PCHS Activities/Athletics

(Brothers Anderson, Bay, Campbell, and Riley Moore are all currently playing soccer at King University)

While many young athletes have a dream of one day wearing the uniform and taking the field for their favorite professional sports team, before that happens, they need to make it to the college level.

 

There are several levels of college athletics that could be in the future for a high school athlete. Division I is the top level and is broken down into two subdivisions. First is Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), which features 129 schools and over 15,700 student-athletes. These schools are the ones eligible for the College Football Playoffs. Next is the Division I FCS (Football Championship Subdivision), which features 125 schools and over 13,400 student-athletes. Unlike the FBS teams, FCS programs play in an NCAA-sanctioned bracket tournament at the end of the season to determine a champion.

 

NCAA Division II includes 310 schools that feature over 4,900 teams and over 122,700 student-athletes. NCAA Division III is the largest division in terms of the number of athletic participants and institutions, with 438 schools, over 8,200 teams, and more than 193,800 student-athletes.

 

Two other groups also offer college level athletics. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) features 250 schools and over 77,000 student-athletes. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) features 525 schools, over 1,600 teams, and over 22,700 student-athletes.

 

Pulaski County has sent players to most, if not all, of these levels through the years in a variety of sports including football, basketball, track and field, cross country, baseball, softball, swimming, wrestling, cheerleading, volleyball, soccer (boys and girls), tennis, and golf.

 

Football, which has the highest number of participants, naturally has the highest number of college athletes. Former Cougars have played college football at Virginia Tech, Virginia, West Virginia, Boston College, West Point, Harvard, JMU, Marshall, VMI, Ohio University, Richmond, Ferrum, Emory and Henry, Concord, East Tennessee State, Kent State, UVA-Wise, Lenoir-Ryne, William and Mary, Hampden Sydney, Morehead State, Middle Tennessee State, Akron, Catawba, Carson Newman, Christopher Newport, Glenville State, Eastern Michigan, Randolph Macon, and Bluefield University.

 

Over 110 former Cougars have stepped onto a college football practice field at some point. Some of the notable names, not including players that later went on to the NFL, include players like David Hale, known affectionately as “The Pocket Rocket” by many, who was a defensive captain at UVA by his senior season. Randy Meredith still holds some of the passing records at East Tennessee State. Ernie Hodge and Charlie Bryant made their marks at Ohio University. Chris Kinzer, Billy Meyers, Caleb Hurd, and Mickey Thomas are names familiar to Hokie fans.

 

But other former players have moved on to find success at the college football level as well. Trey Angle was a defensive captain at Emory and Henry before graduating and moving on to become a United States Army Ranger. Matt “Tater” Roan went from Pulaski County to Southern Utah University. Now he is the Vice President and AD at Eastern Kentucky University. Danny Dodson went to William and Mary before becoming the head coach at Woodside High School in Newport News. Josh Hurst played college football at UVA-Wise and is now the General Manager at Harvey’s Chevrolet. Alan Wheeling played at William and Mary. He has moved on now from working with the Charlotte Hornets organization to a position in marketing with another firm. Zane Quesenberry is now on the Cougar coaching staff and works as a teacher after his time at Maryville College.

 

The list goes on and on, but football isn’t the only sport that has sent athletes to the next level.

 

The Pulaski County track and field program has seen a high rate of success here, but also at the next level. Grace Boone and JJ Gulley currently compete for Virginia Tech. Hunter Thomas and Damon Akers are just a few of the names that have competed for Concord. The Anderson family can boast Brandon Anderson as a professional football player, but his sister Leslie Anderson competed in track for JMU and sister Sydney Anderson ran for Indiana University. Radford University has been good to former Cougars, with Kelsey Arnold, Nikki Roseberry, and Amber Church being familiar names to Highlander fans. Madison Woolwine is currently a competitor for the University of Charleston. Teammate Allyson Castle is a competitor for Christopher Newport University. Sabrina Hall ran for Milligan College. Cade Compton ran for VMI.

 

Another Roseberry, the younger sister of Nikki, Natalee Roseberry swam for Virginia Tech after a very successful swimming career at Pulaski County.

 

The list of former Lady Cougar basketball players is long and distinguished. Maddie Ratcliff, Taryn Blankenship, and Alexis Phillips are all currently playing for Concord University. The mother of Alexis Phillips, Kim Cruise Drummonds, played for Radford University. Alley Fleenor is now playing at UVA-Wise. Kayla Lewis played at Bluefield College. Kasey Holcomb played basketball and softball at Bluefield. Helen Counts played for Bridgewater. Kandice “Daisy” Ball played at Wake Forest for four years. Raiven Patterson played for Eastern Mennonite. Amy Terry played at Lynchburg College and Emma Reigert played for the University of Charleston. Hannah Davidson played for Roanoke College. The list goes on and on.

 

Cougar Baseball has also sent a fair number of players on to the next level. Jared King played for Virginia from 2009-2013 and was very productive. He played in 202 career games, 10^th in UVA Baseball history. Brayden Morris played college baseball at Brevard College, where he was a very productive member of the Tornados program. Two former Cougars, Jacob Johnson and Drew Dalton, are currently members of the Patrick Henry Community College Patriots. Tyler Blevins enjoyed four productive years of Hampden-Sydney Tiger baseball. The list goes on.

 

One of the greatest basketball players in Pulaski County and Virginia history was Mike Porter. His senior season, he was named the Associated Press Player of the Year for Virginia, was selected to the All-Group AAA First-Team, and was the Roanoke Times and World News Player of the Year. That season, he averaged 31.9 points per game and scored 41 or more in five games. He scored 670 points his senior year, finishing with 2,177 points for his career, an average of 24.5 points per game. He played in the McDonald’s All-American game and won the inaugural slam dunk contest. Porter played at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas with Greg “Boo” Harvey for a year before the duo transferred to St. John’s for a season.

 

Former Cougar basketball player and Head Coach Andrew Hart played his college basketball at Emory and Henry, a landing spot for many, many former Cougars through the years. Current Pulaski County Assistant Administrator Anthony Akers played basketball at Elon.

 

Cougar soccer has sent several players to the college ranks. Derek Akers played goalie for Emory and Henry. Four brothers … Andersen Moore, Bay Moore, Campbell Moore, and Riley Moore … are all currently playing for the King University Tornado soccer team.

 

Lady Cougar softball has sent many players to the next level. Josie Brewer played for Concord. Jordan Chrisley and Bethany Anderson played for Emory and Henry.

 

The players listed in this story are only the tip of the iceberg. We are currently working to save the history of our athletic programs, along with our fine arts and other activities, on our school system website. Coaching histories, season records, team and individual records, and former players will all hopefully be included soon.

 

We want our former athletes to be recognized, but we also want our current athletes to see that they can make it to the college ranks with hard work and determination. You CAN reach your goals from Pulaski County.

 

If you know of a former Cougar or Lady Cougar athlete who went on to compete at the college level, please email dwgravely@pcva.us to have them included on these pages. The website is an ongoing work in progress and will continually be updated as we get new information.