By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Western Alamance’s volleyball team was one of nine teams statewide to be recognized with the Commissioner’s Cup as presented by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
The NCHSAA held its annual awards ceremony Wednesday at the Greensboro Coliseum’s Special Events Center.
The Western Alamance team’s community service endeavors were highlighted by the NCHSAA.
Among its projects, the team held a Princess Night during a match against Northwood with the goal of honoring 6-year-old Lilian Blackman for Childhood Cancer Awareness month and raising money for research.
That night, $760 was raised. The team’s objectives were also to provide the young girl with a memorable experience. According to information provided regarding the night, fans were encouraged to dress as princesses, and players from both teams dressed in that role as well to dance with Blackman.
• Also, Western Alamance was honored with a scholar-athlete team award for girls’ tennis. The team submitted a grade point average of 3.964 for the top mark in the state among NCHSAA teams in that sport.
• Bob Owens was one of three recipients of a Commissioner’s Choice Award presented for extraordinary service to the state’s high school athletics program as selected by the NCHSAA commissioner.
For 25 years, Owens has been the tournament director for NCHSAA’s Class 3-A tennis individual state championships held at Burlington Tennis Center. He also spent about two decades in roles as assistant coach for Elon University’s tennis teams after a long stretch as a coach at Northeast Guilford.
• There were six recipients of Golden Whistle Awards for outstanding officiating service. Among those was Jerry Talley, a Rockingham County man who has officiated or umpired games extensively in Alamance County for years, particularly in basketball, baseball and softball. Talley is an assigner of officials for various sports.
Talley is also commissioner for the Mid-Carolina Conference, which includes Cummings, Graham and – beginning this summer – Southeast Alamance.
