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63rd WNC Sports Awards Banquet Set for May 25 at Omni Grove Park Inn
The 63rd Western North Carolina Sports Awards Banquet will be held on Sunday, May 25 at the Omni Grove Park Inn.
The banquet, first held in 1959 and conducted by the Mountain Amateur Athletic Club, honors the area’s top high school athletes and teams with 24 awards, 20 scholarships, the Riley Howell Courage Award, and a Special Olympics Award.
More than 100 of the area’s top student athletes are invited to the banquet, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Omni Grove Park Inn’s Grand Ballroom. Tickets are now available to the public and can be purchased for $60 .
Finalists for the awards and scholarships recipients will be announced later this month.
For more information, contact Martha Gates at marthagates18@gmail.com.
Tickets for the 2025 WNC Sports Awards Banquet. There are no physical tickets but buyers will get an email confirmation of the purchase. The confirmation code on your receipt will not work at this time. Please do not click on that link. Guests are then put on a list for assigned seats. When checking in at the night of the banquet, your table number will be given to you.
Our Mission Statement: The Mountain Amateur Athletic Club seeks to recognize and honor the talents of our local athletes and their successes both in sports and in life.
We are a non-profit organization that fulfills its mission by presenting the annual High School Sports Awards Banquet and Western North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony through generous sponsors.
WNC Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Held Dec. 8
The Mountain Athletic Amateur Committee held its annual Hall of Fame ceremony December 8 at the Omni Grove Park Inn. The event was scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 29, but was postponed due to Hurricane Helene. This year’s inductees were former Western Carolina women’s basketball star Jayne Arledge, former college football coach Paul Johnson, former major league standout Cameron Maybin, and legendary high school baseball coach Tom Smith. Larry Pope, the longtime sport editor and executive editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times, received the Adams-Oschenreiter Lifetime achievement award.
Paul Johnson is a native of Newland and a 1979 graduate of Western Carolina. He was the head football coach at Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. Johnson accumulated a career record of 189-100 as a head coach. He guided Georgia Southern to back-to-back I-AA national championships in 1999 and 2000 plus five Southern Conference titles. While at Navy, Johnson guided the Midshipmen to 45 wins and five consecutive bowl berths. He also posted an 11-1 record against the other service academies as Navy won the Commanders-in-Chief Trophy for five straight years.
Johnson was the head coach at Georgia Tech for 11 seasons. He helped lead the Yellow Jackets to 82 wins, nine bowl games, one ACC title and three appearances in the ACC championship game. Paul was named ACC Coach of the Year three times during his tenure in Atlanta.
Cameron Maybin is an Asheville native who starred at T.C. Roberson HS and was coached by Tom Smith. He helped lead the Rams to a state championship as a freshman in 2002 and was named Tournament MVP. Cameron was named 2004 Youth Player of the Year by Baseball America prior to his senior season. He won the Connie Mack Summer League batting title in 2004 also earned the league’s World Series MVP award.
Maybin made his major league debut with the Tigers in August of 2007. He earned his first hit and first home run off legendary pitcher Roger Clemens of the New York Yankees. He played for 12 different major league teams over the next 15 years. Maybin was part of the Houston Astros 2017 World Series championship and played a key role in Houston’s Game 2 victory. As a pinch-hitter, Cameron singled, stole second and scored the go-head run in Houston’s 7-6 win that evened the series. His stolen base gave millions of baseball fans free tacos as a promotion with Taco Bell.
Tom Smith enjoyed a legendary baseball coaching career at T.C. Roberson. Tom is an Asheville native who was a baseball and football letterman at Reynolds HS where he a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. He played collegiately at Western Carolina.
Smith became Roberson’s head coach in 1979 and had an incredible 28-year career with Rams as he posted a 478-183 overall record, winning three state championships in 1983, 2002 and 2002. He guided Roberson to 19 trips to the state playoffs, 14 conference championships and nine Buncombe County titles. He coached three players who reached the major leagues in Darren Holmes, Chris Narverson and Cameron Maybin. Smith had 83 of his players play collegiate baseball from UCLA to UNC Asheville. In addition, five of his players were named North Carolina Players of the Year. Tom has earned 11 Coach-of-the-Year awards in his career. He is a member of the Roberson Ring of Gold and the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Jayne Arledge is the only woman student-athlete to have her number retired at Western Carolina. She enjoyed a standout prep career at Enka High School where she lettered in four sports: basketball, volleyball, softball, track, and field. Jayne continued her basketball career in college as she became the first women to ever receive an athletic scholarship at Western Carolina to play basketball.
She guided the Crusaders women’s basketball program to three WCJC championships, three NCCAA Southeast Region championships, and four NCCAA tournament appearances including a second-place finish in 2005. During that time, Arledge coached several All-Conference players, seven All-Americans, four All-Tournament players, and six Academic All-Americans.
She is currently the Senior Woman’s Administrator at North Greenville and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2018. Arledge is also a member of the Enka HS Hall of Fame.
Larry Pope is this year’s recipient of the Adams-Oschenreiter Lifetime Achievement Award.
Larry worked at the Asheville Citizen-Times from 1971-1997. He began his career as the newspaper’s Sports Editor before becoming News Editor and Managing Editor. He finished his career at the paper as Senior Vice President and Executive Editor before retiring in 1997.
Larry won numerous awards for writing during his time at the Citizen-Times. He served as Chairman of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce Sports Committee and Vice President of the Southern Conference Sports Media Association. Larry was also the President of the North Carolina Press Association Daily newspapers and the North Carolina Associated Press. He was on the Board of Directors for the WNC Hall of Fame first three classes from 1978-80.
HOF Member Peterson Passes Away
The Mountain Amateur Athletic Committee was sad to learn that one of its Hall of Fame members Bruce Peterson passed away in early March.
Bruce was a legend in the sports community in Asheville and at one time spearheaded our committee. He was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2004 and you’ll have to look far and wide for someone more deserving. He was a five-sport athlete at Lee Edwards HS and then earned 11 letters at Western Carolina in football, basketball, and tennis.
Bruce would go on to become an outstanding football coach at Asheville HS where he led the Cougars to the state playoffs seven times in an 11-year period. Coach Peterson would leave coaching becoming an excellent high school administrator. He was Principal at Enka HS where he was named Principal of the Year and earned an award from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for his contributions to high school athletics.
Bruce and his wife Carol worked tirelessly for the Asheville sports community.
They helped form the Asheville Buncombe Sports Commission and with a hard-working committee brought back the Southern Conference Basketball Tournament along with many other events including the Billie Jean Cup. He also served at UNC Asheville on the Board of Trustees and was the athletic department’s liaison.
Bruce worked right until the end. He helped run last year’s Southern Conference Tournament and attended last fall’s Western North Carolina Hall of Fame banquet.
One of the great moments at the banquet was when fellow Hall of Fame member Kenny Ford came over to Bruce’s table and talked to him for a while. Two great legends talking about football though Bruce said afterwards he was doing a lot of listening with Kenny!
This year’s committee would like to say thank you to Bruce Peterson for his amazing life and contributions to sports in the WNC community. One of the reasons we’re still an organization is because of Bruce Peterson.