Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Gaining perspective on a life in athletics

Posted on July 30, 2009January 5, 2010 by Staff

Charlie Adams stands in front of years of memorabilia from N.C. high school athletes. Photo by Kirk Ross.By Beth Mechumhttp://www.marketwatch.com/?dist=ctmw
Staff Writer

Charlie Adams has the beach on his mind. He’s picturing toes in the sand, fun in the sun, a dive into a seafood basket.

But before any of that can transpire, he knows he has a job to finish. Adams has been director of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) since 1984 and on staff since 1967. He’ll retire in February after an illustrious career that includes an induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Adams knows he’d like to relax after he retires, and perhaps reflect on the great career he’s had to further gain perspective when he’s no longer the man in charge.

Which is ironic, considering it’s the process of gaining perspective that has kept him so busy for all these years.

“I think our job at the high school level is to make sure we keep things in the proper perspective,” Adams said. “We have to work doubly hard to make these youngsters know that playing is really short time, but your academics, your education are a lifetime, and you need to learn to be good sports, you need to learn to be good citizens.”

There have been times when his patience has been pushed to the brink. It’s Adams who parents call if they think their kid isn’t getting enough playing time or enough ink in the local newspaper.

“Parents in this day and time are much more aggressive, much more litigation oriented,” Adams says, adding, with a good-natured laugh, that parents very often conclude their conversations with, “‘Well, you’ll hear from our attorney,’ and we say, ‘Fine.’”

It’s also Adams who has to tell a team they’ve been declared ineligible. He remembers one instance when the team was actually loading onto the bus, heading to a game, when he had to break the bad news.

“I think there is a mentality right now that is ‘win at all costs’ in many places, and I think there’s a disregard for rules,” says Adams. “It’s our job to make the rules, interpret the rules and enforce the rules.”

But he recalls these experiences with no bitterness in his voice. It’s all been part of his job – a job, he says, that offers more good experiences than bad.

A long career
Adams recalls he wasn’t always as easy-going as he appears today, but the job changed him. He says he’s a big-picture guy now.

He played basketball and football in Cary, garnering top honors and impressive records in each, before going to UNC on a basketball scholarship and later transferring to ECU in search of more playing time.

Being a former athlete helps Adams relate to the problems of high school athletes today. He understands the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, and the emotions that accompany both.

“The spontaneity of athletics is so emotional and so physical,” Adams says. “People get so emotional over them, things happen that shouldn’t, so you have to constantly work on sportsmanship.”

Stresses the importance of sportsmanship has been a primary component of his job, and one of the things he’s proudest of is the NCHSAA’s successes in helping student-athletes grow on and off the field.

Adams has come a long way since he first started in a two-room office in Abernathy Hall on the UNC campus. From Abernathy, he moved to a mobile office area near the Smith Center.

Now his view is of Finley Golf Course and his office is expansive enough to hold sports memorabilia most halls of fame would be lucky to have. But he doesn’t play golf anymore; he said his shoulders are shot from years of it, plus snow skiing, tennis and more.

His friends say his shoulders are like that because of all the shots he took on the Cary High School basketball court. Adams concedes he took a fair number, but quite a few went in.

His is a career gone full circle – from watching to playing to coaching to regulating – and once he retires, and has spent some time just relaxing, he’ll be back to watching when he can. He says attending high school sports events on a regular basis is what he’ll miss most about his job.

“I’ll miss the shear happiness of seeing a girl hit a home run in softball or a guy break the record in the 100 or the last-second shot that wins a basketball game.”

Lucky for him, no one is likely to deny Charlie Adams a seat at a high school game. After all, he might well have played a major role in getting that seat there in the first place.

Adams has no idea who his successor will be, and is having no part in the search process. He says he’ll be there to mentor that person if asked, but understands if he’s not.

Which begs the question: Who wouldn’t ask for the help of the man who probably knows more about the day-to-day reality of high school athletics than anyone around? And with so much perspective too.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme