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ROANOKE RAPIDS HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME 2019 CLASS inducted Saturday night. 

George Earl Nethercutt Class of 1935, Baseball

1George Earl Nethercutt

George Nethercutt graduated from RRHS, class of 1935, where he lettered in baseball, football, and track.  His baseball team won the state championship in 1935, his senior year. After graduation, George attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a starting catcher for the baseball team.  As a senior, he co-captained the team and batted .440.  George was also Phi Beta Kappa, President of the Monogram Club, and a recipient of the Patterson Medal, UNC’s highest athletic award.
While in college, George continued to play summer league semi-pro baseball as catcher for the Roanoke Rapids Owls.  In 1938, the Owls won the state championship and placed 6th in the regionals.  George was named to the 1938 NBC All-American (Semi-Pro) Baseball team, along with teammates Joe Talley, Victor Bradford, and Opie Pace.
George was drafted by the Boston Red Sox after his graduation from UNC in 1939 and caught for minor league teams in Rocky Mount, Canton OH and Centerville OH in 1939-40. George and his family returned to Roanoke Rapids after serving as a US Navy Supply Officer in the Pacific during World War II and starting a career as a CPA in Wilmington.  He continued in his profession as a CPA until assuming an executive position with Patterson Mills, which later became J.P. Stevens & Co. He retired from J.P. Stevens in 1985 and he and his wife, Winnie, relocated to Southern Pines.
George was the consummate scholar-athlete, and retained his love of sports, especially baseball, until his death in 2005.

John Cameron Little Class of ’60 – Football and Track

2John Cameron Little

Cameron Little graduated from RRHS class of 1960, where he participated in football, basketball, baseball, and track. As a senior, he was the co-captain of the football team earning All-Conference and All-East honors and was president of the Monogram Club.  At Elon College, Cameron continued his football and track careers where he was named both AllConference and All-District in football during his junior year. During his senior year, he was tri-captain of the football team and awarded the honor of Outstanding Lineman. He was also a member of the Math Club, the Sigma Phi Delta Fraternity, and Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges.
After graduating from Elon College with a degree in Math, Little attended ECU to obtain his masters. After graduation from ECU, he pursued a career in education and was a football coach at Western Carolina University and Jacksonville Senior High School. While at JSHS, he coached football, basketball, and track, as well as being Athletic Director. Under his leadership, the track team won the state championship.
In 1972, Cameron moved his family back to his hometown of Roanoke Rapids to work with his father in the family’s insurance business. He was an important part of Little’s Insurance and the community until his death in 1977.
Posthumously, scholarships were established and are awarded in his name and memory to students at Elon University, formerly known as Elon College.

 

William Thomas “Billy” Stanley Class of 1964 - Football

3William Thomas Billy Stanley

Billy Stanley graduated from RRHS class of 1964, where he played football and basketball. As a senior he was designated Most Valuable Football Player and earned All-Conference and All-East honors.  Stanley continued his football career at Western Carolina College and won accolades as an offensive and defensive lineman. In 1967, Stanley was awarded the Kirkland Blocking Trophy and was also named All Conference as a defensive tackle. He was the first and only Catamount to win this Kirkland Trophy and the last to earn Carolinas Conference honors on offense and defense in the same season.  In addition, Stanley was named to the All NAIA District 26 offense team, which included colleges from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Billy went on to a career in education, including 26 years at Halifax Community College, ending his tenure as the college’s Vice President.
In 1985, Stanley pursued and won a seat on the Roanoke Rapids City Council.  As a city councilman he supported a referendum to build an indoor pool as an addition to the TJ Davis Recreation center.  The indoor pool continues to be a very highly used recreation facility in the city today.
An avid golfer, Billy set a course record 63 at Carolina Shores Golf and Country Club in Calabash, NC.
In 2012, Stanley was inducted into the Western Carolina University Hall of Fame as a football player.  In 2018, he was again inducted into the WCU HOF as one of the graduate assistant coaches of the 1969 WCU Football team which had a 9-1 season record.  He has been very active with the WCU Catamount Club, having served on the Board of Directors for several years.

