Despite loss,
Panthers
were super
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Just two years ago the Carolina Panthers
were 1-15 and the Charlotte Hornets, disap-
pointed that the Queen City voters did not
approve bonds for a new coliseum, were
looking to move.
One of the favorite sayings around these
parts were “Go Hornets, and take the
Panthers with you.”
But now Kings Mountain and North
Carolina football fans are going crazy over
the Panthers.
And their 3-point loss to the New
England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl in
Houston, TX, which came in the final sec-
onds, did nothing to curb the excitement
that has been generated by second-year
head coach John Fox and his talented ath-
letes.
While most folks were watching the
game in their living room, several Kings
Mountain people went to Houston for the
big game.
Among them were Jim and Wanda White
and Timmy and Vickie Spangler. They flew
out on Wednesday before the game and
returned home Monday.
White, a lifelong sports fan and former
youth sports coach, owns W&B Trucking in
Kings Mountain. Mrs. Spangler is also
employed at the business.
Jim and Wanda White have owned PSLs
and season tickets since the Panthers’
inception. Several years ago they also
acquired seats in owner Jerry Richardson's
Suite 87, thus they had two opportunities
for Super Bowl tickets. All suite seat own-
ers had the opportunity to buy two tickets.
All other PSL owners were placed in a lot-
tery with one chance in 18 to get a shot at
two tickets. The Whites’ names were picked
in the random draw so they ended up with
four tickets.
The trip and the game were unbelievable,
said Jim White, who was attending his first
Super Bowl.
“The atmosphere was great,” he said.
“The people were nice. They treated us like
we were kings out there.”
The Kings Mountain couples were among
over 200,000 people that took part in pre-
game hoopla. They also used the trip to
tour many interesting places around
Houston, including the NASA Space
Center.
“We truly enjoyed it,” White said. “It was
a once in a lifetime deal.”
As for the game, White knew all along
that it would be a nail-biter. In fact, before
the game began he told his wife and some
Patriot fans that were seated nearby that
the game would be decided by a field goal.
“I told them to mark it down,” White said
of his prediction. “It would be won by a
field goal. If I'd been a gambler I'd be a rich
man today because the Patriots were
favored by seven.”
White hasn't missed a game since the
Panthers came to Charlotte, even during
the misery of that 1-15 season.
“It’s like we told them out there in
Houston, we never let them down,” he
said. “We went through the bad times and
now we're going through the good times.
(Two years ago) it was very disgusting.
Sometimes you could count the people ver-
sus the seats. It was slim pickings.”
But White is confident that type of season
won't re-occur anytime soon. He fully
expects the Panthers to continue to be a
force in the NFL.
“I don’t think they will lose many play-
ers, although I do think John Kasay will
retire. I don’t know how the man walks,
much less kicks a football. He's got all
kinds of pins in his knee.
“Other than that I don’t think you'll see
that much change. They'll be very competi-
tive next year. Jake Delhomme is just going
to get better and better. That young kid was
wild!” :
The Kings Mountain Herald
GARY STEWART / HERALD
Ta Tae Roebuck, right, makes a strong move from the wing for Kings Mountain’ 's
Mountaineers. Below, Candace Springs drives the lane.
KM stays unbeaten
with win over R-
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald '
Kings Mountain fell behind 6-0 but came
storming back to defeat third place R-S
Central 94-55 in Southwestern Foothills
Conference basketball action Tuesday night
at Donald L. Parker Gymnasium.
The victory was the eighth straight in the
conference for the Mountaineers, who hold a
one-game lead over Crest going into the
final week of the season. The Mountaineers
host St. Stephens in their final regular sea-
son home game Friday and end the regular
season next week with games at Hickory on
Tuesday and Crest on Thursday.
Kings Mountain's pressure cooker defense
in the third quarter forced the Hilltoppers
into numerous turnovers and resulted in a
33-point KM outburst that turned a close
game into a rout.
The Mountaineers had rebounded from
their early deficit to grab an 18-16 first quar-
ter lead and a 36-28 halftime advantage. The
lead stretched to 69-48 going into the fourth
quarter. Coach Danny McDowell then took
his first team out of the game and the sec-
ond unit played the entire fourth quarter,
outscoring R-S 25-7.
“I was thrilled that my second unit played
so well,” McDowell said. “It was just unbe-
lievable the way those guys played. To me
that was the most pleasing aspect of the
game. Those guys come to practice every
day and go hard against that first team. I
think it meant more to the first team than it
did to the second team, because those guys
(first unit) were over there on the bench just
cheering them on.”
All ten of McDowell's players scored.
Gabe Blair led the way with 18 points, 14
rebounds, five steals an three blocks. Derrick
Smith had 15 points and seven assists,
Dashwn Young 13 points and five assists, Ta
Tae Roebuck 11 points and seven rebounds,
See R-S, 7A
in WN
jv | ge i a /
February 5, 2004
Mounties top
Bulldogs in
makeup game
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain High basketball coach
Danny McDowell didn’t know how sharp
his team would be Monday night at Burns
after a week's layoff because of bad weath-
er.
The Mountaineers started slowly but
came on strong to defeat the Bulldogs 67-43
for their eighth straight Southwestern
Foothills Conference win. The game had
been postponed from last Tuesday because
of ice.
Burns, which had played a game
Saturday night against R-S Central, jumped
out to a quick 7-0 lead before Kings
Mountain got untracked and built a 15-11
first quarter lead. They increased the mar-
gin to 33-24 at halftime and went on a 20-6
scoring run in the third quarter to break the
game open.
