SOUTHWEST EDGCOMBE COACH LANGLEY, GOLDSBORO ATHLETE WILLIAMS
WIN NCHSAA’S THIRD ANNUAL PAT GAINEY AWARDS
CHAPEL HILL—The North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced today the winners of two special awards established in the name of the late Pat Gainey, long-time coach who was inducted into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in 2007.
Head women’s basketball coach Sandra Langley of SouthWest Edgecombe High School and Goldsboro High School student Victoria Williams have been named this year’s winners of the Gainey Awards.
The awards will be presented at the NCHSAA Annual Meeting at the Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus on Thursday, May 7.
The Pat Gainey Coach Award recognizes excellence in character, achievement and coaching. It is designed to go to a varsity coach at an NCHSAA school who provides great leadership, who shows interest in his or her athletes on and off the field or court, is recognized as scrupulously honest, and has strongly supported an anti-drug and alcohol policy. The coaches’ award is available for nominations from all NCHSAA member schools
Langley has 35 years experience as a head coach, primarily in women’s basketball but she has also coached softball, volleyball and women’s track. A graduate of Atlantic Christian College (now Barton), she has coached women’s basketball at SouthWest since 1978 and has been athletic director since 1991, compiling a brilliant career mark of 653-214 as a head basketball coach. Her basketball teams have made eight appearances in the state championship game and earned four NCHSAA state crowns, in 1981, ’82, ’96 and 2005.
A long-time advisor to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle at her school, Langley has never had a player or assistant coach ejected in all her years at SouthWest. She has her players sign a contract related to team rules and anti-drug and alcohol policies before they agree to play.
The Student Scholarship Award is available to NCHSAA member schools in counties having a poverty rate of 20 percent or more for children 17 and under. Student scholarship recipients alternate annually between a female athlete and a male baseball player meeting the established criteria.
Williams, a senior who intends to enroll at Winston-Salem State University to major in physical therapy, has played volleyball, basketball, softball and participated in track during her career at Goldsboro. She captained the women’s basketball team during the 2008-09 season and also qualified for regional track competition in three events.
She has been an excellent student at Goldsboro with a weighted GPA of better than 4.00 and is a member of Goldsboro’s Alcohol and Drug Buster Club.
The awards are made possible by a gift from Gainey’s daughter, Mrs. Berry Jo Gainey Shoen, who currently resides in Port Townsend, Washington.
A native of Dunn, Gainey recorded a phenomenal record in women’s basketball at a couple of different stops during his coaching career and was a real supporter of women’s athletics. His overall record at Pamlico was an incredible 93-6 in women’s basketball and he also fielded outstanding baseball teams there. He then moved to Taylorsville, where he coached from 1955-64. His women’s basketball teams won five Western North Carolina High School Activities Association titles and at one point recorded 54 consecutive wins and a whopping 140 straight conference victories. His overall women’s basketball mark was 358-57.
“We are really excited about both of these awards and believe these are great additions to the legacy of Pat Gainey,” said NCHSAA executive director Charlie Adams. “The recipients certainly embody many of the wonderful characteristics that made Pat so successful.”
