Northside community coming together to honor former coach
Published 3:17 am Wednesday, October 31, 2018
PINETOWN — Northside High School will honor the memory of the much-loved Coach Mike Proctor with the Old Timers’ Basketball Game on Nov. 10, which will also serve as a kickoff for the 2018-19 basketball season.
The proceeds from the event will go to benefit the family of Proctor, the former long-time Northside basketball coach who died from cancer on Aug. 25. The event, which will consist of three games with the first starting at 4:30 p.m., will feature student-athletes who played for the Panthers at any point from 1989 through 2018, with all basketball players who played at Northside invited and welcomed to play, according to event organizer Claudia Alligood, a close friend of Proctor’s and a retired Northside teacher.
“We are hoping for a tremendous crowd,” Alligood said. “There will be food, laughs, renewals of old acquaintances, rekindling of memories, some really good basketball, kicking off of a new basketball season and honoring a great man.”
Alligood said the event was the brainchild of Bogy Patton, Northside’s soccer coach, who thought of the idea last spring and came to Alligood with it due to the fact he was new to the area at the time and heard she’d be the right person to put it together.
“He (Patton) had watched Mike and the way he had dealt with his illness and the way Mike pushed himself and continued to do all the things that needed to be done,” Alligood said. “He thought an old timers’ game that included all of Mike’s former players would be great, and the proceeds would go to Mike’s family.”
After hearing of Patton’s idea, Alligood said she contacted school officials and Proctor’s close friends who served as his assistant coaches to begin putting together the event.
The first of the day’s games will feature the Northside players who graduated from 1990 through 2004. The second game will see action between all the women basketball players who played for the Panthers, and the final game will be made up of players who graduated from 2005 to 2018. The teams will be divided into even and odd graduation years.
There will also be a 3-point shooting contest between games, a 50-50 raffle, former Panther cheerleaders to lead the crowd, a table for autographs and a venue for photographs.
If interested in playing, contact Alligood (252-702-9786), Darlene Ormond (252-943-8681) or Jabari Ashe (252-945-4106) and provide them with your name, graduation year and contact information by tomorrow. For any former Northside Cheerleaders who would like to participate, contact Alexa Brooks Asby through Facebook.
For those interested in attending the event and honoring the memory of Proctor, tickets are available at the door for $10. Purchasing a ticket in advance is $8, with tickets available at NHS through Nov. 9. Tickets may also be purchased from many Northside athletes, and can also be found at Riddick & Windley in Belhaven, Pinetown’s A & W Sales on Seed Tick Neck Road, Bayview Golf Club in Bath, True Value Hardware just west of Bath and Washington’s Nameplates Inc.