 

Michael Wayne “Mickey” Gukich Class of 1967, Football and Baseball

4Michael Wayne Mickey Gukich

Mickey graduated from RRHS in 1967. His many achievements in school included Class VP, Junior Marshall, Key Club, Senior Chorus, Senior Council, Monogram Club and Madrigal Singers. He excelled in all the school's sports programs: basketball, baseball, and football. But his greatness really stood out on the football field where he achieved All-Conference honors his senior year. He was never the biggest guy on the team but anyone that ever competed with him, or against him, always remembered him as one of the biggest competitors ever.
Mickey went to NC State and joined the freshman football team as a walk-on. He was one of the smallest players on the team, but as his coach said, Mickey was a different person when he stepped on the field.  As he had at RRHS, he played much bigger than his physical size. Mickey so impressed the coaches he was given a scholarship just before Thanksgiving.
His goal of graduating from NC State and returning to RRHS to teach math and coach was cut short as he was diagnosed with cancer shortly after the end of his freshman football season.  As he had on the football field, Mickey fought hard, losing his leg in 1967 and succumbing to the disease in November 1968.
But Mickey's legacy is not one of a life cut short, it is one of grit and determination, of facing any challenge head on, never backing down, and, as he always did, playing above his weight.  Mickey's example inspired many players who followed him to do the same and that inspiration endures today through the Mickey Gukich Award.  The award, established by the Key Club and first awarded in 1969, is given annually to the student athlete who best embodies Mickey's qualities of tenacity in athletics and excellence in academics.

 

Carey Essex Foster Class of 1968, Football and Baseball

5Carey Essex Foster

Carey was a standout football and baseball athlete at Roanoke Rapids High School, graduating in 1968. Cary was selected to play in the 1968 East-West football game. He furthered his football career by playing football for the Wolfpack at N.C. State University graduating in 1972. He was a retired educator from the Halifax County school system.
Carey will always be remembered for his service to this community and a lifetime achievement to the youth of our area. He was a charter member of the Optimist Club in 1982 and worked part-time with the Roanoke Rapids Recreation Center for over 50 years.  Carey has also umpired thousands of sporting events for over a half a century. He is a Christian man and an active member of Rosemary Baptist Church. A friend once related that "Carey was a very unselfish man who always walked the walk and could talk the talk"

 

Samuel Paul Dickens Class of 1981, Golf

6Samuel Paul Dickens

Samuel "Paul" Dickens was an outstanding student athlete in golf, soccer, and basketball at Roanoke Rapids High School from 1991-1994.  In 1991, Paul was part of the golf team that won the 2A High School Team State Championship with fellow teammates Brad Wilson, Phil Frazier, Matt Merritt, and Clint Gowen.  At that time, this was the first ever team state championship for RRHS.  In 1994, Paul won the Individual 2A High School State Championship, becoming the first two-time State Champion in RRHS history.  In that same year, he was the Sam Owen Award Winner and President of the Monogram Club.  He was a twotime Eastern Conference Low Medalist and golf MVP for 3 years.  In 1993, Paul was the Carolinas Golf Association North Carolina Junior Boys Champion, a Carolinas Junior Team Matches Member, and the David Parrott Memorial Award Winner.
Paul played golf at both Clemson and NCSU and was a four-time All-ACC Honor Roll recipient.  While at NCSU, he won the 1999 Pfeiffer Intercollegiate with rounds of 72-64 (which at the time, the 64 was tied for the lowest 18 hole tournament round in Wolfpack History).  He was teammates with former PGA Tour members Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson.  Paul played under the tutelage of Richard Sykes, the NCSU Head Golf Coach for 46 years and Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee in 2001.
Other accolades for Paul include being the Carolinas PGA Assistant Player of the Year in 2006, the Carolinas PGA ProAssistant Champion in 2008, the Carolinas PGA Assistant Professional of the Year in 2010, and the Carolinas Golf Association Pro-Amateur Champion in 2013.  In 2009 and 2013, he qualified for the Web.Com Tour Rex Hospital Opens.  He was also a two-time member of the CPGA/CGA Tar Heel Cup Team.
Now residing in Wake Forest, NC with his wife, Allison, and their daughter, Lainey, Paul is currently the Director of Golf at Raleigh Country Club.  He is the former Head Golf Professional at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation.  Both the Raleigh Country Club and The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation are owned by McConnell Golf LLC who also owns and manages 13 clubs throughout the Carolinas and Tennessee.  He is a former Assistant Golf Professional at River Landing in Wallace, NC, and has served on the Carolina PGA Tournament Committee for the last six years.  Paul continues to grow the game of golf through involvement with PGA Junior League Teams, the First Tee of the Triangle and Triad, and the Folds of Honor and Wounded Warrior Project which supports our military and their families.
Through golf, but also outside of it, Paul has met and played with numerous famous athletes and celebrities including Michael Jordan, Brevin Knight, Phil Ford, and Gerald Henderson, Jr. (NBA); Lawrence Taylor and Jim McMahon (NFL); Scotty McCreery, Mike Mills, and Dierks Bentley (Musicians); Tony Womack, Johnny Bench, and Richard "Goose" Gossage (MLB); Mia Hamm (USA Soccer); Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (NASCAR); and Tully Blanchard and Nikita Koloff (WWE).

