Durham Sports Club

The next meeting will be on August 8th at noon at Croasdaile Country Club. Our Guest Speaker for this meeting will be Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach at NC State. Through 25 seasons as head baseball coach at NC State, Elliott Avent has molded the Wolfpack into one of the nation’s best and most consistent programs. He is NC State’s all-time winningest coach with 926 victories (1,150 in his 33-year head coaching career), has taken the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament in 19 of the last 25 seasons and 14 of the last 17. Avent captured both ACC and National Coach of the Year honors in 2003. He joined an elite group on Feb.14, 2020 as he collected his 1,100th career win with a 4-0 result over James Madison. On April 6, 2021, Avent reached the 900-win milestone at NC State with a 13-2 rout of App State.

In the 2021 season, Avent saw a league-leading seven players collect All-ACC honors and a program-best five collect All-ACC Academic Team honors, headlined by ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Jonny Butler. Additionally, Butler, Evan Justice and Tyler McDonough collected a combined seven All-America honors.

In the past three seasons, a combined 18 players have been selected in the MLB Draft, headlined by first rounders Will Wilson (2019, Los Angeles Angels) and Patrick Bailey (2020, San Francisco Giants). They are the first Wolfpack players to be drafted in the first round in back-to-back seasons. The eight players taken in the 2019 and 2021 MLB Drafts tied for the second-most in a single season, and were one shy of the program-record nine in 2008.

efore coming to NC State, Avent spent eight seasons (1989-96) at New Mexico State University, where he compiled a 224-213 record and left as the second-winningest coach in school history. Avent took over a New Mexico State program that school administrators were considering dropping and guided it to its greatest success ever.

Mark Your Calendar

9/1/21 – Special Guest Speaker to be announced
9/15/21 – A Different Special Guest Speaker
10/6/21 –  Yet Another Different Special Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Billy Lee, Former Head Basketball Coach at Campbell University and former Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at UNC. Lee is a well-respected coach with over four decades of coaching experience in the state of North Carolina.

A 1969 graduate of Mount Olive College, Lee was an assistant coach at East Carolina for two seasons before taking the head job at Pembroke State (now UNC Pembroke) in 1978. During his time in Lumberton, Lee won three conference titles, advanced to the NAIA National Tournament and posted back-to-back 20-win seasons.

In 1985, Lee took over as the head men’s coach at Campbell, where he led the Camels for 18 seasons. A five-time conference coach of the year, Lee guided Campbell to the 1992 Big South Conference title and a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where his team faced eventual national champion Duke. In addition to winning over 400 games in his career, Lee was the director the Campbell University Basketball School, considered to be the largest and oldest of its kind in the United States.

After leaving Campbell in 2003, Lee spent three seasons at St. Andrews before retiring from the coaching ranks to work as a basketball consultant and television analyst.
In addition to his work on the sidelines, Lee has authored two books on basketball strategy. Lee has also been part of a number of organizations including the USA Basketball committee, the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Amateur Sports Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the Board of Advisors for the NC High School Athletic Association and the National Speakers Association. In 2009, Lee was inducted into the Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame.

GEORGE McAFEE AWARD PRESENTATION

The Durham Sports Club will be presenting it’s first annual George McAfee Award to an outstanding high school football player from Durham at this meeting. George McAfee was a professional American football player. He played halfback and defensive back for the Chicago Bears from 1940 to 1941 and 1945 to 1950. As an undergraduate at Duke University, McAfee starred in baseball and track and field as well as college football.  The recipient of this inaugural award is a very impressive young man. Come to the meeting to learn more about him.

Mark Your Calendar

3/18/20 -Dave Odom, College Basketball Guru.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club
4/1/20 – Special Guest Speaker
4/15/20 – A Different Special Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach for NC State. Entering his 24th season as head baseball coach at NC State, Avent has molded the Wolfpack into one of the nation’s best and most consistent programs. Starting with his hiring in 1996, he has taken the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament in 18 of the last 23 seasons and 13 of the last 15.

He joined an elite group during the 2017 season, as he surpassed 1,000 career victories to become one of four active coaches in the ACC to reach the milestone. He currently ranks among the top 12 winningest active head coaches.

In 2019, NC State turned in a 42-19 record in 2019, which marked the second consecutive year and 10th time under Avent that a team has posted 40+ wins in a single season. The squad was undefeated through its first 19 games, securing its best start to a season in program history as it was one of the nation’s last two remaining unbeaten teams. Thanks to its hot start, the Pack was ranked No. 1 in a major poll for the first time in program history as it occupied the top spot in the Collegiate Baseball Rankings for three consecutive weeks.

Four players earned All-ACC and All-America honors, headlined by Will Wilson who was named NC State’s first-ever ACC Defensive Player of the Year and its first consensus All-American since 2012. Patrick Bailey, a Buster Posey Award semifinalist, and Wilson, a Brooks Wallace Award finalist, were additionally among the candidates for the Golden Spikes Award.