“This was a big win for us,” said
McDowell, whose team maintained a one-
game lead over Crest in the race for the reg-
ular season championship. Those two
teams had their scheduled game Friday
postponed, and now they will play each
other in the Mountaineers’ last regular sea-
son game on Thursday, Feb. 12 at Crest.
“We didn’t know how we were going to
play after being off a week,” McDowell
said. “We got off to another slow start but
the kids sucked it up again.”
The Mountaineers had a poor shooting
night from 3-point range, hitting only 18
percent. But they hit 42 percent from the 2-
point range and 80 percent from the foul
line.
The big story, as usual, was defense.
Kings Mountain's full-court press forced
Burns into 28 turnovers and the
Mountaineers held the Bulldogs’ top three
scorers - John Izokovic, Antonnio Goolsby
and Josh Briscoe- to a combined total of 13
points.
“The defense really played well from the
second quarter on,” McDowell said. “I did-
n't realize it until T looked at the boxscore
that we.held@feir top three plafers to'only
13 points..I really proud of Dashawn
(Young), Derrick (Smith) and Gabe (Blair)
for their defensive play. They did an out-
standing job.”
Smith led the Mountaineers in scoring
with 16 points. David McClish had his best
overall game of the year with 12 points, five
rebounds and two blocked shots, and Blair
had his usual strong overall effort with 11
points and 11 rebounds.
“A double-double is becoming routine for
Blair,” McDowell said. “But I was also
proud of the other big men. Their interior
passes were tremendous. It’s just nice to
have that nice inside passing game from
those big kids.”
McDowell played all ten of his players,
and eight of them took part in the scoring.
“We talked beforehand that our offensive
game might not be there because of the lay-
off, but that we could always play good
defense,” McDowell said. “We knew those
Burns kids could shoot the ball and the kids
took it on themselves to play good at the
defensive end. To hold their three top scor-
ers to 13 points was exceptional.”
MW Kings Mountain's girls dropped their
eighth straight conference game in the
opener, 54-37. Burns jumped out to a 13-8
first quarter lead and led by 33-14 at half-
time and 42-24 going into the fourth quar-
ter
India Lewis led Burns with 20 points and
Candace Springs had 13 for KM.
GIRLS GAME
KM (37) - Petty 6, Jarvis 2, Welsh 6, Springs 13,
Butler 8, Vinson 2.
Burns (54) - Lewis 20, Sanders 6, McKissick 5,
Thompson 5, Hemphill 12, Crosby 3, Hector 13.
JG
BOYS GAME
KM (67) - Smith 16, McClish 12, Blair 11, Young
9, Roebuck 8, Gary 5, Byrd 4, Walker 2.
Burns (43) - Houze 12, Clark 8, Alcide 6,
Goolsby 6, Izokovic 4, Briscoe 3, Trice 2, Beam 2.
Mountaineer diamond men eager to get outside
By GARY STEWART
Editor of The Herald
Kings Mountain High's first-year
head baseball coach Eric King and
his Mountaineers are anxious for
some warm weather.
The team officially begins pre-
season practice on February 16, but
in the meantime King can work
with up to eight players at a time,
and at this point he’s been concen-
trating mostly on pitchers and
catchers.
At 6 a.m. each weekday, those
players arrive at the KMHS mini-
gym to get in some work before
the start of the school day. On a
couple of occasions when the
weather hasn't been so bad, some
players have even ventured out on
the baseball field.
King is a
strong believer
that pitching
and defense
win high
school baseball
games, so he is
putting a lot of
emphasis on
those skills.
“I've seen
throughout my
career that that’s
what's going to win a lot of
games,” he said. “Naturally, we
have to be able to hit the ball or
manufacture some runs, and I
think we can do that.”
King, a Cherryville native who
won three state championships in
Virginia before returning to North
Carolina as head coach of North
ERIC KING
Gaston in 1996, will have a good
mixture of experience and youth
on his first Mountaineer team.
He lost some outstanding play-
ers like All-Conference outfielder
Ross Ellis and pitcher Hunter
Gaffney, but he’s very pleased with
the current talent level.
“I'm looking forward to our sea-
son,” he says. “I think we've got
some guys that can get it done if
they stay focused on what theyre
doing.”
Some of the players that have
been working out thus far include
pitchers Tyler Leach, Brandon
Bridges, Ronnie Wilson, Josh
Hendricks, Ryan Leach, Chris
Clearman, Phillip Bunch and
Phillip Ruff, and catchers Brad
Moffitt and Matt Echols.
“We've been looking at some of
the younger kids, giving them a
chance to show what they can do,”
he said. ‘Even though some of
them may not be on the varsity, we
want to make sure we see every-
body throw.”
King hopes to get the team out-
side soon and begin working on
hitting skills.
“We've worked on our defense
outside,” King said. “Our focus is
on defense first. I know we need to
hit but usually your pitching’s
ahead of the hitting anyway. Plus,
['ve got a whole new coaching staff
and trying to get them familiar
with the kids.”
King's varsity assistant is
Kenneth Paysour, former North
Gaston player who will concen-
trate on middle infielders. The JV
head coach is John Warlick, who
played on Cherryville's state cham-
pionship high school and
American Legion teams in 1983,
and his assistant is KMHS teacher
Jeff Melton.
In all, King has nine returning
varsity players, including seniors
C.J. Austin, Matt Echols, Ronnie
Wilson, Brandon Bridges and
Weston Taylor.
King hasn't even begun to think
about a possible lineup. He says he
is “still evaluating people right
now,” and after the official start of
practice he plans to have a tryout
for JV players that hope to play on
the varsity level.
“I promised them I would do
that,” he said. “We're going to be
fair.”
The Mountaineers will see action
See Diamond, 7A