 

Russell O'Neil Weinstein Teacher and Coach

7Russell ONeil Weinstein

Coach Russell Weinstein was hired in the spring of 2007 to turn around a struggling RRHS football program.  Prior to coaching the Yellow Jackets, Coach Weinstein had a long tenure of successful coaching stints in Football and Track and Field at five different North Carolina high schools.  Upon his arrival, he made a promise to the young players that they would become champions before they graduated.
Turning the program around was not without its challenges.  Coach Weinstein's first team only carried 19 varsity players, and he would go knock on doors to encourage young men to come out for football. He was committed to starting a group of freshmen players that would later become the foundation of a very successful 2A football program.  Selected by several media outlets to finish in last place in conference pre-season predictions, the Yellow Jackets would go on to win Conference Championships in 2009, 2010, and 2011, losing only one conference game in 3 seasons.  The string of 3 consecutive football championships was unprecedented at RRHS. The turnaround was complete when the Yellow Jackets would go on to win the school's first ever NCHSAA playoff victory in 2009. Many Yellow Jacket players coached by Weinstein would go on to very successful college careers, and 2 are currently playing in the NFL.
Coach Weinstein was highly decorated while serving as Head Football for the Yellow Jackets. He would be recognized multiple times as the conference “Coach of the Year” by his coaching peers and several media outlets.  He would go on to represent RRHS as a coach in the North Carolina Coaches Association East-West All-Star football game in 2010.  The NCHSAA would present him with the prestigious Homer Thompson "Eight Who Make a Difference" award in 2012. One of Coach Weinstein's most famous quotes:  "It is not about the miles you travel, but the stops you've made!"  "My only goals were to help the young men be the best they could be, and put a proud community back on top".

 

Olivia Hamill Ballew Class of 2008, Track

8Olivia Hamill Ballew

Olivia Hamill Ballew graduated from Roanoke Rapids High School in 2008, exemplifying the meaning of student athlete, playing three sports and graduating as class salutatorian. She ran cross country and distance track all four years of high school and was on the swim team for two years. She still holds the RRHS records in the 5k for cross country, and track and field records for the 1600m, 3200m, and 4 x 800m relay. During her RRHS athletic career, she was named All-Conference, AllRegion, and All-State in both cross country and track and field.   She was named MVP in both cross country and track and field during all four years at RRHS and was named Best All-Around Female Athlete at the close of her senior season. Following high school graduation, Olivia attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in Biology and double minored in Chemistry and History. During this time, she decided to focus solely on academics and took a break from running competitively. After graduating from UNC in 2012, Olivia worked as a full-time research scientist for two years before being accepted into a PhD program at Indiana University in 2014. While attending IU, Olivia began running again. During this time, she met someone who not only encouraged her running, but who became both her boyfriend and coach, Brad Robinson. Together, they developed a focused training plan of running, strength training and nutrition. In the three years since Olivia began training again, she has placed 6th at the 2018 One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon and 4th at the 2018 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. She completed the latter race in 2 hours 43 min 13 sec, a personal best time that qualifies her for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials-Marathon. Since qualifying for the Olympic trials, Olivia signed with Brooks Running as a sponsor and went on to place 12th and the U.S Olympic Trials preview race in Atlanta, GA. In addition, she qualified to run as an elite athlete at the 2019 Boston Marathon. Olivia has begun her final year of study at IU and will graduate in the spring 2020 with a PhD in Genome, Cell, and Developmental Biology. She plans to continue pursuing research after she graduates. The U.S. Olympic Trials-Marathon will be held February 29, 2020 in Atlanta, GA.

