“Willie Noles is Spencer Little League,” Allen McMillan said at last Thursday’s game.

Allen was one of several league volunteers singing Willie’s praises when Post photographer James Barringer and Iwent out to see the subject of this week’s Tuesday People in action.

“If it wasn’t for him, there wouldn’t be a Spencer Little League right now,” said Phip Sparger. “He’s just been great for the kids, and the league.”

It didn’t take long to figure out that Willie, short for William, is a modest man. He stepped outside the concession stand when I asked the other volunteers about him, and he was quick to share the credit for the league’s success with them.

Phip, the Mowery brothers, Gary and Mike, and Hollis Hilton help in the concession stand every game, Willie said.

“We’re like a little family here,” Hollis said.

Willie said Hollis, who is in his 70s, started coming to the games after his wife died. “We just love him to death,” he said.

The group has so much fun at the games that they started getting together on Wednesday nights in the off season for a work session and meal. “Gary usually cooks some beans and potatoes,” Willie said,“and we just sit around and shoot the breeze.”

Hollis said they were all pleased to see Willie, president of the league, receive the Mayor’s Award for his dedication to the youth of Spencer at last month’s Town Board meeting. “Anything they give him is much deserved,” he said.

The Spencer Little League, the first one in the county, started in 1954 when Willie was 12. “And I was lucky enough to get to play,” he said.

He played outfield for one year on the Oakdale Baptist Church team before aging out. He tried to pitch, he said, but his throws were too wild.

After that, Willie played baseball up until his sophomore year at North Rowan High School, when he quit to work part time at a service station.

But he didn’t stay out of baseball long. He was 18 when his younger brother’s Little League coach asked him to help out with the Oakdale team.

“I thought I was just going to be the assistant,” he said. The next thing he knew, the coach had quit and he had the team by himself.

Willie enjoyed coaching. “It was a drastic learning experience,” he said. “I thought I knew how to play baseball, but there’s a difference between knowing how to play and knowing how to teach.”

For the 25 to 30 years that he coached after that, Willie said he learned something new every year. “I read books, watched videotapes, watched other coaches,” he said.

He coached Oakdale’s team for three or four years, the Dukeville team for two or three years and the Steve’s Barbecue team for 20 straight years. As a coach, Willie said he tried to encourage his players with words and a pat on the back.

“If they played bad, we just marked it off,” he said.

After almost three decades of coaching, Willie said, “I got talked into going into the administration, vice president and president.”

He was vice president for four years and in his third year as president, he spends 15 to 20 hours a week during the spring and fall seasons working on the field, running the concession stand and taking care of league business.

Before each game, Willie drags the field with his tractor lawnmower, rakes the dirt back around the bases and chalks off the lines. And if it hasn’t rained in a while, he puts sprinklers out and waters it to keep the dust down.

“I like to have the field looking good,” he said.“I like to have it professional.”

Players from other teams comment on how well the field is prepared when they come from all around to play in the annual All-Star Tournament. “We’re pretty proud of it,” Willie said.

They’re also proud of the new, brick concession stand, which features an upstairs office and boardroom, a bathroom and shower stall and a deck for watching the game.

Willie said they sketched what they wanted on a couple of pieces of paper and built it “brick by brick” with volunteer labor.

Mike Mowery said he got involved with the league when his brother, Gary, asked him to help build it. “I’ve just hung around ever since,” he said.

Twelve teams played in the Spencer Little League spring season this year. The fall league, which started several years ago, has fewer teams and is much more informal.

It’s more of an instructional league, Willie said, with no one keeping score and players changing positions more often.

“It’s a lot more fun, Ithink,” he said. “The parents are a lot more laid back.”

One of the rules for the fall league is that a player can only pitch two innings a game. This allows players who might not otherwise have an opportunity to try out their arms in the game.

The biggest headache of being league president, according to Willie, is running the concession stand.

Typically, he tries to finish up the field by 3 and get started cooking the hot dogs, hamburgers and chili. His help begins arriving shortly afterward, he said, and they start preparing the hamburgers, pizza and popcorn.

“We try to have it ready 30 minutes before the game,” he said.

The parents have been very supportive of the concession stand, he said, and league volunteers work hard to make sure the food is good. “I will put our hot dogs up against any ball park in the county,” he said.

Proceeds from the concession stand cover much of the $8,000 to $10,000 a year that it takes to operate the league.

That includes the cost of uniforms, supplies and insurance. In addition, Willie said each player pays a $25 registration fee and local businesses can either pay $300 to get a sign on the fence for three years or $225 a year to sponsor a team.

Born and raised in the Dukeville-Trading Ford area of Rowan County, William Lee Noles Jr. was the second of Katherine and William Lee Noles’ five children. Though his father died in 1993, his mother is still living and runs an antique shop, Katherine’s Junk and Treasures, at her home on Long Ferry Road.

One of Willie’s favorite memories growing up was attending the 1954 World Series between theGiants and the Indians. He was in the grandstand, he said, when Willie Mays made his famous over-the-shoulder catch.

Willie Noles, who was 12 at the time, said he didn’t care who won. “I was just happy to be at the World Series,” he said.

He has been a Dodger fan his whole life. When the Yankees used to beat them every year in the World Series, he said, “I started pulling for the underdog.”

After graduating from North Rowan High School in 1960, Willie went to N.C. State University. After two years, he transferred to Gaston Tech, where he earned an associate degree in mechanical engineering technology.

Upon graduation, he went to work for Duke Power in the instrument control group at the Buck Steam Plant. At one point, he said he and both of his brothers worked with their father in the Buck Steam Plant until one moved to Walkertown and the other to Texas, where they still live. His sister lives in Virginia.

Willie is married to the former Terry McKinney, who works as a hairdresser at Loflin Hair Styling & Tanning, and their two children, Jeff and Heather, surprised them with a surprise celebration for their 25th anniversary in August.

Jeff, 27, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and works for a jewelry company there, and Heather, 21, is a student at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and works in home health care.

She also helps out in the concession stand pretty regularly, her father said.

Growing up, Willie said Jeff didn’t show a lot of interest in playing baseball and he didn’t try to force him into doing it. Heather played a couple of years when they didn’t have enough players, he said.

Since retiring from Duke Power in 1997, Willie, who lives on Old Union Church Road, said he has spent a lot of time five miles away at the Spencer Little League ball field. “The pay’s not too good,” he joked, but the reward comes from seeing the players do well.

“It’s very, very hard,” he said. “Sometimes you get discouraged and wonder why you do it. But the one thing you’ve got to remember is that you are doing it for the kids.

“That’s what it’s all about, for the kids.”

Willie said he’s seen a lot of the Spencer Little League players go on and play college baseball, and one even made it to the Minor League. “It’d be a life dream come true to see one of these kids make it to the Majors,” he said.

Whenever players age out, Willie reminds them not to forget him when they do. “Be sure and send me tickets to the World Series,” he tells them all.