Ralph Ellis. 2022. Photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SPENCER — North Rowan’s Ralph Ellis was honored as Central Carolina Coach of the Year for boys track and field and also is the Post’s Rowan County Coach of the Year for that sport.

There are a couple of reasons for that. For one thing, Ellis, who will turn 70 on Sept. 15, is still doing what he loves and what athletes love him doing. For another thing, he’s been a key figure in a revival of North’s fortunes in track.

North’s boys finished seventh in the CCC Track and Field Championships in 2023. That wasn’t good. There are seven teams in the league.

The Cavaliers moved up to third in the CCC in 2024, but it was such a distant third that they needed a telescope to see where West Davidson and Salisbury were.

The 2025 season was different. The point totals in the CCC championships for the top three were Salisbury 149, West Davidson 136, North Rowan 131.

“Our boys were very competitive in the conference and went right down to the end even though we didn’t have anyone in five events,” Ellis said. “The same thing was true in the county meet. Very competitive. Right there. We were in it with Carson and West Rowan down to the last event.”

North lacked distance runners and pole vaulters, but made up for it in the throws, jumps and sprints.

Track and field county and conference championships usually boil down to numbers, having large teams that can put multiple athletes in every event. Ellis has been around a long time and is respected, liked and admired by everyone, so even potential North T&F athletes who knew Ellis only by reputation came out to compete for him and for their school.

“We had 30 boys and 15 girls this year, and for a school our size, that was really good,” Ellis said. “North track has picked up quite a bit. I was very proud of how we competed. A lot of our kids were trying events they’d never done before. Now we just have to keep it rolling.”

There were plenty of success stories for North’s boys and girls. Shot putter KaMahri Feamster was third in the 1A State championships. The throws probably are Ellis’ strength as a coach.

Jumper Zy’Quize Carpenter came out of nowhere to win Rowan County Field MVP honors and was regional champion in the triple jump, pushing 45 feet.

Cheerleader Ty’Tiana Clemons came out to the track, was CCC Sprint MVP and swept the hurdling events in the regional.

Ellis’ grandson, Brenden Ellis, was the CCC champ in the discus.

‘We had 13 of our boys make all-conference,” Ellis said. “Very proud of that.”

Ellis lives close enough to North Rowan that he can hear the PA from the football stadium.

“About a two-minute walk for me,” he said. “At first, I was just going over to help coach some of the grandkids (one of them was five-time state champ Brittany Ellis), but then the head coach left and it kind of fell on me to be the head coach, and I’ve been able to do it with a lot of help from dedicated assistants. I also was an assistant basketball coach for a few years at North (he got to see Brittany top 1,000 points). I’ve been blessed with good health by the good Lord and I enjoy sports, so I just keep doing it.”

Ellis married a Cavalier (Beverly), but he has been mostly known as a Falcon over the years.

He graduated from West Rowan in 1973, was best at football and played a role on a stout basketball team that famously lost only its first and last games. The Falcons won 24 straight between losses to A.L. Brown and Shelby. He remembers that a groin injury wrecked his senior season of track and field.

The 5-foot-10 Ellis played a year of football at Livingstone, got an education and was ready to teach and coach. He did his student teaching at West Rowan, and when a teacher was sidelined by illness, Ellis taught the forestry class.

He remembers some of his first coaching efforts were actually in slow-pitch softball, men’s and women’s. Those sports were big then, and Ellis coached a men’s team that was ranked second in the world in its class and competed in a World Series.

There was a time when Ellis coached the track and tennis teams at West in the spring. As long as both events were at the same venue, Ellis could coach both teams at the same time.

He taught some at Henderson School, but by the end of the 1970s, he had settled in as track and field coach and as a West football and basketball assistant.

He was on the bench for a lot of West boys basketball victories, as the Falcons were winning big in basketball by the mid-1980s, long before they became perennial winners in football.

During the 1980s, he landed a good job at Freightliner and left teaching as a profession, but he continued to volunteer as a coach at West, and his combination of optimism and experience always was an asset.

Ellis actually started the indoor track program at West in 1994. Principal Henry Kluttz called Ellis in and asked him if he thought an indoor track team  was a good idea. Ellis said he believed it was. Kluttz responded that the school would do it, but only if Ellis would coach it.

So he coached it.