The Wolfpack had eight players selected in the 2019 MLB Draft, which was the second-most in program history in a single season. Wilson was selected as the No. 15 overall pick to the Los Angeles Angels, becoming the first Wolfpack player since 2014 to go in the first round. Additionally, Evan Edwards was selected in the fourth round as the No. 111 pick to the Miami Marlins, marking the first time since 2014 that NC State had two players taken in the first four rounds of the MLB Draft.

.

.

Mark Your Calendar

2/19/20 – Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach, NC State. Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street
3/4/20 – Billy Lee, Former Men’s and Women’s Basketball Coach
3/18/20 -Dave Odom, College Basketball Guru.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Chris Pollard, Head Baseball Coach for Duke, who is entering his 8th season with Duke. Pollard led the Blue Devils to a magical postseason run in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, culminating in the program’s second straight and second NCAA Super Regional appearance. The NCAA Tournament selection marked the second consecutive appearance for the Blue Devils and the third in the last four seasons.

The Duke baseball program concluded the 2019 campaign as a consensus top-20 team for the second consecutive season. The Blue Devils received rankings as high as 16th in the national polls, while being recognized as a top-20 team amongst five different publications. Duke wrapped up the campaign as a consensus top-20 team for the second straight year: Baseball America (No. 18), Collegiate Baseball (No. 16), D1Baseball (No. 16), NCBWA (No. 17) and Perfect Game (No. 18).

Duke’s 35 wins in 2019 marked Pollard’s sixth consecutive season with 30-plus wins, making the Blue Devil skipper the first head coach to lead Duke to six 30-win seasons in his first seven campaigns.

Pollard is the first head coach to lead Duke to the NCAA Tournament since the Kennedy administration, Pollard is also the fastest Blue Devil head coach to reach 100 wins in Durham. In over 110 seasons prior to his arrival, Duke totaled 10, 30-win seasons. Since taking over the program, Pollard has guided the Blue Devils to five seasons of 30 or more wins.

Thanks, goduke.com

.

Mark Your Calendar

2/19/20 – Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach, NC State. Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street
3/4/20 – Special Guest Speaker.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club
3/18/20 -Dave Odom, College Basketball Guru.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Gary Hahn, who has been the radio voice of NC State football and basketball on the Wolfpack Sports Network since the 1990-91 season.

Before coming to NC State, Hahn worked on statewide radio sports networks for the University of Louisville, Ohio State University, and the University of Alabama. He was part of the broadcast team when Louisville won the NCAA Basketball Championship in 1980. He also called the 1985 Rose Bowl for the Ohio State Radio Network. In addition, Hahn described the 1986 NIT Championship that was won by the Buckeyes.

From 1981-83 Hahn was a sports anchor/reporter for the NBC Radio Network in New York City. He began his broadcasting career in 1970 while still a college student and also worked at WLWI-TV in Indianapolis in 1974-75.

Hahn also served as the radio play-by-play voice of the Carolina Cobras of the Arena Football League and the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks of the World League of American Football. He is a 1974 graduate of Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana, with a BS degree in Radio-TV.

Thanks for the info, www.gopack.com

This meeting will be held at the Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street.  It used to be the Grace Baptist Church.  Lunch will be provided.

.

Mark Your Calendar

2/5/20 – Chris Pollard, Head Baseball Coach, Duke.  Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street
2/19/20 – Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach, NC State. Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street
3/4/20 – Special Guest Speaker.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club
3/18/20 -Dave Odom, College Basketball Guru.  Meeting at Croasdaile Country Club

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Luke DeCock, Sports Columnist for The News & Observer. Join us as DeCock gives us a “2019 Sports Year in Review”. DeCock has covered four Final Fours, the Summer Olympics, the Super Bowl and the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup. He joined The News & Observer in 2000 to cover the Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a columnist in 2008. A native of Evanston, IL, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has won multiple national and state awards for his columns and feature writing while twice being named “North Carolina Sportswriter of the Year.”

NOTE: This meeting is for Members and their invited guests only. Meetings will re-open to non-Members beginning January 15th.

.

.

Mark Your Calendar

1/1/20 – NO MEETING
1/15/20 – Gary Hahn, “Voice of the Wolfpack”. Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street
2/5/20 – Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach, NC State. Meeting at Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Dan Brooks, Head Women’s Golf Coach at Duke. The women’s golf team just won their 7th NCAA National Championship this past May. Brooks brought home his 136th all-time victory and seventh NCAA Championship since 1999. It marked his first team title since 2014 and the first since the event moved to match play in 2015. The NCAA Championship is the 17th overall in Duke Athletics history. Over the last 21 years, Duke has established itself as the nation’s top women’s collegiate golf team with seven national titles, 110 event titles, 15 ACC titles, four NCAA individual champions, and 14 ACC individual medalist honors. The Blue Devils have been tabbed No. 1 nationally in 11 out of the last 19 years.

The women’s golf team won the first five national titles in women’s athletics at Duke University, each coming during the Brooks era. The seven NCAA Championships are also the most by any team in school history.

