasnt tired of it. Massey, who is the 1-800-rent-a-car Warriors” AD in addition to his head football duties, has arranged Hollifield’s prac- tice schedules 's6'he only has to stay late 'on'game mights{()* “Except for game nights, I'm usually at home by 5:30, which is about the same time I got home when I was coaching at Kings Mountain,” he said. A head coaching job may be in Hollifield’s future, but he said he is content now as an assistant. He wants to spend as much time as he can with his wife Jenny and their three small children - Dax, Isabelle and Jack. “I know I'd like to be a head basketball coach, but if * a football job came along and things were right I may consider it,” he said. “A head football coach has a lot of people to deal with. I like dealing with a close-knit group of guys. Being notified that he had been selected to the Sports Hall of Fame hadn't entered his young mind and was a shock, he said. “I've been to about every one of the banquets,” he noted. “I love to go and watch and listen to people talk about what they've done. I didn't feel like I was quite up to the standards of those people yet.” Great Weekend Specials Starting @ $9.99 per Day : Specializing In All Your Rental Needs! Free Pick-Up / Drop-Off Service Insurance Replacement (Direct Billing) Corporate Programs 1508-2 E. Dixon Boulevard Shelby, NC 28152 704-484-8655 110 Vandiver Drive Lincolnton, NC 28032 704-732-9393
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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May 8, 2003, edition 1
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