Eric Morgan converted a kick on the final play of the game, leading 21st-ranked Belmont Abbey to a 10-7 win over UNC Charlotte in rugby action Thursday night.
The game was played at Martha Rivers Park in Gastonia.
How It Happened- UNCC opened the scoring with a short try and conversion midway through the first half. The Crusaders (3-1-1) tied the game at 7-7 a short time later after Michael Brennan broke through the defense, the made the conversion. The Abbey played most of the second half in the 49ers’ end, but could not score until the final kick.
Belmont Abbey photo/story

Originally from Washington, DC, Raphael was a dual sport athlete at Woodrow Wilson High School. There, he played football and baseball as a three year varsity standout. Recruited to play both sports in college, he chose to continue his student-athlete career at Radford University in Virginia.
At Radford, Raphael showed promise as one of the emerging stars for the program but a roller coaster career due to injuries all but solidified an opportunity that would allow him to play beyond college. In his five years of attendance, he majored in Sports Management while also obtaining a minor in Business Management. Raphael would go on to play three years on the independent professional circuit.
After his baseball career, Raphael founded Unmatched Performance Athletics in Charlotte, NC. He and the coaches he partnered with, developed a youth baseball organization designed around using baseball as a tool to create hard working, humble, team players and young men. He served players from ages six to nineteen years of age.
Raphael parlayed the opportunity with Unmatched and local athletes as a chance to leave a greater footprint on the game of baseball. Always being in love with the most mysterious part of the game, “the art of hitting,” he welcomed a following that wanted the knowledge he possessed. He is now known on a national scale in the baseball community as “@thathittingguy” on all major social media platforms.
The only thing Raphael loves more than coaching is learning how to be the best husband and father possible. Raphael lives in Denver, NC with his wife Joy and their children where they attend Church of Denver.

The Belmont Abbey men’s soccer team opened its 2021 season at Limestone.  The Saints won the contest 3-0. How It Happened - In the 17th minute, Kevin Daly took the first shot of the year for the Crusaders. Limestone took the lead in the 13th minute, and held the 1-0 advantage at halftime.  The defense was strong throughout the half, limiting the Saints to just three shots in the period. The Saints scored in the 63rd and 65th minutes to take a 3-0 lead. Ben Knust made four saves in goal.     Belmont Abbey photo
 

Former Belmont Abbey cyclist Nat Worcester has been named as the Crusaders’ new head coach, Vice President and Director of Athletics announced today. Worcester begins his duties immediately.
“We are thrilled to name Nat Worcester as our new Head Cycling Coach at Belmont Abbey College,” Vice-President and Director of Athletics Stephen Miss said. “As an alumnus of our college and cycling program, as well as a recent convert to Catholicism, Coach Worcester is the ideal individual to form and develop our students, maintain continuity and build upon the foundation established during his athletic career.”
A 2020 graduate of The Abbey, Worcester returns to his alma mater where he was a four-year letterman and team captain, participating in the disciplines of track and road. Since graduation, he has been working at the Giordana Velodrome as a Track Assistant, providing instruction in the rider certification program, ensuring operational safety at the track and supervising equipment. He also has served as Director of the DDP Cycling Team, coordinating logistics for races and planning and implementing race strategies.
He holds a Level 3 coaching license from USA Cycling.
“I am extremely honored and grateful to Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., President Thierfelder and Stephen Miss for the opportunity to return to my alma mater and lead a program that I helped form in its early years,” Worcester said. “Belmont Abbey is a special place with a growing cycling tradition. I am fully committed to continuing the successes of this program.”
Worcester earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with a minor in sport management. He is currently working towards a master’s in psychology with a specialization in sports psychology.

This summer Belmont Parks and Recreation brought the fun to you! Our 2021 Mobile Recreation program allowed us to serve communities around the entire City of Belmont.
We hit the road with our trailer stocked full of games, activities, crafts, and sno-cones. The sidewalks were covered in art, and the air was filled with laughter.
Our mission to give back to our local families and friends by providing this free program was more than fulfilling.
By traveling to different parks, we were able to encourage all populations to get outside, make new connections, and stay active.
The Mobile Rec program stimulated growth in less frequented parks by drawing families to each event. Our trailer went to six different parks and served over 100 children.
It is safe to say our sno-cones and bubble machine were the main attractions.
Nichols Food Store of Belmont had our backs by providing us all the ice we needed to keep sno-cones coming.
 At our final stop in downtown Stowe Park we succeeded our goals with the back-to-School Bash event which provided bookbags for 100 students thanks to funding from CaroMont Health.
The support that we had to make each event special was uncanny.  While we are sad to see summer come and go, we know this is just the beginning Mobile Recreation here at Belmont, NC.

