That coach at Dutch Fork (Tom Knotts) that was quoted in the article from The State was a boyhood pal of mine. We grew up in a small town in N.C. (Albemarle) and played backyard and organized sports together (football, basketball, and baseball) from about age 5 thru high school. He lived right down the street about 100 yards.
I played basketball and golf in high school and he played football, basketball, and tennis. Tom's dad played football at Duke in the late 1940's and his Uncle Bear was an All-American on Duke's 1949 Rose Bowl team. He was a quarterback in high school and followed in his Dad's footsteps to Duke where he was a DB. He got into HS coaching after graduating from Duke in 1978 and coached around the Charlotte, N.C area at Garinger, West Charlotte, and Independence. I think he won 6 straight N.C. 6A high school state championships at Independence. He might be the winningest H.S. coach in North Carolina history. He retired a few years ago and moved to Dutch Fork H.S. in the Columbia, S.C. area and has won multiple state titles there. Our player, Hugh Ryan, is from Dutch Fork.