In recent articles, I have mentioned some of the better athletes in the past that have played for the Pam Pack. Without good coaching, these young men would not have had any direction or have reached the level of excellence they did. We all remember the legendary J.G. “Choppy” Wagner, who headed our football program for years. Today, the high school stadium is named for him because of the legendary status he earned, and deservingly so. He is in the NCHSAA Hall of Fame, but I think Coach would even tell you that without good assistant coaches this would not have been possible.

The first assistant that I remember is coach Bill Sweel. He also served as the basketball coach and this is where I first met coach Sweel. I was a young boy not yet in school when Bubba and I would shoot on the side goals in the gym. Coach Sweel would allow us to do this as long as we kept our ball off the main floor. He also gave me my first leather basketball. Coach helped in football and they formed a great team.

Once I got old enough to enter J.S. Small school, I got to meet coach Pete Everette. He was one of the nicest people I have ever met, and his disposition was meek and mild. I do not think I ever heard him raise his voice in our physical education classes. He also was a big help to coach Wagner. At that same time came our head basketball coach from Belhaven and one of my favorites, along with coach Alligood. Coach Chapin and Bartow Houston coached our jayvee football team and coach Alligood assisted in football and coached baseball. In my ninth-grade year, Graham Singleton returned home to coach the offensive line and teach us math until the end of the year. That is when Ted Day returned to coach the offensive line and some have said that he was the best offensive-line coach they have ever had in high school He was a ball of fire, and he played like it and deserves to be in the East Carolina University Hall Of Fame. Coach Wagner really liked a former player, Danny McNeill, who was a lineman for Coach, and he allowed Danny to coach his OL until his retirement in 1967 when he moved to coach the jayvee team with Danny and Riley Roberson.

This is when coach Dick Cherry took the helms of the Pam Pack program. Coach Cherry was one of the greatest to wear the blue and white! He was a former Little All-American at ECU and could back that up with his talent. He had previously coached at Elizabeth City but wanted to return to his beloved Washington. He was coach Wagner’s handpicked successor, along with Danny McNeill and a host of others. This is also when Joe Tkach came to Washington. Joe was a great player at ECU and a member of the Wild Dog defense and he also wrestled for coach John Welborn. Joe later became the athletic director and wrestling coach at Washington High School and was highly successful.

This kind of wears my memory out, and I am sure that I have left someone out. Somewhere along the line, I think Zoph Potts assisted, but I cannot remember. Please forgive my memory if I have left some one out — I honestly can say it was not intentional. These men helped establish “The Long Blue Line” that everyone talks about today. Thanks for all you did! On Friday night, Kugler Field was the place to be!

I have learned many valuable lessons between two white lines, and I am forever thankful to everyone who coached me!

 

— Harold Robinson Jr. is a former coach at Williamston High School for 31 years and on the East Carolina coaching staff for 12 years.