Former head men’s basketball coach Bill Clingan joined former
student-athletes Darwin Carr and Candy Tefertiller as this
year’s inductees into the Mount Olive College Athletics Hall
of Fame Class of 2008. The trio comprises the third Hall of Fame
class and brings the number of inductees to 12. Induction
ceremonies were held Saturday on the Mount Olive College campus as
part of Pickle Classic and Alumni Weekend festivities.
Bill Clingan, who continues to teach at Mount Olive College and
serves as executive director of the Trojan Club, spent 18 years as
the Trojans’ head men’s basketball coach. He compiled
an overall record of 325-195, including a 124-35 mark over his
final five seasons. Clingan guided Mount Olive to NCAA Tournament
appearances in each of the last five years, including an NCAA
Division II East Regional Championship and a trip to the Elite
Eight in 2005.
Under Clingan, Mount Olive won or shared three conference
championships. In 2004-05, he was named Carolinas-Virginia
Athletics Conference (now Conference Carolinas) Men’s
Basketball Coach of the Year. Last season, Clingan led the Trojans
to the Conference Carolinas regular season and tournament
championships. Mount Olive surpassed the 20-win mark each of the
last five years and seven times overall under Clingan, including a
school record 29 wins in 2004-05.
Clingan was introduced by former Trojan men’s basketball
student-athlete and assistant coach Wells Gulledge and
Clingan’s oldest son Steve Clingan. Current men’s
basketball student-athlete Chris Holloway presented the plaque to
Coach Clingan.
“Everything I am as a coach, I learned from Coach
Clingan,” said Gulledge, who currently serves as head
boys’ basketball coach at Kinston High School. “All of
the players who have come through here, if they feel half of what I
feel because of Coach Clingan, that’s hall of
fame.”
“Anyone who knows Coach knows how competitive he
is,” said Steve Clingan. “His competitiveness has led
to many milestones here at Mount Olive.”
Coach Clingan, who underwent stomach surgery earlier this fall
(“My sister joked that after having my stomach tied up in
knots for so many years as a coach, it had to unwind
eventually”), said he tried to teach his players more than
basketball.
“I tried to teach the guys that life is a do-it-yourself
project,” said Clingan. “What you do today builds the
house you’ll live in tomorrow.”
He reflected on three in-game decisions during his career:
“a bad decision, a good decision and a lucky
decision.”
“We were in overtime in a game at the Rollins College
Tournament and I called time out…just before Russell
Stephens hit a 35-footer. That was the bad decision,” said
Clingan. “In a game against Barton, we called a play where we
scored on a baseline drive in the final second. That was the good
decision. As for the lucky decision, we gave the ball to Marcus
West against Pfeiffer and he hit an 80-footer at the buzzer to win
108-105. Only the Good Lord knows how the ball went in.”
Darwin Carr, a 1988 graduate, earned Mount Olive College Male
Athlete of the Year honors in both his junior and senior years. An
all-conference and all-district selection, Carr averaged 16.6
points per game as a sophomore and 21.6 points per contest as a
junior. He helped lead Mount Olive to a pair of 19-win seasons, a
school record at that time. Carr has the distinction of playing on
Mount Olive’s last junior college team and first-ever
four-year college team. After enrolling at Mount Olive while it was
still a two-year college, Carr became one of the first to earn a
four-year degree at Mount Olive.
Carr is currently a principal’s assistant at an elementary
school in Troy, N.Y. Previously, he spent 10 years as assistant
director of athletics and head boys’ varsity high school
basketball coach at Berkshire Farms in Upstate New York, a
non-profit residential facility for at-risk youth. Carr helped lead
the team to three section titles and to one regional final. In
2003, Carr and his team were featured on the ESPN television show
“Outside The Lines.”
Carr was introduced by his sister Peggy Tatum. Current
men’s basketball student-athlete Justin Melton presented the
plaque to Carr.
“As a kid, Darwin played basketball against the older kids
and that helped him not be afraid to go up against anyone,”
said Tatum. “He didn’t have an attitude. He just loved
to play. He was always laughing and smiling when he was
playing.”
Tatum talked about Carr’s decision to stay at Mount Olive
instead of transferring after receiving his two-year degree.
“He earned his associate’s degree and was recruited
by other schools, but he decided to stay at Mount Olive,”
said Tatum. “He appreciated the love shown by Mount Olive
College.”
“I don’t really have a big speech. My sister said it
all,” said Carr. “The college helped me grow as a man
and I can’t begin to thank Mount Olive College
enough.”
Candace “Candy” Tefertiller, a 1997 graduate, was
named Mount Olive College Female Athlete of the Year in both her
junior and senior years. A two-time all-conference first team
selection, Tefertiller was the 1994 Carolinas Conference Volleyball
Player of the Year. On the basketball court, Tefertiller averaged
15.6 points per game during her junior year and was second in the
conference in three-point shooting in her senior year. Off the
court, Tefertiller became the first-ever Mount Olive College
student-athlete (and one of only two student-athletes in MOC
history) to be awarded an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. In
addition to her athletic and academic accomplishments, Tefertiller
was the 1995 MOC Pickle Classic Queen.
Tefertiller earned her master’s degree in physical therapy
from East Carolina University and will complete her doctorate
degree in physical therapy in April. She currently works at
Shepherd Institute in Atlanta, Ga., and serves as the clinical
program manager for the Beyond Therapy, Multiple Sclerosis
Institute and Pain Center programs. Tefertiller holds post-graduate
certifications as an Assistive Technology Practitioner (ATP) and
Neurological Clinical Specialist (NCS).
Former volleyball teammate Amanda (Parrish) Surratt introduced
Tefertiller, while current Trojan women’s volleyball
student-athlete Kailey Preece presented the plaque to
Tefertiller.
Surratt says Tefertiller’s intensity brought the team to a
new level.
“I don’t think I was ready for what Candy brought to
the team,” said Surratt. “She was so intense and always
focused on what we can do better.”
Surratt added that Tefertiller shows that same drive in her
professional career.
“When Candy calls me on the phone, she gets so pumped
talking about her patients,” said Surratt. “She gets so
excited talking about a kid who was able to move his leg or another
patient showing progress.”
Originally from Big Piney, Wyoming, Tefertiller said she felt
like she entered a completely different world when she came to
Mount Olive.
“I didn’t know much about North Carolina except that
it was close to the beach and it was warmer than Wyoming,”
said Tefertiller. “Leaving my family in Wyoming was a little
less difficult because of the family atmosphere at Mount Olive
College.”
Tefertiller joked about some of the Southern customs she
encountered and how early days at Mount Olive took on a
“porcine” theme.
“The cafeteria served ham hocks and neck bones, and I
thought it was a joke,” said Tefertiller. “Someone
invited me to a pig picking and I had no idea what it was. One of
the drills the volleyball team did was “running
hogpens.” There was definitely a pig theme going!”
But it’s still the Mount Olive’s family atmosphere
that stands out for Tefertiller.
“It was the family atmosphere at Mount Olive that helped
nurture me and helped me grow as a person,” said Tefertiller.
“I learned and grew more at Mount Olive College than during
any time of my life.”
The first Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremony took place in 2006. The inaugural class was comprised of
Kenney Moore (baseball), Larry Nance (athletics director/coach),
Clarence Rose (men’s golf), Ray Scarborough (friend of the
college/baseball) and Russell Stephens (men’s basketball).
The Class of 2007 featured Jimmy Adams (athletics director/coach),
Charles Davis (baseball), Larry Dean (athletics director/coach) and
Sarah Leonard Richardson (women’s basketball).