The Belmont Abbey College Men’s and Women’s Soccer Program players/staff met up with Belmont Parks and Rec soccer volunteers on Sunday August 8th for their pre-season coaches clinic.  The clinic, held at the Ebb Gantt Soccer Complex, covered several key points for both new and former volunteers which helped addressed ways coaches could better serve their players and effectively navigate drills that could benefit particular age groups.
Coaches were divided up into two smaller groups and were shown age specific drills and techniques that could give them better success with their soccer teams for the upcoming season.
Brian McGonagle, Belmont Parks and Recreation Athletic Director indicated that the partnership with the local college team has been a real blessing over the years.
“It’s critical to our success,” added McGonagle. “We as a department want to ensure each volunteer has the very best knowledge and guidance when managing their team players.”
According to statistics, most kids quit sports due to the coaching experience.
“I’m very grateful to the coaches and players from Belmont Abbey College,” concluded McGonagle.
“Having such a large program, partnerships are key and we are happy to have the ability to have such an asset like the Abbey so close to home.”
Belmont currently will be fielding 37 soccer teams for the fall season and volunteers are always welcome. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer coach for the City of Belmont Parks and Recreation you can reach the parks and recreation office at (704) 825-8191.

By Kathy Blake
No Time to Lose
East Gaston wrestling doesn’t let change interfere with State title 
The year is 1992.
The Olympic Games are in Barcelona, Spain. Bill Clinton is elected president. Jay Leno debuts on “The Tonight Show,” and IBM introduces a laptop, the ThinkPad 700C.
“Barney & Friends” premiers on TV and, in better news, the Chicago Bulls win their second consecutive NBA title.
In Mount Holly, the East Gaston High School wrestling team – which graduated six members, including four 1991 state finalists and underwent a coaching change – patches its pieces together and wins another Class 4A state championship.
“It was one of those things we wanted to continue and defend that title,” says Cain Beard, a junior 112-pounder. “We had a legendary coach (Doug Smith) retire, and we were young and had to kind of mesh together. It took a lot of adjustment, because of our having been used to doing things a certain way. And this new coach comes in, and we had to get to know each other and figure it out.”
The new coach was Bryan Lingerfelt, who at 23 was on the borderline of being a peer vs. being authority. And Smith, who led the team to a 22-0 record and Class 4A state title the year before and had coached for 13 seasons, was still in the building, down the hall.
“I was just a young coach that was hoping to help young men and East Gaston,” Lingerfelt says. “I saw it as an opportunity to help. The success we had I’m sure was unexpected, but that is what made it so special and what made these young men special that season.”
“Coach Smith was still teaching at the school, and all of us would go talk to him about strategy, but it was awkward for us,” says Beard, who coached as several high schools before taking his current role in 2008 as head coach at Rock Hill High School. “It was an awkward situation (for Lingerfelt) to follow a legend. When I got to Rock Hill, I heard about how great the teams were in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I kind of get the feeling of what Bryan must have felt. I know Bryan heard it from us: ‘That’s not how it was done!’ And I heard it at Rock Hill.”
Lingerfelt was a student-teacher as East Gaston in 1990 and helped coach football. He was hired at Surry Central High School after graduation from Appalachian State University in Boone, then was asked to return to East Gaston to coach wrestling for 1991-92.
For what it accomplished in 1992, the wrestling team is inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
The group went 14-1, the only loss coming at Ashbrook in the regular season – an outcome that was reversed in the state finals.
“Ashbrook and us, at the time, were the two premier programs in the area, and we went to their place and had to deal with some lineup issues – I don’t remember what it was – and we took a loss,” Beard says. “And sometimes a loss is a good thing. I’ve always said as a coach, if you go undefeated I need to make the schedule tougher.”
On the bus ride home, he says, the team pondered how to use the loss to their advantage. “Our goal as a team was not so much to avenge the loss but to put yourself in a position to win a state title. And we had done that, that night. We were going for our third state title.”
“I remember that bus ride as being quiet. I remember some guys crying,” says Brent Harrelson, a junior who wrestled at 171. “Whether we wanted to admit it nor not, Ashbrook was a very tough match. They were our rivals, and there was mutual respect, whether we wanted to admit it or not. It was important to beat those guys, then all of a sudden we had this mark on our record and we thought, we can’t do this.”
“The loss did bring the team together,” Lingerfelt says. “I believe Bart Davis may have said something to rally the guys. Losing to Ashbrook hurt their feelings, and they could have gone the other way as well, but they had a ‘tradition’ they wanted to continue.”
The Warriors beat Ashbrook 47-13 in the state Western final on February 6 to advance to the 4A dual-team title. It was Ashbrook’s first loss of the season.
On the night of the state final title match vs. Eastern winner Orange High (23-2), from Hillsborough, Beard says the term “three-peat” was “being thrown around. The (Chicago) Bulls didn’t do theirs until the next year, but the term was out there. And it was on our mind.”
“There was a certain standard we held ourselves to,” Beard says. “It’s about putting ourselves in a position to win a state title. That’s what we do. All of us understood how we had to do it, getting everyone mentally prepared and on the same page to be in that situation.”
East Gaston won 30-25.
“Before the match, we said don’t let anybody come in here and take it from us,” Lingerfelt said after the win. “That’s all I tried to do, keep the tradition of the program going. I just tried to guide it along.”
Following Harrelson’s pin at to give East Gaston the lead, Bart Davis (189) clinched the victory with one match remaining with a 10-5 win, making an Orange comeback mathematically impossible.
“Wrestling at a higher weight, especially toward the end of a match, is especially stressful when it’s close,” Harrelson says, “and all you can think of is, don’t let your nerves get in the way of what you’re trying to do. And that’s what it was.”
Orange took a 6-0 lead early, but decisions by Beard, Darrell Stewart (125) and Jody Chery (119) gave East Gaston a 10-6 lead. After Orange tied it at 12, Brian Stewart (140) won his match by pin and Shelton Camp (152) won 2-1 to improve his record to 27-0-1.
Harrelson, 45 now, says winning the championship was “surreal.”
“It was awesome. We were happy,” he says. “I can’t tell you how cool that was.”

BY THE NUMBERS
East Gaston 1992 Wresting Team: David Laws (103), Caine Beard (112), Jody Cherry (119), Darrell Steward (125), Tim Hawkins (130), Brian Anderson (135), Brian Stewart (140), Sean Anderson (145), Shelton Camp (152), Steven Carpenter (160), Brent Harrelson (171), Bart Davis and Jeremiah Brunson (189), Nicer Young (Hwt).
Season record: 14-1
After having had to cancel the 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce that the 2021 event will be held on August 21,2021 at the Mount Holly Municipal Complex at 6pm. Tickets are available for $20 at Moose’s Pharmacy and David’s Detailing.

By Kathy Blake
Think fast… 
Got a second? This wrestling match is over
There is a word used in the South for the act of shoving work and responsibilities aside in favor of freely and nonchalantly being idle with time.
The word is “loafering,” a version of “loafing,” which simply means going slowly at one’s own pace, elsewhere, with no regard for obligations, or clocks.
Scottie Holden, as an athlete, was not one for loafering. A wrestler at Stanley Middle School and East Gaston High School in the mid-1980s, he was quick – sometimes excessively quick – and left opponents pinned before they had time to get their strategy adjusted. On your mark, set…match over.
During Holden’s junior year in 1984, East Gaston Coach Doug Smith complained about, of all things, how fast he finished his matches and got back to the bench. “He got on to me, because my first 22 matches was first-period pin. And he kept telling me I needed to go into the second or third round, because when I got to State it was going to go longer,” Holden says. “So my State final that I won, I did it in 1 minute 38 seconds.”
Smith coached East Gaston from 1978 through 1991, a year that ended in a state title. He knows a bit about timing.
“He was one of the most physical wrestlers I ever coached,” Smith says. “He physically beat up everyone he wrestled. He pinned three out of four at the State Championships, and he pinned a kid in the finals who was about as physical and tough as you’d see.”
Holden wrestled before North Carolina high schools were divided by attendance size. There wasn’t any 1A, 2A, and so on. Everyone was in the same batch. “In later years, they split schools into four classifications, but with him, there was only one state champ in each weight class. Back in that day, you had to go through everybody to win, and he was the first to do that.”
Holden won his state title at 108 pounds.
Being quick, and athletic, helps when you’re the little guy.
“I got started in wrestling with my brother, who was a year and three months older than me,” Holden says. “And, don’t laugh, but we were both small-framed and we played Little League baseball, him as a left-handed pitcher and me as a catcher. And when we got to middle school our stature for being ball players was not equivalent to what was needed.”
So Scottie and Jerry joined the wrestling team. “I won the county championship all three years,” Scottie Holden says. “Seventh, eighth and ninth grade, I won every year. My brother was close to the same weight class, and we pushed each other; we drove each other hard.”
Having a brother along helps in transitioning to high school, too. “When you go from middle school to high school, you’re already nervous and scared, and when you’re on the starting (wrestling) team as a ninth-grader, and you’re competing against 11th- and 12th-graders, it’s definitely a challenge. He was my motivator. We pushed each other.”
Holden’s accomplishments as an athlete and later as a coach led to his induction in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “I never even thought of it before,” he says. “I never looked for any publicity. I’m just me. Worked hard all my life.”
That junior year, 1984, was a year for work. Holden says he’s the only East Gaston wrestler to win a true state championship, when all state schools competed without divisions. “There were 15 weight classes, but you had 25 or 30 people on a team. If your record didn’t allow you to qualify for Sectionals at the end of the season, you didn’t go,” he says. “The first round, there were 16 in each weight class and if you got beat you was done.”
Holden was quick away from the matt, too. If making weight was an issue, he could drop it like … now.
“When it was needed to lose 10 pounds during school, I had gotten out of class to lose weight… back in the day,” he says. “I could lose 10 pounds in a school day to compete. The plastic bags, the sweats… I’m glad they don’t allow that now.”
Holden’s senior year, 1985, didn’t go as planned. “I got sick and I had ruptured a blood vessel in my stomach, but I still made it to State,” he says. “My doctor advised me not to go, but I went anyway. I was too weak, and I lost out.” Still, colleges took notice. Chattanooga, Winthrop, Gardner-Webb, and he thought a long time about making the move to Tennessee.
“But I didn’t go,” he says. “I think that, in a way, if your mindset and heart isn’t in it, don’t do it. That is not a sport where you can get help, like have someone tackle someone or whatever. It’s a team sport, but it’s individual. So if your mind and heart is not in it, don’t pursue it.”
Holden pursued coaching, instead.
He was an assistant at Stanley Middle before he coached Mount Holly Middle School in 2002 and 2003, first as an assistant then as head coach. “I led them to their first championship title for Gaston County. Mount Holly had a team for 17 years and had never won,” he says. “I just wanted to work with the kids. I wasn’t interested in being in front of anybody. There’s a lot of kids I’ve coached through the years in Mount Holly, good kids.”
His son, Scottie Holden Jr., took over competition duties for his dad. “My oldest son went through Mount Holly and never had one point scored against him. I was amazed,” he says. “Never seen that before in my life. To see anyone in middle school never get one point scored on them.
“We won some matches 96-0, a perfect score. I told my team, I didn’t think that had ever been done in history. And the second year I coached, we beat another team 96-0.
“Scottie was a born-and-bred wrestler and started in the fifth grade, and we were actually invited to a tournament in Randolph County, and they invited our AAU team in Mount Holly,” Holden says. “My son was in sixth grade and beat an eighth-grader for the 80-pound weight class, and he only weighed 68 pounds. The kid from Randolph, his daddy was the head coach, and they had won the championship in that county for the last three years. But Scottie was 10 to 12 pounds lighter, and he beat him by decision.
“It was a big upset. I ran out on the matt and picked him up and hugged him. I didn’t care if I was disqualified or not. He also won a championship in seventh and eighth grade and was MVP for the Gaston County tournament.”
Looking back, Holden credits his parents – Jerry Holden Sr. and Helen Holden – and his children, his girls Tiffany and Carmen and sons Scottie and Calen. And his brother, Jerry. And Kirk Wells, the East Gaston assistant coach. “He was great with kids, and he pushed us more in a way like a comedy-type coach,” he says. “He made practices great.”
Holden left the sport for a role with Hoechst Celanese’s Mount Holly facility, mostly working with Oil of Olay production that sent bulk product to Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati. He says he put in “29.83 years, and retired and built a big shop behind my house.”
He can be found, most days, out back in that shop, working on a FedEx truck for Mutschler, Inc., which contracts throughout the southeast for FedEx Ground. He’ll do the maintenance, change out a transmission, service the vehicles. He’s quick to solve issues and take care of business.
But if he’s not there… he may have gone wandering to reminisce about how he’s worked hard all his life.
He’ll be back soon. He’s just off somewhere loafering.
BY THE NUMBERS
County Middle School Champion – 1980-1982 (7th, 8th and 9th grade)
State Tournament qualifier – 1983-1985 (10th, 11th, 12th grade)
State Champion, 108-pound class – 1984 (junior year)
Coach, Stanley Middle school
Assistant coach and coach, Mount Holly Middle School, 2002-2003
Won State title with MHMS
After having had to cancel the 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce that the 2021 event will be held on August 21, 2021 at the Mount Holly Municipal Complex at 6pm. Tickets are available for $20 at Moose’s Pharmacy and David’s Detailing.

