It’s been a whirlwind year for Macon Early College athletics.
Having gained permission in 2024 from the Macon County Board of Education, MEC fielded its first-ever athletic teams this school year, competing in basketball, soccer, track and field, and swim and dive. Recently, the Foxes’ officials and players recounted their campaigns.
“We've had multiple people in the community ask, ‘Why would you guys do this?’ … ‘MEC kids don’t need to have sports; this is not something that’s necessary,’” said athletic director/girls soccer head coach Katie Crawford. “But [Principal Caleb Parham] really believes, and I do too, that sports teach you so much more than just the athletic side – the teamwork, the camaraderie, just being part of a team. The majority of kids that come to MEC have not been on a team, other than maybe a community league team when they were six years old trying soccer or something like that.”
As a longtime coach at Macon Middle School, Crawford knows how teenage students benefit from organized sports, which also promote structure, work ethic and time management. In molding inexperienced athletes into a program however, MEC has had its fair share of growing pains.
“I have two that I can think of on a team of 25 girls that played [soccer] for me in middle school; a lot of them had done some community league here and there. But for the basketball team, I think there were two or three that had never played community basketball, so they just haven't been a part of a team before,” she said. “So it's been a huge learning curve too, because they're not used to the team aspect of, ‘What do you mean I have to be at practice every day? These are required things? I can't believe I have to do this.’ So that part has been challenging too, to kind of teach them … not just the sport, but ‘This is what it means to be on a school sports team,’ – not community where we practice once or twice a week, but a daily commitment.
After some initial hiccups, Crawford said the school’s athletes have made the required commitment and more, improving vastly throughout the year despite playing against established programs. Logistically, starting new programs presented an even greater challenge.
“Last year it was really hard because [Franklin High School] only has the one gym, and so their four [basketball] teams practice at the [Robert C. Carpenter] community building sometimes and other gyms, so it's not just us looking for gym space,” she said. “It's going to be a lot easier when we have a set schedule, and I think when the new high school is done that's going to be easier too, especially for soccer and having outdoor sports. That was the biggest nightmare this year – the gyms were a huge pain, and then we don't have a soccer field here, obviously.”
“Our [other] biggest headache is bus drivers – how do you find a driver?” she continued. “Neither one of our basketball coaches have their bus license, and so Parham was driving every single game, and we don't have any backup drivers if he's sick or something happens. Right now he's in a boot so he can't drive a bus and he's about to have foot surgery, and so they said that's going to take him out for like six months’ recovery. … Whenever we hire our fall coaches, we need to make sure that we're looking at who can drive a bus.”
Without suitable facilities on campus, MEC’s soccer and basketball teams were forced to be nomads this year, playing near-all-away schedules and practicing whenever and wherever they could at other schools and public venues around town. Now two seasons in, Crawford plans to continue building the program’s infrastructure.
“I asked Parham, ‘Really? We had to do it this year? We couldn’t wait until next year?’ But he was adamant that he did not want these kids not having an opportunity for some type of athletic outlet,” joked Crawford, referring to the planned completion of the Franklin High School stadium, which should free up space for other outdoor teams at Macon Middle School. “He really spearheaded it and pushed for it with the school board, and we're going to meet with [school board member] Stephanie Laseter … and try to go over the logistics of what all we need to ask the school board for and what we need to ask the central office for. There are so many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to this kind of stuff, so it's like, ‘OK, who do we ask about paying for our uniforms? Do we need to establish a booster club? … How do we do concessions?’”
Now entering the summer offseason, MEC is busily preparing for next fall, planning to offer volleyball, men’s soccer and cross country. For at least one athlete, the juice has been worth the squeeze.
“It's definitely worth it for the relationships that you make and the lasting memories, and it gives you something else because MEC is so focused on the academics as well,” said senior Ashley Hill. “I personally take six college classes each semester so it's a lot of work, especially for some of us that are on the different committees and clubs at school, and even on the college side. So even though you're physically working yourself, it also gives you something to relax with and have fun with.”
Having previously played sports for FHS while attending MEC, Hill finally donned her own school’s navy blue this year, competing in basketball and soccer. As one of its first-ever athletes, she’s helped lay the groundwork for years to come.
“I really enjoy playing sports and the people here make it really fun, so it's like a little family – a community of people,” she said. “Even though a lot of us had never played the sport before, we all wanted to make it happen because we have to play for two years until we can actually compete. So, we wanted to make it possible for future students to where it will actually count and they can go to regionals and stuff. Everybody's really supportive here, so even though we didn't really know what we're doing at first, it worked out.”
Still in a two-year probationary period as independent members of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, MEC must field at least one team apiece for both genders in each of the coming fall, winter and spring seasons before gaining acceptance as an official NCHSAA member. But while the schools’ team sports remain ineligible for the state playoffs, at least one player impressed for the Foxes this year.
“Not on a real team; I’d just played by myself and learned on my own,” said Samson Dinh on whether he’d ever played basketball before. “I heard about it a little before winter started – maybe around September-October, something like that. That's when I got told that we’d have a basketball season in the winter; I was pretty excited after that. … I really enjoyed it; I think it’s a historic moment for the school.”
In a winless season playing teams from established programs, Dinh was a rare bright spot for MEC men’s hoops this year, scoring nearly half of the team’s total points. Having lost their first two games by at least 35 points apiece, the Foxes dropped their last three by just 41 points combined, including a 10-point rematch loss to Blue Ridge Early College after falling to the Bobcats in a rout just five days before.
“At the start it was very chaotic – I mean, first year, bunch of new kids, not all of them knew how to play basketball. … We had like 10 or 11 guys, and only two of them had played before," he said. “But as we went on, we built chemistry together and got better. We’re all good friends so we all had decent chemistry before, and we always play together so it came together really easily. We got better and improved a lot as a team.”
“Definitely just the work ethic that I have compared to other people on my team; I just work way harder than them,” Dinh said of the key to his success. “I’ll get there a little bit early and get some shots up before practices and games. It’s just the amount of work I put in over everybody else, and that's what made me a lot better.”
Still just a freshman, Dinh hopes to help MEC compete in the Smoky Mountain Conference for years to come, along with fellow Macon County schools in Nantahala and Highlands. In Olympic sports, the Foxes already boast one of the state’s top 1A athletes.
“For pole vault, my PR [personal record] originally was like 8’ 6”, 9 feet. I was averaging 8’ 6”, and then yesterday I hit 10 feet, which put me at second in the state,” said Isaiah Darby of the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship meet April 29. “For long jump, I was averaging like 13’, 14’ in the indoor season, and then come outdoor at the second meet I jumped 17’ 1”, a two-foot PR. Now I'm averaging like 16’ 9”, and that's what I hit at this meet, so it was pretty cool. I was also in the second flight, which is also pretty cool – I’ve never been in a higher flight before.”
Training alongside their FHS counterparts under state title-winning head coach Matt Harlfinger, MEC’s track and field athletes received top-level instruction this year. Later going on to place second in the pole vault at the 1A state meet, the Foxes’ greatest-ever athlete has set the standard for his school.
“100%. Especially being the first one in indoor and in outdoor doing so well, it's pretty cool,” Darby said of whether he’s proud to be MEC’s first-ever track athlete. “Most people don't expect much from MEC; they think all of the weird kids and the nerds come here, but for me it's the potential that you have that makes it so special.”
Sports Editor Will Woolever can be reached at sports@thefranklinpress.com