GREENSBORO, N.C. — On Tuesday night, High Point University Athletics was proud to be in attendance to watch High Point College alums Pat Hester and Kenny Carter be inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 inside the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.
Hester and Carter are part of the 2023 induction class that includes John Wesley Wright Sr., Billy Quick, Chancellor William E. Moran, Pam Doggett, Dr. Snow Brenner Daws, David Sanford, Adell Harris, Shannon Pope, Susan Yow, and Mike Elkins.
Pat Hester
Hester is recognized throughout Guilford County and statewide as a pioneer, role model and guiding force in the development of high school women’s athletics. She graduated from High Point Central in 1955, at a time when women’s sports were not a universal part of every curriculum, but she was able to participate in volleyball, basketball, softball and track and field. She played basketball for four years at High Point College before beginning a remarkable coaching career at her high school alma mater that spanned more than three decades. Between 1960 and 1982, Hester guided her basketball teams to a cumulative 250-79 record. Her volleyball teams stood 96-62 over 14 seasons, and her softball teams were 149-64 over 13 years (according to limited records that were kept at the time). When girls’ sports became organized during the 1970s, Hester’s basketball teams won multiple conference championships and three regional titles. Hester also made huge contributions behind the scenes when she guided High Point Central through its compliance with Title IX, providing input and writing many policies, procedures and regulations. She created a Women’s Sports Day in High Point that was replicated by many other schools and communities. Inducted into High Point Central’s inaugural sports hall of fame class of 2013, Hester now devotes much of her time to volunteering with Mobile Meals, Open Door Ministries and the Red Cross.
“I’m humbled and honored to be here,” Hester said. “To be in the same group as the legends that are already here, I’ll ask myself every day, ‘Do I deserve to be here?’ But I really appreciate it.
“I look back now, and I don’t know how we did it. We had some good coaches. We could have not done it all without the physical education at High Point College at that time, who came in to provide the equipment.”
Kenny Carter
The basketball court at High Point Central is named in Kenny Carter’s honor following a 24-year coaching career in which his girls teams compiled an overall record of 573-125 and won five NCHSAA state titles (1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002). His resume also includes 14 conference championships, 15 tournament championships and 10 undefeated seasons in conference play. He was selected as the North Carolina Associated Press Coach of the Year in 1997 and 2002. His teams posted four 30-win seasons, 20 seasons of 20 wins or more, and 41 of his high school players were awarded college scholarships. Carter is also the founder and director of Xpress Travel Ball, which has sent more than 100 players to the college ranks. A native of High Point, Carter played multiple prep sports and went on to star in baseball at High Point College. A four-year starting Panthers infielder, he twice earned All-Carolinas Conference honors and was named NAIA second-team All-America as a senior in 1982. He earned all-tournament honors at the 1979 NAIA National Championships, where he helped High Point to a second-place finish. Carter’s HPC teams posted an overall record of 110-61-1 while winning three Carolinas Conference titles. He played one year of minor league baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals organization before embarking on his successful career as an educator and coach. Carter was inducted into the High Point Central Hall of Fame in 2017.
“You have to surround yourself with a lot of positive people,” Carter said, “and I was so fortunate to walk into the city of High Point and all of its athletes and all of its coaches. I just indoctrinated myself within their beliefs and I was meant to work with a lot of positive people, and it’s just been really, really good to me. It’s a really big honor for me.”
#GoHPU
