Tracy Connor Award: Super senior seasons for Sadie

Published 5:32 pm Friday, June 20, 2025

Sadie Featherstone in 300 hurdles, 3A State Championships,. Zelia Frick photo.

 

Sadie Featherstone drives in Christmas tourney.

Sadie Featherstone

 

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — That left leg that came flying over the final hurdle was so close to Sadie Featherstone that it startled her.

Featherstone, Tracy Connor Award winner as Rowan County’s Female Athlete of the Year, could see that unwelcome leg out of the corner of her right eye, a scary moment, for sure, but she didn’t blink, didn’t waver. The mission was a 3A state championship, and Featherstone was determined to complete it.

The last obstacle behind them, Featherstone and Franklin High’s Laura Covarrubias, the owner of that left leg, sprinted like cheetahs for the finish line in Greensboro, with Featherstone winning a state title with a desperate, but controlled lean. The margin between first and second place proved to be a mere seven-hundreths of a second.

Eight hurdles, 300 meters, 43.32 seconds, and a place in the record books for Featherstone, East’s first ever NCHSAA state champ in a hurdling event.

That 0:07 was life-changing for Featherstone. She was set to continue track and education at Liberty University, a very good school in all respects, but her second choice. The state championship opened a window to N.C. State, her first choice, her dream school since she was old enough to dream.

“N.C. State changed their minds about wanting me after the state meet,” Featherstone said. “I’d had conversations with them, but no offer. So it really was a dream that came true in my last high school race.”

A lot of sweat went into that dream for Featherstone, who also was recruited with some gusto by Lenoir-Rhyne, Catawba and Virginia Tech.

Because of all of the hours she spent the track, in season and out, Featherstone was a little more efficient going over the hurdles, clearing them with either her dominant leg (right) or her left. Covarrubias was a bit swifter between the hurdles, so it was an epic race.

Featherstone’s time of 43.32 seconds was faster than any Rowan County female has ever run in an NCHSAA meet in the event. She knew she would need something in that neighborhood in order to prevail.

“I’d been seeing she (Covarrubius) was setting a new PR about every week,” Featherstone said. “I thought it might come down to me and her.”

Featherstone had been in state meets before and had not performed at her peak, had not done nearly as well as she had hoped.

“Back when I was running 48s, I’d to go to state and run 50,” Featherstone said. “When I started running 46s, I’d go to state and run 48. I was hoping that wasn’t going to happen to me again. This was my last chance.”

As big as the race was for her, there were very few nerves on her last time around. As a senior, she had been there and done that. She was able to put aside all the distractions and just run, and that’s something she knows she can do.

“I had a younger teammate (Miley Carrico) in the hurdles with me this time, and I knew she was going to be nervous,” Featherstone said. “So all I was thinking about was helping her to do her best. I never felt any anxiety for myself. When I was warming up, I felt good, felt confident.”

While winning an individual state title in outdoor track was a crowning moment in a glorious senior school year for Featherstone, no one is ever a Tracy Connor Award winner with only one sport. Her impact on East athletics started back in the fall when she was Rowan County runner-up (to South Rowan freshman Hope Julian) in cross country.

Featherstone’s father, Jonathan, is an N.C. State guy, a veterinarian at the Rocky River Large Animal Clinic. Mostly he cares for horses, but the job also includes experiences with cows, pigs and more exotic beasts. When the circus comes to town, he may be called on to inspect the elephants.

The vet was a good athlete at East Rowan in the early 1990s, as a runner, a baseball player and a basketball player, a sport in which he carved out a role as a defensive specialist.

“I’m the guy who got to guard players like (Salisbury’s) Bobby Jackson and (Concord’s) Ishua Benjamin,” Featherstone said with a laugh. “Well, try to guard them.”

In Featherstone’s senior season (1991-92), he made a significant jump, from 2.7 points per game to 7.5. He had a couple of 15-point games as a senior.

Sadie, who is a year younger than her sister, Jadyn Featherstone who also competed for East in the running sports and basketball, would make an even bigger jump than her dad as a senior.

Believe it or not, father and daughter, both entered their senior seasons with 68 career varsity points. Sadie scored 268 as a senior.

