WILMINGTON– Two new inductees will be honored by the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association as the 23rd class inducted in its own NCADA Hall of Fame.
Rick Strunk of Carrboro and Roy Turner of Wilmington are the newest members of the NCADA Hall of Fame. The pair will be recognized at the 46th annual North Carolina Athletic Directors Association state conference at the Hilton Riverside in Wilmington. The banquet and induction ceremonies are scheduled for Tuesday, April 4th at 6:00 pm.
The NCADA Hall of Fame has been established to recognize achievement and excellence for athletic administration. The inductees are honored at the NCADA’s annual state convention, and a permanent display honoring the athletic directors’ Hall of Fame is located in the offices of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in Chapel Hill.
Here is a closer look at this year’s honorees:
RICK STRUNK
Rick Strunk was involved with high school athletics for almost 40 years, with his entire professional career involved with the media.
After graduating from Newton-Conover High School, where he played basketball, Strunk attended the University of North Carolina on a prestigious Morehead Scholarship as well as a National Merit Scholarship, graduating in 1975.
He was sports editor of the daily Observer-News-Enterprise in Newton, sports director of WNNC Radio there and also did eight years of radio and television broadcasting. He served at Lenoir-Rhyne College and at Furman University as sports information director and won 16 national awards for excellence in publications during his time at the college level.
Strunk served on the North Carolina High School Athletic Association staff from 1986, hired by executive director Charlie Adams, until his retirement at the end of 2015 as associate commissioner. He helped create and initiate such special programs as NCHSAA Scholar-Athlete, the NCHSAA Hall of Fame, the NCHSAA Record Book and its intern program as well as working with a variety of other special programs such as the Wells Fargo Cup, the NCHSAA Annual Meeting and NCHSAA Athlete of the Year. Strunk also designed, wrote and edited many NCHSAA publications, including developing championship game programs in several sports, and served as media liaison.
Also well-known at the national level, Strunk served eight years as the chairman of the National Records Committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and twice was master of ceremonies for the National High School Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. He spoke at several national conferences and also helped put together NCADA historical information.
Strunk has previously received Distinguished Service Awards from the NCHSAA, the NCADA and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA), and he earned the National Federation Citation award in 2013, one of the most highly regarded achievements nationally in high school athletics and performing arts. Inducted into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in 2015, Strunk was also named as one of the 100 Administrators to Remember during the NCHSAA’s Centennial Celebration during the 2013-14 academic year.
Since his retirement from the NCHSAA, Strunk has taught a course on “Ethics and Issues in Athletics” in Duke University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and has also designed Bible study curriculum for his church, Orange United Methodist in Chapel Hill.
ROY TURNER
Roy Turner, CMAA, CIC, the retired athletic director of Ashley High School in Wilmington has been very involved at the state level with the NCADA and NCAAE (North Carolina Association of Athletic Education), as well as nationally with the NIAAA and NFHS.
Turner, who also worked at several other high schools in the state and is currently a regional supervisor in the NCHSAA officiating program, has served on the NIAAA Board of Directors and the Leadership Training National Faculty. Involved in the development and implementation of numerous NIAAA Professional Development classes, he has served as North Carolina's representative to the NIAAA Delegate Assembly and has represented the state as the Co-State Coordinator for NIAAA Leadership Training since 2002. Turner has presented numerous workshops at the NIAAA Annual State Coordinators Meeting, NCADA State Conference, and NCAAHPERD Convention and was a contributor to the NIAAA’s “Guide to Interscholastic Athletic Administration.”
At the state level, Turner has been a member of the NCADA since 1995, having served as its secretary, vice president, president and as a member of its Board of Directors. Turner is also active in the NCADA Leadership Training program as a member of its Leadership Training Teaching Faculty and co-chairman of the Leadership Training Program. He has taken 41 NIAAA Leadership Training Institute courses since 2000. Turner has taught or assisted with 30 different LTI courses in North Carolina. In addition, he developed the NCADA's Professional Development Plan and maintains the NCADA website. In July of 2016, he was chosen to replace Jerry McGee as the executive director of the NCADA.
Turner has received numerous awards for his accomplishments, including earning both the NCADA State Award of Merit and the NCADA Distinguished Service Award in 2004. In 2006 he received a Citation from the National Federation for recognition of contributions to interscholastic athletics at the local, state and national levels.
He was recognized as Athletic Director of the Year by the NCADA and NCHSAA in 2009. He received the NIAAA Frank Kovaleski Award for Professional Development at the 2009 National AD Conference, and the following year was recognized as the National AD of the year by NASPE.
Turner was named as one of the 100 Athletic Administrators to Remember by the NCHSAA during its centennial and received the Charlie Adams Distinguished Service Award for Region II in 2014. In 2015, Roy received the Jerry McGee Award of Excellence and was awarded the NIAAA Jim Teff Achievement Recognition for his work with Bobby Guthrie in the creation and implementation of the NCADA Toolbox, and in October of 2015 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NCAAHPERD.
