#CoachingStories January 20

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When you spent a quarter of a century of your life around college basketball you hear or get to witness plenty of great COACHING STORIES.

Two weeks ago, at a former friend and college basketball coach’s funeral stories were being told non-stop. For some reason one of the stories involving some of the legendary Fayetteville (NC) high school coaches that had worked Campbell Basketball School . It made me think of the late Leon Brock.

Leon Brock

Leon Brock died in 2009 at the age of 79. He was a Graduate of Clinton High School and East Carolina University. He also was an Army Veteran of the Korean War and he really fit in with the families that were stationed at Fort Bragg. Leon coached at Stedman HS for 10 years and spent 23 years at Cape Fear HS. In fact the gymnasium is named in his honor at Cape Fear HS.

To his coaching buddies he was called “Sug”-short for Sugar Bear.

Leon was a character and might be described as easily distracted. In fact, if he was with us today people would say he had ADD. He was a man who believed firmly in right and wrong and would not hesitate to discipline any transgressions, but he had a big heart and did not hold a grudge.

Illustrating his ability to get distracted was a story the late Ron Miller told me.

Coaching Story

In the late 1980’s Cape Fear HS (Leon Brock) was playing at South View (Ron Miller).  Leon unbeknownst to Ron Miller had for the previous two weeks attempted to call and speak to his insurance agent about some aspect of his homeowner’s policy.

That agent’s son played JV Basketball for South View and was at the game sitting high up in the stands. Well, the Varsity teams come out to warm-up and about 11 minutes before tip-off Leon spots his insurance agent up in the stands. Making a beeline, he sits down with him in the bleachers. He did so without entering the starting five for Cape Fear HS in the scorebook. The game starts with South View shooting two technical free throws for Cape Fear not having the starting line-up in the book 10 minutes before the game. As South View is shooting the technical free throws Leon is still in stands with his insurance agent. He comes down to the bench seconds after the game has started and tells Ron well you got two free points, but I just saved $72.00 on my next premium.

Ron Miller and Leon Brock were two great High School Coaches that touched a lot of lives in Fayetteville NC. I am proud that both of these guys are members of the Fayetteville Sports Hall of Fame. Leon was inducted in 2004 and his buddy in 2005. Trust me those two coaches were full of stories.