Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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APRIL 24-30, 2019 UCW 25 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Seventy-First honors Chappell by naming baseball field for him by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Mariyah Wakefield Seventy-First • Track • Sophomore Wakefield has a 3.7 grade point average. She participates in Upward Bound at Fayetteville State University. She volunteers at True Vine Ministries and is a member of the Seventy-First orchestra. Justin Croom Seventy-First • Track, wrestling • Sophomore Croom has a 3.4 grade point aver- age. He was 6-18 as a wrestler for the Falcons last season. He currently has a best time of 22.99 in the 200-meter dash. Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop congratulates these amazing scholar athletes of the week and invites them to the Rocket Fizz Store at 1916 Skibo Rd. to receive a FREE gift recognizing their achievement! www.rocketfizz.com Ted Chappell touched countless lives during his many years as a coach and administrator in the Cumberland County Schools. All those years of service to the young people of the county was recently honored when the baseball field at Seventy-First High School was renamed in his honor. For years after his retirement from the school system, Chappell was a regular spectator at local sporting events, espe- cially high school baseball games. But he hasn't been on the sidelines for many months, not since he was admitted to a skilled care facility in Moore County. He is being treated there for Alzheimer's disease. His daughter, Susan Chappell, is herself a vet- eran teacher for Cumberland County Schools. She said her father doesn't have a lot of clarity, but every so often there will be a spark and he'll recog- nize a familiar face. Susan said the family was approached last October by supporters who wanted to have the field named for her father. "I wish it had come sooner, when Daddy was able to understand,'' she said. "We were very honored and humbled.'' Ron Phipps, Cumberland County Schools asso- ciate superintendent for evaluation and testing, was one of those who pushed for the field to be named for Ted. Phipps first got to know Ted through Susan, who taught with Phipps' wife years ago at Pine Forest Middle School. Phipps was also a school bus driver when Ted headed transportation for the county schools. He later worked with Ted again when the two were administrators at South View High School. Phipps said he had to educate the people involved in getting the field named for Ted since much of Ted's career took place as far back as the 1960s. Ted came to Cumberland County from his native Chowan County in 1962. He coached at Seventy-First and led the 1965 Falcon baseball team to a state runner-up finish. He went on to handle transportation for Cumberland County Schools. After retirement, he served as an interim assistant principal at various local high schools. "He was an all-around great guy,'' Phipps said. "Anybody you talk with talks about how nice he was and (how he) would help anybody.'' Doug Caudill and Greg Killingsworth both played for Ted at Seventy-First. Both later became coaches and school administrators themselves, and both spoke about the huge influence Ted had on their lives and their career decisions. "Without a doubt, he became like a father figure to all of us,'' Caudill said. "He took care of us and cared about us. "He could be tough at times when he needed to be, but most of the time he had a very calm demeanor.'' Both Caudill and Killingsworth recalled that Ted used to open the gymnasium at Seventy-First Elementary School on Saturday mornings and let the local youngsters come in and shoot basketball. "In those times there weren't a lot of places you could go to play basketball,'' Killingsworth said. "He kept me in line and made sure I wasn't in (bad) places I could have been.'' Killingsworth said Ted never raised his voice and never cursed. "He was a Christian man and he led by example,'' he said. "I had the utmost respect for him.'' Caudill agreed. "He was a really special person in all of our lives,'' he said. Ted Chappell (current photo left) first came to Cumberland County in 1962 (younger photo right). BRINGING YOU THE BEST IN CUMBERLAND COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS MAY 2nd PATRIOT Athletic Conference Championship To Air @ 6:45PM on WCLN 105.7FM Baseball coverage THIS WEEK! Check NCPrepSports.net for details.