Congratulations to two current high school athletic directors and one retired athletic director for receiving awards earlier this week at a North Carolina Athletic Directors Association luncheon. 
Scott Harrill of Cherryville High School received the Region 6 Athletic Director of Excellence Award. In addition, East Gaston High School athletic director Ryan Resendez received the Region 6 Citation Award and retired Hunter Huss High School athletic director Steve Gardner received the Braveheart Award.                                                                Gaston Schools photos

The Gaston College Athletics Department has added two new members to its baseball coaching staff. Jacob Rand and Kenneth “KJ” McAllister, Jr., will join Head Baseball Coach Shohn Doty in the Gaston College’s athletics program that officially begins this fall.
Rand is the Recruiting Coordinator and an Assistant Coach for the Baseball team. He graduated in 2015 from Mars Hill University in North Carolina, where he was a four-year starter on their baseball team, playing in three positions: Catcher, Second Baseman, and Third Baseman. Prior to Gaston College, he was assistant Baseball Coach and Director of Operations at Wingate University in N.C. Wingate averaged more than 30 wins per season and appeared in two NCAA Regionals during Rand’s tenure there, and in April won the 2021 South Atlantic Conference tournament title.
He has worked with several traveling baseball organizations, including the Charlotte Megastars and the Pineville Pioneers/Southern Collegiate summer team, and was the Head Coach of the On Deck O’s inaugural senior team.
“This is an unprecedented time for Gaston College, and I am excited to be a part of the bright future of this athletics department,” said Rand. “I look forward to working with Coach Doty and Coach McAllister as we build a program in an always competitive Region 10.”
“Jacob is a relentless recruiter and is on the cutting edge with his hitting philosophies,” said Doty. “We are extremely excited to add him to our staff. He is coming from a program that has a tradition of winning and he will bring that culture with him.”
McAllister, who was the 2018 3A High School Baseball Coach of the Year at Jacksonville High School in N.C., is also an Assistant Coach at Gaston College. He is a graduate of Limestone University in Gaffney, South Carolina, where he had the all-time sixth highest batting average, and was an All-Conference player.
In 2013, McAllister was an All-Star in the Coastal Plain League, the nation’s premier collegiate summer baseball league, and he played professionally for the San Angelo (Texas) Colts in 2014. He served as Assistant Baseball Coach at North Carolina Central University prior to joining Gaston College.
“I’m excited to be able to work with a great coaching staff and help mold a great group of student athletes,” said McAllister. “I’m truly grateful for the opportunity and I am ready to get to work!”
“KJ has a unique presence and energy around him that I believe will translate to our players,” said Doty. “He will be a quality coach and his knowledge of infield play will be a huge asset.”
Gaston College has several players already committed to join the baseball team this fall. New recruits include several Division I transfers as well as high school graduates from various areas, including Canada. With the high level of baseball talent in the area more local commits are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.