By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Hal Capps is no longer a head coach in high school football, but this is shaping up as a special year for the former Western Alamance head man.
Capps was selected for honorary membership in the North Carolina Football Coaches Association during a presentation earlier this year. The announcement of that honor came during the coaches’ convention in Greensboro.
Later this month, he’ll be inducted into the Western Alamance Athletic Hall of Fame.
“To be recognized by the North Carolina Football Coaches Association is truly something special,” Capps said.
The NCFCA recognition comes because of statewide support for this honor, NCFCA president Jeff Craddock said.
“Although his coaching record is impressive, we also recognize the positive influence he had on the lives of so many young people over the years,” Craddock said. “To be recognized by his peers in the coaching profession certainly reinforces the respect and admiration that coaches throughout the state have for him and what he has contributed to our profession.”
Craddock, who’s the coach at Tarboro, said it’s a unique recognition because of the number of people who have coached football in North Carolina and are now retired from teaching and thus eligible for this honor.
Capps remains active in a football role as the director of high school relations for Elon’s program. He has been in that position since February 2019.
Capps’ coaching career took off at Western, where he coached for nearly two decades. At one point, the Warriors reached four consecutive state championship games, winning the Class 3-A title in 2007. The field house at the school’s stadium is named in his honor.
He later coached at Mooresville and at Seneca (South Carolina).
Capps is a 1979 Williams graduate. He was a volunteer coach there and had assistant coaching roles at Lumberton and Eden Morehead.
He’s a former athletics director at Western, where he also coached track and field and lacrosse.
He last coached at Western, where his football teams were 168-69, in 2009.
Capps will be able to miss some Elon activities to attend the Western induction functions. He said he doesn’t dare miss the Western event.
“I go into the football coaches for the whole state before y’all voted me in,” he joked about the timing.
