Coach Keith Payne (left) and Ian Roper after winning Swain County's third straight NCHSAA 1A/2A Indoor Team Title
We are heartbroken to report that Coach Keith Payne of Swain County passed away on Saturday, August 17th unexpectedly.
Both Swain County's boys and girls cross country teams are favored to win the NCHSAA 1A State Championship team title this fall as the girls return six of their top seven runners from last years state championship squad.
In January, Payne was recognized as the Girls USTFCCCA High School Cross Country Coach of the Year for North Carolina after Swain County won the NCHSAA 1A State Championship by 56 points scoring 44 points.
Swain County is a 1A school with 555 total students. Coach Payne was the Head Cross Country and Indoor Track Coach and the Assistant Coach to Coach Ian Roper during the outdoor season with Roper as the Indoor Assistant Coach. He was also a Swain County Middle School Health/PE Teacher.
Swain County has turned into a all around powerhouse winning four team titles in the 2023-2024 school year with the girls winning the Triple Crown in cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track and their boys winning the 1A outdoor team title. Their girls had won the Triple Crown over the last three school years and are likely to do so again in 2024-2025.
Swain Head Track Coach, and great friend of Payne's, Ian Roper gave the below statement on Coach Payne's passing.
"It's impossible to quantify how devastating the loss of Keith is to all of us who knew him and loved him. His family (Rachel, Ben and Anna), our running family, our school and our community are all grieving. He was a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, he was a brother and a friend. A saying that keeps running through my mind is that "the measure of a man can be seen in the lives he touched and the love he leaves behind". By that measure, Keith is the greatest man I've ever known. He has touched the lives of thousands of students and helped them grow into the best versions of themselves. I don't know how we move forward from here. I only know that we will. Keith would expect that of us."
Swain County HS girls team after scoring 44 points to win their third straight NCHSAA 1A cross country championship
Coach Payne had led the Swain County program to a lot of success since starting at Swain in 2019. The Maroon Devils had won four Girls and one Boys NCHSAA 1A Outdoor Track & Field Titles, including the last four on the girls side, three straight NCHSAA 1A Girls Cross Country Team Titles, and the last three NCHSAA 1A/2A Indoor Track & Field titles. In total he was apart of 11 Cross Country or Track State Championships for Swain.
Coach Payne had previously coached at Polk County HS, Andrews HS and Murphy HS.
Coach Payne was the Coach that would do anything and everything to see his athletes succeed. Swain County is located in Bryson City which is pretty close to the North Carolina borders of Tennessee and Georgia. If you came out to his program he and the coaching staff were going to find an event for you to contribute and excel in.