Ellis was the acting head basketball coach at West a few times when head coaches were ill or were serving suspensions for technical fouls. When Bobby Shipwash had to sit out a game after a 1995 ejection at Albemarle, Ellis head-coached a 49-48 win against West Stanly when the 2A Yadkin Valley Conference was an adventure every Tuesday and Friday. The first team state championship for Ellis was West’s 1997 basketball state title.

He would help win three state titles in football, with a long run on Scott Young’s West Rowan staff, mostly as a defensive line coach. He helped mold many great athletes, including future NFL player Chris Smith. He assisted with West football, all told, for 36 years.

“When we had guys like Chris Smith and Eli Goodson, well, we just let those boys go,” Ellis said. “All we had to do was make sure the bus didn’t break down.”

Ellis coached eight different West athletes to 10 individual state championships in boys track and field. Jumpers and throwers.

He still remembers Zac Cohen’s epic discus throw (172 feet, 7 inches) in 1996. He remembers because the tape measures only were applicable for 150 feet. They had to go get a second one.

“West Rowan track gets overlooked because of Salisbury and North Rowan, but there haven’t been many schools with more track champions,” Ellis said. “For a rural school, it’s been a strong track school.”

Ellis was inducted into the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame in 2015 for his life-long contributions to Rowan County sports, and he hasn’t slowed down any in the 10 years that have followed.

He officially retired from coaching at West in 2022, although it wasn’t a retirement that stuck for long, as the Cavaliers needed him, and he’s always been a guy who was ready to help young athletes.

So now he’s been guiding Rowan athletes for almost 50 years in a remarkable run. He’s still active, even in the summer months. He helped Robert Steele get Rowan Express Track and Field Club started many years ago, and that program is still active. It includes numerous Ellises.

“Most of the grandchildren are throwers,” he said with a laugh. “But we’ve got a few runners. I’ve kept the track program going mostly for the grandchildren, but we keep picking up other kids, and we’re always happy to have them. We’ll never turn away anyone from any school who wants to compete.”

 

All-Rowan County girls

• T&F Performer of the Year — Sadie Featherstone, East (state champion 300 hurdles)

• Coach of the Year — Cris Leckonby, East

• County champion — East

• Country Sprint MVP — Sadie Featherstone, East

• County Distance MVP — Hope Julian, South

• County Field MVP — Jayden Carter, West

All-County (relay winners, first or second in individual event)

• East — 4×200, Sadie Featherstone (200, 100H, 300H), Miley Carrico (100H, 300H), Savannah Wise (100), Iyanna Lynch Berry (400), Isis Smith (D), Jasmyne Brown (PV), Lelu Hill (LJ)

• West — Lylah Dennis (800), Skyy Ruben (D), Jayden Carter (HJ, TJ)

• South — 4×800, 4×400, Hope Julian (800, 1600, 3200)

• North — Krisstyle Stockton (SP), Allanah McArthur (SP)

• Salisbury — 4×100, Shekiya Woodruff (100, 200), Kimora Chawlk (HJ)

• Carson — Kara Crotts (1600, 3200), Rylee Hedrick (400, TJ, LJ), Renna Linn (PV)

 

All-Rowan County boys

• T&F Performer of the Year — Jordan Waller, Salisbury (state champion 4×800, runner-up 400)

• Coach of the Year — Ralph Ellis, North

• County champion — Carson

• Country Sprint MVP — Jordan Waller, Salisbury

• County Distance MVP — Eric Gillis, Carson

• County Field MVP — Zy’Quize Carpenter, North

All-County (relay winners, first or second in individual event)

• Salisbury — 4×100, 4×400, 4×800, Christian McNeely (100), Jordan Waller (200, 400)

• North  — 4×200, Myles Witherspoon (110H), Zy’Quize Carpenter (TJ), Jeremiah Alford (D), KaMahri Feamster (SP), Emanuel Ellis (200)

• West — Connor Heath (300H), Dillon Smith (LJ), Cameron Young (D), Jaden Still (400), Jonathan Medina (800)

• East — Aiden Morris (LJ), Joshua Carlton (HJ), Oliver Shank (PV), Kaleo Tolentino (PV)

• South — Sawyer Sifford (SP)

• Carson — Tanner Simpson (110H, 300H), Damo’n Broussard (TJ), Colin Masingo (HJ), Ayden Blevins (100), Eric Gillis (800, 1600, 3200), Jorge-Clemente-Garcia (1600, 3200)