SOUTH POINT HIRES NEW COACHES

BELMONT — South Point High School has hired its new men’s next basketball coach from the local community and elevated an assistant coach to the head football position, according to the Gaston Gazette.

The school announced the hiring of veteran assistant coach Mickey Lineberger in football and named Kody Kubbs, who coached at Belmont Middle School the past four years and led his team to the Gaston County championship this past season, the men’s basketball coach.

LIneberger has served as an assistant coach for 28 years and will replace John Devine, who resigned to take the head football job in Clover, S.C. Kubbs, 26, takes over for Steve Barkley, who resigned at the end of the season after five years.

Lineberger, 57, graduated from South Point in 1972. After playing college football at Carson-Newman and coaching six years at Chase High School in Forest City, Lineberger returned to Belmont and has been there ever since. He has served as offensive coordinator since 1991 and offensive line coach since 1983.

Lineberger also was South Point’s head baseball coach for 22 seasons and served as athletic director for 18 years before retiring in 2005.

Lineberger becomes only the fourth South Point head football coach since the school opened in 1969. Jim Biggerstaff compiled a 143-74-7 record from 1969 to 1989, while Phil Tate went 38-30-1 from 1990 to 1995. Devine left with a mark of 137-55-1 in the span from 1996 to 2009, leading the Red Raiders to 10 conference championships and NCHSAA state titles in 2003 and 2009.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Kubbs was an all-conference performer, three-year starter and two-time team captain at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, Ohio. He is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and will teach history at South Point.

South Point posted an 8-16 record during the 2010-11 baketball season, including a 5-7 mark in the Big South 3A Conference. The Red Raiders failed to make the playoffs.