Pfeiffer College Publicizes Sports activities Corridor of Fame Inductees
Posted at 15:08, Tuesday, July 25, 2023
On Sept. 23, the Pfeiffer College Sports activities Corridor of Fame will induct 4 new members throughout homecoming weekend on the Pfeiffer campus in Misenheimer.
They embody Jerry Bryson (Class of 60), a former catcher standout, and Andrea Nachtman Blair (Class of 1992), who performed on the volleyball courtroom. Nathan “Sasa” Regis (2017, 2021 MBA) is acknowledged for his record-breaking contributions to males’s soccer. The 2002 males’s cross nation workforce completes the category of 2023 honoring an unusually stellar report.
Jerry Bryson
Bryson, a catcher, transferred to Pfeiffer Faculty after enjoying his first two years of faculty baseball at UNC Chapel Hill.
He grew to become a star contributor on a few of the first Pfeiffer groups coached by the late Joe Ferebee, who went on to turn out to be the winningest baseball coach in North Carolina and American Legion school historical past. Between 1956 and 1987, Ferebee received 677 video games as Pfeiffer’s head coach.
In a 2019 Salisbury Publish article, Bryson mentioned he was usually referred to as “Joe Jr”. as a result of he so embraced the basics of sound that Ferebee demanded of his catchers.
Ferebee’s teaching skill rubbed off on Bryson, and he served as the pinnacle baseball coach at Gardner-Webb Junior Faculty (now Gardner-Webb College) from 1966 to 1980. He grew to become a member of Gardner-Webb’s Athletics Corridor of Fame in 1992 after compiling a 30-hit season 1487. He additionally coached seven All-America gamers throughout his tenure at Gardner-Webb and led the ala to 2 Junior Faculty World Sequence.
2002 Males’s Cross Nation Crew
Bob Marchinko, head coach of Pfeiffer’s cross nation and monitor and subject groups since August 2022, coached the lads’s cross nation workforce at Pfeiffer from 2002 to 2005. He calls the 2002 workforce “a really particular group.” And no surprise: It was the one Pfeiffer cross nation workforce to win the CVAC championship throughout his varsity in Division II. The workforce produced 4 all-conference runners, received 5 of the seven meets it entered and went undefeated towards convention faculties that 12 months.
The all-local expertise workforce earned runner-up honors on the NCAA Southeast Regional meet and completed 24th on the nationwide championships in Ashland, Ohio, working in snowy circumstances.
Michael Whitley (Class of 2004), a member of the 2002 workforce, referred to as his upcoming induction into the Corridor of Fame “very rewarding.”
“We’re very happy with what we now have been capable of obtain collectively,” he mentioned. “Having this enshrined within the Corridor of Fame eternally cements what we have completed in Pfeiffer historical past and it is loopy cool. I’m very humbled and very honored by this recognition.”
Whitley attributes the workforce’s success to a “mixture of numerous issues.” A significant factor was Marchinko.
“He knew what we would have liked to do to turn out to be the most effective runners we could possibly be. He pushed us to heights we by no means dreamed attainable, however most significantly all of us knew he was all in proper subsequent to us; he believed in us.”
Christopher Lamberkis (Class of 2004) echoed Whitley’s sentiments about Marchinko.
“He defined in easy phrases the work we would have liked to place in to get the place we needed, in addition to engaged on the psychological construction of the races.”
Underneath Marchinko’s management, the runners grew to become what Whitley referred to as “fierce opponents” who created an exceptionally robust bond.
“That bond held us to a different stage of accountability to one another,” Whitley mentioned. “We could not let our brothers down. I could not disappoint coach Marchinko”.
Andrea Nightman Blair
Blair, a standout on the volleyball courtroom, will in all probability at all times bear in mind the autumn of 1991. That is when Pfeiffer Faculty hosted — and received — the Convention Carolinas match.
“Our workforce performed nice and our followers acquired to see us win,” she mentioned. “I used to be honored to obtain Convention Carolina Participant of the 12 months after that sport. I nonetheless bear in mind receiving that award.”
Different honors got here Blair’s means. She made the All-District 26 workforce. She was named the 1992 NCAA Lady of the 12 months for Pfeiffer Faculty, main the Woman Falcons to a 6-1 convention report and 13-11 general report. Particularly, the Lady of the 12 months award acknowledged her athletic skill, exemplary management and dedication to neighborhood service.
Blair feels “very blessed” to affix the 2023 class of the Pfeiffer College Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
“It is an incredible shock,” she mentioned. “Pfeiffer has at all times held a particular place in my coronary heart, and for Pfeiffer to really feel that means about me, I really feel doubly blessed.”
Nathan “Saxon” Regis
In 2015, the Pfeiffer College males’s soccer workforce received the NCAA Division II Males’s Soccer Nationwide Championship, finishing an undefeated season. Final October, the workforce, coached by Bob Reasso (Class of 1973), was inducted into the 2022 class of the Pfeiffer College Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
Regis was a serious purpose for this success. He was a two-time Nationwide Offensive Participant of the 12 months and was the MVP of the 2015 NCAA II Match. He emerged as a scoring machine, breaking Pfeiffer’s data for profession targets (85); single-season targets (32 in 2015); and single-season factors (32 targets, 7 assists in 2015).
These statistics have been solely a part of the story. Reasso praised Regis for taking part in soccer with “an influence and charm not often seen on the soccer subject”.
“Sasa was an exquisite captain and chief each on and off the sector,” added his coach. “He was one of many main scorers in NCAA historical past, utilizing his athleticism, technical skill and grit to steer Pfeiffer and the NCAA in scoring.
“His ardour for his teammates and Pfeiffer made him a singular individual and participant. On a private stage, he has enriched my life greater than he’ll ever know and is actually like a son to me.”
Regis mentioned he was “past grateful” to be inducted into the Sports activities Corridor of Fame at Pfeiffer as a person member.
“The college modified my life as a pupil and as an athlete,” he mentioned. “He taught me self-discipline, perseverance, sacrifice and respect for the sport of soccer. And it added some superb folks (teammates, coaches and academics) to my household — individuals who have formed my life in methods I can not start to elucidate.”
