This past weekend Union Pines Coach Nat Carter was honored at Brooks PR as a nominee for the 2016 Brooks Inspiring Coach of the Year. New staff member Tommy DeLaunay was able to get the story on what Coach Carter has done for track and field in the Sandhills.
Coach Nat Carter, the long time coach of the Sandhills Track Club and Union Pines High School, was a finalist for the 2016 Brooks Inspiring Coach of the Year award. Coach Carter grew up in Richmond, Virginia where he was a standout football player. He later attended Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina where he continued to play football. He also ran track at Shaw but it was something he said was just to keep in shape during the offseason. After he finished college he moved to Moore County, North Carolina where he began teaching at Aberdeen Middle School.
In 1970 Coach Carter started what is now known as the Sandhills Track Club with just a few of his middle school students and turned it into a track club that has been running strong for 46 years. At that same time Coach Carter began also coaching the freshman football team at Pinecrest High School. After a few years at Pinecrest the head coaching position of the girl's track team opened and Coach Carter didn't hesitate to take it. He held the position there until he retired from teaching in 1997. He was approached at a coaches clinic by the new Athletic Director at Union Pines High School and was offered the job as the head coach of the girl's cross country team, which he gladly accepted. A couple of years down the line he was offered the head coaching position of the Union Pines girl's track team as well, a position he still holds today.
Coach Carter says his greatest memories were all about his athletes and watching them develop over the years he coached them. He talked about how he starting coaching kids when they were as young as 8 years old with the Sandhills Track Club and then coaching them again when they were in high school. He said he wants to "provide a vehicle for the kids, that's what it's all about." The vehicle he talked about was the ability to run, and run fast. Coach Carter is as diverse of a coach as they come. He has coached many Junior Olympic National Champions in a multitude of events, such as long jump, triple jump, 1500 meter run, and the heptathlon.
On his nomination for the 2016 Brooks Inspiring Coach of the Year award he said it "was an honor to be nominated and selected." He said it was amazing to see all the other coaches from across the country sharing their personal stories and experiences, "it warms your heart to see all the coaches and see what struggles they've gone through to get there" he said.