Sadie was on the varsity as a sophomore, but pretty close to the end of the bench, and contributed 31 points. She scored 37 as a junior, averaging 1.5 points per game and was still regarded as a person whose obvious athletic ability just wasn’t translating all that well to hoops.

But she decided to change that, and she did. East head coach Bri Evans saw the transformation coming during the summer months. That’s when a lot of basketball growth happens.

“My husband (Trey Evans) is a great assistant coach and he puts the girls through some tough off-season workouts,” Bri Evans said. “The tougher the workout, the better Sadie liked it. Her work ethic is just different than most people. You could see her confidence growing that she could score and handle the ball. You could see her offensive game going to another level. I remember there was a scrimmage at North Meck and we were sitting there on the bench with her and we told her, ‘Sadie, you’re a different player than you were last year. You can play and you’re going to play more.”

Her teammates also could see the difference. When was the last time a girl who had averaged 1.5 points was voted as a co-captain?

Featherstone started her senior season quietly, scoring 6, 4, 5 and 4, but she scored a critical 13 when East pulled out a road win at West Davidson. She had 11 in a defensive struggle with Salisbury before she exploded for 20 at South Iredell.

“South Iredell was the only game all season that my dad couldn’t be there (he was busy with an ailing animal),” Sadie said. “South Iredell is the team coached by Coach Evans’ sister, so it was a meaningful game for us.”

She made one long shot from an impossible angle behind the backboard. It was just one of those nights. She carried that confidence into the Christmas Tournament not long after that and scored 14 points in the championship game, including a wild, 360-turnaround jumper. No one else in the building could have made that shot.

East enjoyed a stellar season, 21-7, and Featherstone’s role in that probably can’t be overstated. She averaged 10 points, always took on the opponent’s best scorer and rebounded so fiercely and tirelessly that East could play small and fast, often using four guards. She took 13 charges by the coach’s count. She was second team all-county.

“Sadie is motivated, she’s athletic, and she had a super senior basketball season for us,” Bri Evans said. “There’s no way we do what we did without the improvement that Sadie made.”

During basketball season, Featherstone also was competing in indoor track. She missed one basketball game for track. She shook off the Friday night bruises to run hurdles at Saturday workouts. She qualified for the state meet in the 55 meter hurdles and finished 10th.

The biggest impact of indoor track was that it had Featherstone super-prepared for her huge outdoor season. She was Sprint MVP as she led the Mustangs to the Rowan County championship. She was the Rowan County Female Track Athlete of the Year.

“Sadie pushed herself to greatness,” East track and field coach Cris Leckonby said. “One of the hardest-working kids I’ve ever had the honor to mentor. She made all of her teammates better athletes and she made me a better coach.  Sadie was not only a state champion in outdoor track but a state qualifier in indoor track and cross country.”

In the Robert Steele Rowan County Championships, Featherstone won the 100 and 300 hurdles, helped East win the 4×200 and was second in the 200.

In the South Piedmont Conference Championships, she won the 300 hurdles and got points for two second places and a third.

She was regional champ in the 300 hurdles. East put her in the 4×400 in the regional, not one of her usual events, and the Mustangs finished fifth, almost qualifying for state because Featherstone helped them shave 10 seconds off their usual time.

She will head to N.C. State owning a whole stack of school records — for the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 200, 400, 4×200 and 4×100.

Featherstone is an interesting girl who likes steak, burgers and sweet tea. She rides horses and she hunts. She hopes to follow her father as a vet some day, but will probably work with small animals, not large ones.

“I think she’s seen the hours that I put in,” Jonathan said with a smile.

She’s a leader and is very aware of the fan base that she’s helped build for East track. She had quite a following at the state meet.

She’s also still training and competing. She doesn’t take much time off.

She was exhausted from training and it was a bad-weather morning, but she showed up for the Ed Dupree Memorial 5k at East because the Ed Dupree Scholarship is one of many she won this year. That just seemed like the right thing to do.

She also qualified for the New Balance Outdoor Nationals, where she will run the 400 hurdles. That’s the college distance, and it should be well-suited for her. This probably won’t be the last time you read about Featherstone.

“Her drive and her leadership set a higher standard for East Rowan track,” Leckonby said. “She elevated everyone around her.”