To the Editor:

As we prepare for the beginning of another school year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the citizens of Red Springs and the surrounding communities for all the support given to Red Springs High Athletics and the Lady Devils Basketball team during my time at Red Springs High.

Twenty-five years of coaching; one as a volunteer assistant and twenty-four as the head coach, was a very special time in my life. It was a great blessing and an honor to represent my alma mater as a teacher and coach. It was never considered work. I was always going to school.

For considering me at the onset of my career, I would like to thank my former high school coach Danny Collins for his recommendation and then superintendent of Red Springs City Schools, John Ray for hiring me. I would also like to thank the past and current administrative teams and athletic directors for listening each time I would say ‘I was thinking…’ and allowing me to see many ideas and programs to fruition

To the parents of all the student-athletes, I thank you for entrusting me with your sons and daughters not only during the school year but in the summers and off seasons as well. You made great sacrifices with your time and personal funds so they could compete at an optimum level and look like a team enabling them to represent our school with pride and confidence.

I want to thank the citizens of the town of Red Springs, for supporting us over the years. You gave us donations and bought even when you didn’t want to; peanuts, doughnuts, personal and business advertisements, hundreds of bar-b-que, chicken and fish plates, and thousands of pieces of fruit to help us attend camps and buy the apparel we needed to wear to look like winners as we entered opposing gyms.

A heart-felt thanks to the Red Springs Citizen, whose staffers then James Locklear, and Mark Moses supported us by writing such great stories on each season. Those stories provided hundreds of articles and pictures for scrapbooks that represented Red Springs High School girls’ basketball.

Thank you to my friends, especially the Ruckers, Mrs. Catherine and her children, and all others who followed us all across the state during the season, at summer leagues and summer camps providing fans in the stands as we worked to improve our athletic skills while representing Red Springs with class. Throughout the years, there were many who never saw us play but prayed for us or sent congratulatory cards such as our very own Senior Olympic basketball player Mrs. Joan Watson that I want to thank also. Thanks also to my family; sisters and brothers, cousins, uncles and aunts and my late mother Mrs. Delthia L. Patterson who cheered for us and made us feel special on the big victories and consoled us when we experienced those devastating losses.

Archie Wallace, David Berrier, Tonya Chavis, Yolanda Ray Henderson, Rodney Gunning, Carolyn Fowler, Rekha Patterson, Shakeita Sinclair, and Tasha Leggett were some who served as assistant coaches, whose mostly in-kind gifts of time and money, allowed us to develop our skills individually thus improving as a team over the twenty-four year span. Five hundred wins would never have been possible without their help and the unwavering devotion, love and teaching of Linwood Ross and Tim Heath. .

My gratitude is expressed to some others who were instrumental in the success during my tenure; Johnny Cue, Maria Peavy, Mary McCutchen, Glenn Patterson, Sr. Lt. Col. Michael Houge, Nekia Shaw and many of my co-workers at Red Springs High.

I know without a doubt, that my success was a direct blessing from God. Because my time at Red Springs would never have been as successful without His gifts of student-athletes who allowed themselves to be motivated and gave their very best all the time. In addition, they made the sacrifice to get better not only on the court, the track, or the cross-country course but in the classrooms which eventually shaped them into the great people they are today. In twenty-four years, we had twenty-four teams…no two alike…all great in their own right. Most of them were over-achievers

Even though it was not always easy, I truly believed that Red Springs High was where I was suppose to be. I apologize if I said anything to hurt your feelings…please charge it to my head and not my heart. My prayer was and still is that God would decrease me and increase him in me so that others could see His Light in me.

Although I will no longer be working at Red Springs High School, I will always have the best interest of the school and its athletic teams in my heart. You can surely count on me to support you and even to recruit you for Fayetteville State University. Our town is blessed with plenty of talent, males and females and with proper nurturing and development will lead to many championships to come.

Finally, I expect to see you often at Capel Arena on the campus of Fayetteville State cheering for my new team the Lady Broncos. It’s okay if you wear red.

God bless you all, sincerely I am,

Eva Patterson-Heath

Head Women’s Basketball Coach

Fayetteville State University