 

Brian Thomas Howard Class of 2012 - Soccer

9Brian Thomas Howard

Brian Howard, RRHS class of 2012, was a four-year varsity letter recipient as a goalkeeper for the men's soccer team. Brian helped lead the team to three conference championships and four consecutive playoff appearances. He started in goal for the Yellow Jackets from the time he was a freshman and received many honors, awards, and achievements.  Some of these include fourtime All-Conference 2008-2011, Best Defensive Player 2008 and 2011, All-Region 2008 and 2011, and Most Valuable Player 2010.  Outside of high school, Brian was a member of the North Carolina Olympic Development team and won a State Championship in 2011 with his youth team, CASL, of Raleigh, NC.
After high school, Brian was recruited and committed to Louisburg Junior College. As a member of the Louisburg College Men's Soccer team, the team only lost two games in two years, and Brian recorded 14 shutouts in goal. As a team captain, Brian helped lead Louisburg to its first ever National Championship appearance in 2012, and received All-South Region team honors. Brian left Louisburg College in 2013 after being recruited to play at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is regarded as the best soccer conference in the nation. While at Virginia Tech, Brian helped the team to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007.  The team made it all the way to the Elite 8 (Quarterfinals) before losing a tough match to conference foe, Wake Forest.
Brian finished his playing career and graduated from Virginia Tech in May 2017.  He currently resides in Williamsburg, Virginia where he works for Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) as an Account Manager.

 

1991 Golf Team

90 1991 Golf Team

The 1991 Roanoke Rapids High School golf team consisted of young and talented individuals who knew how to play the game.  Coached by Selby Merritt, the team members included freshmen Paul Dickens, Clint Gowen, Ryan Medlin, and Tony Thompson, sophomores Phil Frazier and Matt Merritt, junior Brad Wilson, and senior Tad Merritt. The golf team had an impressive overall record of 43-2 during the 1991 season.  They faced their toughest competition of the season against the area teams of Farmville Central and Southwest Edgecombe High Schools. Through their hard work and dedication to the game, the team finished second in the Eastern Regionals.  Determined to show they could compete with the best, Paul Dickens, Clint Gowen, Matt Merritt, Phil Frazier, and Brad Wilson went on to capture the 2A High School Team State Championship title at Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill.  Lead by the consistent play of Paul Dickens (77), Brad Wilson (79), and Matt Merritt (83), the Yellow Jackets found themselves down by six shots to West Brunswick High School after posting a team score of 319 on the first day of competition.  On the final day of play, Clint Gowen fired a career best of 73, and Phil Frazier blitzed the 6,480 yard - Par 72 layout with a team best 71 (one-under par) round.  Frazier went on to finish in 8th place individually with a two-day score of 151.  Their final round team score of 317, and tournament total of 626, propelled the team to a three-shot victory over rival Farmville Central.  School history was made as this was the first ever team state championship for RRHS.   This outstanding accomplishment brought pride to the school and community, and made the athletes of the 1991 golf team proud to be Yellow Jackets. Not only were the guys a team during the high school season, they also played golf together almost every weekend at the Chockoyotte Country Club and traveled across North and South Carolina playing in junior golf events during the off-season.  They still remain close friends to this day, and the bond that they share for the love of the game can never be matched.