Duke has collected 20 ACC Championship titles during Brooks’ term with the Blue Devils, while 19 individuals have captured medalist honors at the ACC event under Brooks. He has coached 36 All-ACC selections (95 total selections) and 13 Academic All-America choices. His efforts with the nationally known Duke squad haven’t gone unnoticed as Brooks was inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Hall of Fame in 2001

In addition to his responsibilities with the women’s golf program, he teaches many students at the Duke Golf Club as a PGA Teaching Professional. He also directs a summer youth instructional program called the Duke Academy of Golf.

.

Mark Your Calendar

12/18/19 – Christmas Party Luncheon
1/1/20 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  (No meeting)
1/15/20 – Meeting at the Durham Nativity School, 1004 N Mangum Street.  Guest Speaker to be announced.

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Rick Steinbacher, Senior Associate Athletic Director for UNC. Steinbacher serves as UNC’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Communications. In that role, he manages all of the athletic department’s external communications including marketing, new media and gameday customer relations.

A 1993 Carolina graduate and football letter winner, Steinbacher has worked at UNC since 2000. He was part of the football program from 2000-06, and served as Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and New Media from 2006-12 before being promoted to his current position. He also is a long-time member of the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast team and is currently the color analyst for UNC football broadcasts.

The Greenville, SC., native played football at Carolina from 1990-93, starting 30 games at inside linebacker and earning third-team All-ACC honors as a senior, when he captained a team that went 10-3.

After graduating with a degree in business administration, he spent five years in sales and marketing with Procter and Gamble, based in Charlotte. Steinbacher then joined Tar Heel Sports Marketing, where he was a Vice President for Account Development.

Steinbacher and his wife, Valerie, a 1989 UNC graduate, have two daughters, Donna and Kiersten. His brother Steve was also a football player at Carolina from 1984-88, his sister Donna was a swimmer from 1986-87, and his sister-in-law Erika Steinbacher was an All-ACC diver at Carolina from 1984-88.

Thank you for the info, www.goheels.com

.

Mark Your Calendar

12/4/19 – Dan Brooks, Head Women’s Golf Coach, Duke
12/18/19 – Christmas Party Luncheon
1/1/20 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  (No meeting)
1/15/20 – Stay tuned for details!

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Matt Jednak, Head Coach of the men’s and women’s fencing team at UNC.  He took over the role on May 1, 2019 becoming just the second coach in Tar Heel program history, following Ron Miller, who came to UNC in 1967 and spent 52 years at the UNC helm.  Miller coached the Tar Heels for 52 seasons and compiled a career record of 1,603-900. He initially retired in the spring of 2018 but stayed on for the 2018-19 season as UNC completed the search and hired a new coach.

As a Tar Heel Assistant Coach he was involved in all aspects of the program, coaching numerous NCAA Championships qualifiers while developing a broad base of experience and a strong coaching philosophy.  “My coaching philosophy develops student-athletes and staff into confident leaders and forges strong bonds with parents and alumni, while my passion and emotional energy create an environment that cultivates the highest levels of success,” Jednak said. “This is an unbelievable opportunity for me.”

Jednak coached locally as part of the North Carolina Fencing Development Program and with Apex Fencing Academy, where he worked with several national medal winners.

A three-year letter winner as part of UNC men’s epee squad, Jednak completed his North Carolina degree in 2009, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mathematical decision sciences. He served as a Carolina assistant coach from 2009-14, then founded and currently manages his own accounting and tax firm while coaching fencing on the Club level.

Mark Your Calendar

11/20/19 – Rick Steinbacher, Senior Associate Athletic Director, UNC
12/4/19 – Dan Brooks, Head Women’s Golf Coach, Duke
12/18/19 – Christmas Party Luncheon

The guest speaker for our upcoming meeting will be Jeff Mullins, former Duke and NBA standout. Mullins attended Duke University from 1960 through 1964, where he averaged 21.9 points per game for his career. His #44 Duke jersey was retired in 1994. In 2002, Mullins was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men’s basketball team as one of the fifty greatest players in Atlantic Coast Conference history.

Mullins was a member of the United States Olympic basketball team that won the gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Mullins was taken by the St. Louis Hawks in the first round (6th pick overall) of the 1964 NBA draft. After two seasons with the Hawks he moved to the Golden State Warriors where he enjoyed the best seasons of his career and was selected as an NBA All-Star three times – in 1969, 1970, and 1971. He helped the Warriors to the 1967 Western Conference title and the 1975 NBA championship. Upon his retirement in 1976 he had amassed a total of 13,017 points for a twelve-year career average of 16.2 points per game.

In 1985, Mullins was hired as the head men’s basketball coach and Athletic Director at UNC Charlotte. The program had struggled since making the NCAA Final Four in 1977, and in three years Mullins took the 49ers back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since their 1977 run. His 182 victories over eleven seasons stood as a school record until Bobby Lutz, Mullins’ former assistant coach, surpassed that total in 2008.

During Mullins’ tenure, the 49ers played in three conferences: the Sun Belt (1985–1991), the Metro Conference (1991–1995), and Conference USA (1995–1996).

Mark Your Calendar

11/6/19 – Special Guest Speaker
11/20/19 – A Different Special Guest Speaker
12/4/19 – We Can’t Tell You