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Friday, August 1, 2008
Charlie Adams Celebrates a Career in High School Sports
Raleigh Durham, NC
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Charlie Adams may just set a record for being inducted into more halls of fame than anyone. Adams' name can be found in the Cary High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the Eastern Carolina University Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the very prestigious National High School Sports Hall of Fame, one of only three North Carolinians so honored. Over the last 50 plus years, wherever Charlie Adams worked or played, he has excelled.
Adams grew up in Cary, where his father was a prominent businessman and his mother taught in the local school system. A three sport athlete at Cary High, he came into his own on the basketball court, leading the team his senior year to the 1954 NCHSAA Class A state basketball championship. After a freshman year at University of North Carolina, he transferred to Eastern Carolina University, where he helped lead the Pirates' varsity team to a 41-29 cumulative record while he was there.
He served as the head high school basketball coach in Laurel, Delaware before moving back to Cary, where he coached the basketball team for four successful years. After serving as Dean and assistant principal at Garner High School, he was hired by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in 1967 as an assistant director and was made the association's director in 1984, where he continues to serve with distinction.
Over his career at the NCHSAA, the achievement he is most proud of is the NCHSAA Endowment fund. The fund currently has nearly $12 million in it, starting from scratch in 1991. As Adams puts it, “We leveled the playing field for high school athletes in North Carolina.”
Under his leadership, the association has grown to be one of the foremost in the country, earning him frequent invitations to speak across the country. Adams is quick to credit his success to lessons he first learned on the court. “When you fall down, you have to get back up. Drive, determination, dedication. Sports taught me all of that,” he says.
After nearly 60 years in the sports world, many people would look forward to resting but Adams gives no sign of slowing down. “Most people spend their day watching the clock,“ he says. “I don't. I am excited to wake up in the morning, excited to go to work. In fact, I have never worked a day in my life. I am a very lucky man to get to do what I do”.
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