By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Tommy Cole, a longtime basketball and golf coach most connected to Williams High School, has been selected as a member of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame for the Class of 2025.
Cole, a Williams and Elon College alum, won state championships in boys’ basketball at Graham and Williams, while also guiding the Williams girls’ basketball team to a spot in a state final. His boys’ team also had a runner-up state finish.
Three times, his Williams boys’ golf teams won NCHSAA championships and the Bulldogs were runners-up seven times.
Cole’s final season as basketball coach was with the Williams boys in 2022-23. He finished his golf coaching career last spring.
Others selected for the Class of 2025 are Brad Allen, a longtime high school official from Lumberton who worked his way to the NFL; Jerry Hunter, a deceased softball and girls’ basketball coach and athletics director at East Duplin; Tim Kelly, a former championship boys’ basketball coach at Trinity, where he retired from last summer after also coaching football and cross country; Richard Prince, a former coach and official for track and field and cross country in Monroe; Steve Spivey, a longtime tennis coach at Raleigh-area schools; Doyle Whitfield, a former baseball coach and athletics director at Southern Wayne; and Russell Woodward, an ex-track and field coach at Greensboro Grimsley and former athletics director and administrator at Greensboro Smith, Northwest Guilford and Ragsdale.
Members of the induction class will be invited to a reception April 23 at NCHSAA offices in Chapel Hill. Formal induction will take place August 16 at Embassy Suites in Cary.
