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SPORTS The Kings Mountain Herald | www.kmherald.net Wednesday, April 16, 2014 All-American runner Chad Pearson going into Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame Chad Pearson was an outstanding track and cross country runner at Kings Mountain High School, a two-time All-American at NC State University, and ran professionally. He is now the interim coach at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. (Third in a four-part series on the 2014 Kings Mountain Hall of Fame inductees. The ceremony will be held Saturday, May 3 at 6 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church. Tickets are $15 and are available at The Herald, from Hall of Fame com- mittee members and at the door.) Chad Pearson is proof that the best ath- letes are made when no one is looking. Inspired early in life by his cousin, John Foster, and in high school by Coach David Farquharson, young Pearson was doing most of his running during the early-morning hours when others were still in bed. His hard work paid off with several championships on the high school and col- legiate level. He became a two-time All- ACC and All-American at NC State University and is now the interim head track and cross country coach at UNC-Greens- boro. Going into his hometown Hall of Fame is a “great honor,” Pearson says. As a young- ster, he knew of Kings Mountain’s proud sports tradition and often thought how nice it would be to someday join that group of elite athletes. “When I was running at Kings Mountain High School I often thought that would be a great honor,” he said. “I hoped that one day I would have a career that would warrant this.” : Some of his fondest memories here were early Saturday mornings when his cousin, John Foster, would take him to runs and meets. “We would get up before anyone else,” Pearson recalled. “He wouldn’t come to the door. He’d tap on my window because my parents (Cheryel and Ronnie Pearson) were still asleep. “He has always been really supportive of me. He’s the one that made me fall in love with running. Those memories are priceless. His son, Collin, is involved in track and cross country at Kings Mountain High now. Hopefully, he will follow in my footsteps.” Pearson said he will never forget his first high school cross country meet at Crest, where he held the lead at the halfway point, took the wrong route and had to reverse his tracks, and still finished second. “I felt like that spurred everything on,” he said. “My junior year I finished second in the Regionals but I was like a deer in the headlights. I didn’t know a thing about the competition. I was second by five or six sec- onds, but really that’s something I’ve never forgotten.” His memories of meets pale in compari- son to his memory of his coaches and team- mates along the way. “It was just exciting being around a great group of guys and coaches at Kings Moun- tain High School,” he said. “I had several different cross country coaches. I’ll never forget Coach Farquharson. He was a big help to me. I would meet him at the track after most everyone else was gone. I would be out there doing repeats. He invested a lot of time in what I was doing. He made me a dedicated distance runner. I was blessed to have him there. He was a great coach. “Some mornings I would go out there be- fore school and I would see him coming down Phifer Road in that little Volkswagen bug of his. He’d come out there and help me workout.” Pearson won numerous championships at KMHS and was runner-up in the NCHSAA 3A cross country meet as a junior and a two- time runner-up in the 3,200 meter run. He ran for one year at UNC-Asheville (1999) before transferring to NC State. “Coming out of high school, I was not that great of an athlete and I thought that would be a good place for me,” he said. “I qualified for the World Crosscountry Cham- pionship and got to travel to Portugal on a team that featured three All-Americans. That really jump started everything I wanted to do as a runner.” In his three years at State, he and the Wolfpack enjoyed tremendous success. Pearson was: - All-ACC and All-American in 2001 and 2003. -ACC individual runner-up in 2001 and 2003. -35th in the 2001 NCAA championship. -22nd in the 2003 NCAA cross country championships. -Member of the 2000 Junior National Cross Country Squad. He qualified for the Olympic Trials, where he finished eighth. The top three run- ners make the team. “Coming out of college I knew that was a long-shot,” he said. “But it was a great honor just running along with the best run- ners in the country.” Pearson ran professionally for two years on the Adidas team and won the 10K na- tional championship. He began experiencing knee problems and went back to NC State to be a graduate assistant for two years. “I got out of coaching for a while,” he noted. “I had a Masters in biology and thought I wanted to be a dentist. But I went the coaching route.” He was a volunteer assistant at UNC- Charlotte before being hired as an assistant at UNC-G last year. Now, he is interim head coach and hopes to be named permanent head coach at the end of the season. With conference, regional and national tournaments coming up, Foster hopes his teams will be busy until mid-June. The na- tional championship is slated for mid-June in Eugene, Oregon. “It’s hard to qualify for that, but we hope to get some of our athletes out there,” he said. Photo courtesy Shelby Star Kings Mountain’s Isaiah Cole returns a shot in last week’s tennis match with Shelby. Thank you! RPM MOBILE MUSIC BUTCH PEARSON © JACK PEARSON 704.472.0965 © 704.472.4402 WEDDINGS, PARTIES, CORPORATE EVENTS @ For providing great sound for the dedication of the Shu Carlton Meworial Stadium! Kings Mountain High’s tennis team knocked off perennial SMAC champion Shelby 7-2 last week to nail down the conference cham- pionship in just their first season in the new league. The Mountaineers ran their record to 7-0 in the SMAC and 9-0 overall. They play in the SMAC tournament today. This was streak. Isaiah Kings Mountain Mountaineers Athlete of the Week Tennis SUBWAY) 105 York Rd., Kings Mountain 704.734.4782 Cole All The Time... the Mountaineers' first con- ference championship since 2008 and broke The Golden Lions' 50-match winning The Mountaineers won [The Teacher LibbyLois Serving Breakfast! And Parents All Day... Tool KM netters beat Shelby for SMAC crown four of the six singles matches and swept the three doubles matches. Most of the matches were close but all but two of See KM, 3B Be x Gifts ® Accessories » > 730 Union Rd., Gastonia * 704.868.8269 g 8
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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April 16, 2014, edition 1
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