Providence Day hall of fame inductees include NBA, NFL players and an Olympian
Charlotte Hornets forward Grant Williams and Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Ickey Ekwonu will be inducted into the Providence Day School Hall of Fame in a ceremony Saturday afternoon.
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Williams, who graduated in 2016, and Ekwonu, who graduated in 2019, will be inducted with Olympic track and field silver medalist Anna Cockrell (2016 grad), cross-country star Emma Brown Vandemore (2015) and former Providence Day track coach Carol Lawrence (2012-22).
The event is part of the school’s homecoming weekend and will be held in its gym at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Before being drafted by the Celtics in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft, Williams was a back-to-back SEC player of the year at Tennessee in 2018 and 2019. He was the first player to accomplish that feat since 1995. Williams was a consensus All-American in 2019.
In high school, he led Providence Day to the 2016 state championship, beating Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo’s High Point Christian team in the final. After the win, Providence Day played in the DICKS’ national high school championship in New York.
Ekwonu was a first round draft pick by the Panthers in 2022, going No. 6 overall. Before becoming an all-ACC lineman at N.C. State, Ekwonu was an all-state football player at Providence Day, who also wrestled and ran track.
The Observer named Cockrell the best Charlotte-area girls’ athlete of the century last year. In high school, Cockrell won 16 state championships. She won an NCAA national championship in the 400-meter hurdles at Southern Carolina and won a silver medal in the same event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Brown was a three-time cross-country state champion in high school and set several records at Providence Day. She ran in college at Elon.
Lawrence, the 2022 Charlotte Observer coach of the year, spent 15 years at Providence Day, the last 12 as head track coach of the Chargers’ track teams. Her girls teams won nine straight state championships. The boys won state championships in her last three seasons and eight times total. Lawrence is now coaching at Johnson C. Smith.
Friday’s Lake Norman Charter at Pine Lake Prep football game has special meaning to Pine Lake Prep coach Austin Trotter.
Last season, at age 41, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Luckily, Trotter said it was caught early, but he said he put off some of his appointments afterward because he didn’t want it to interfere with coaching. Then he heard Jonelle Clark, the wife of former Central Florida assistant coach Shawn Clark speak in January at the American Football Coaches Association.
Shawn Clark passed away unexpected last fall, two weeks after suffering a medical emergency at practice. Clark was 50.
A few months later, during her speech, Jonelle Clark urged coaches to get checked out regularly by their doctors and to address their stress levels.
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“This job doesn’t just affect you,” she said. “It affects the people who love you.”
That message stuck with Trotter, who is trying to convince fellow high school coaches to take their health more seriously. He said his doctors believed his cancer had been growing for five years, but well before colonoscopies are recommended.
Friday is the anniversary of when Trotter was diagnosed.
Trotter said that two football dads at Pine Lake Prep have died from cancer and several others have fought or currently are fighting against the disease.
Friday’s game is a “Football vs. Cancer” game and both schools are selling 50/50 raffle tickets. Some proceeds will go to the Levine Cancer Institute.
Cox Mill High sophomore golfer Carter Martin has qualified for the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club in April.
The event is held just days before the Masters Tournament begins. Martin will be one of 40 boys participating along with 40 girls. Golf Channel will broadcast the championship.
Martin had to go through several rounds of qualifiers to make it to the finals. His father, Jason, said he played at Statesville Country Club and later at Grandover Resort in Greensboro. Then he reached the regional stage in Pinehurst with 12 other contestants.
In addition to participating in the national finals, Martin and his family will be able to attend the Monday practice rounds for The Masters.
Jason Martin said he had applied for spectator tickets to the event and was denied.
“Now,” he said, “my son is taking me. That’s kind of cool.”
Carter Martin has gotten serious about golf for about four years and recently won a Tarheel Youth Golf Association event by shooting a 3-under-par 69.
Brad Baranowski is the new baseball coach at Lincoln Charter.
He moves up after coaching Lincoln Charter’s middle school for four seasons, where he led his teams to two conference championships. He also won four league titles in five years coaching the school’s middle school girls’ basketball team.
“The opportunity to return to Lincoln Charter and lead the varsity baseball program feels especially meaningful,” Baranowski said. “I am honored to invest in the next generation of Eagles and look forward to building a program centered on hard work, character, accountability, servant leadership, and a genuine love for the game.”
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