High School Coach Spotlight: Barry Nethercutt

Due to the current coronavirus situation with all sports being shut down, there are a lot of coaches who had their chance to coach their senior athletes one last time cut short. ENC Sports Review would like to highlight some of these coaches since their season has hanged so dramatically. Today, we will highlight Faith Christian School’s Barry Nethercutt. We thank Barry for taking the time to sit down with ENC Sports Review and answer these questions for us. We had fun learning more about him and we hope you will too.

How long have you been coaching?

I have coached for a total of 33 years so far. I have coached 30 years at Rocky Mount High School and then I’ve coached 3 years at Faith Christian.

What sports have you coached?

I have only coached tennis in my career.

What sport did you enjoy coaching the most?

It would have to be tennis.

Has an athlete impacted you in an important way or taught you something that helped shape you as a coach?

I can’t think of one particular athlete but coaching as many kids as I have has taught me how everyone has a different style of learning and responding to different situations or challenges. Some players are motivated more by pushing them really hard and being demanding on them and others need to be constantly praised and encouraged. Some need a combination of both or something completely different and it takes time getting to know the kids to understand how they respond best. And that can still vary from day to day depending on how school was, how their boyfriend or girlfriend is, or even what they are having for supper that night.

What are your favorite and least favorite coaching moments?

My favorite moment was in 2003. We were at New Bern and trailed 4-2 after singles with the winner of the match being the conference champion. We were suppose to finish 3rd or 4th that season so the girls had really played great all season. No one got down on themselves despite being down 4-2 and we swept the doubles to win the match 5-4 and the conference championship! I got home about midnight and was so excited to tell my wife when she hit me with her on exciting news, that she was pregnant with our 3rd child which turned out to be our daughter and my little Princess Carolyn.

My least favorite moment was in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd came thru. I had the best girls team I’ve ever had at RMHS but Floyd not only devastated Rocky Mount, it devastated our season too. Sunset Park where we practiced and played was 15 feet under water and all of RM was in recovery mode for a month or so. Other parts of the state including Fayetteville with Terry Sanford were not hit hard and their season basically went on as normal. When we finally got back to tennis after a months layoff we met Terry S in rd 2 of the playoffs. We lost the match 5-4 with #2 doubles losing the deciding match in a tiebreaker. Terry Sanford then went on to win the State Championship. To this day, prior to Floyd, I still believe we had the best team in the state and were robbed of our opportunity due to the circumstances caused by Floyd.

If you could change one thing in your coaching career, what would it be and why?

Other than the Hurricane Floyd situation I can’t think of anything. I’ve been very blessed to coach awesome kids and be a part of some many great families. I’ve coached all 3 Thompson sisters, Elizabeth, Mary Blair, and Anna and they are responsible for a great deal of my thinning hair but it’s been 33 years of coaching joy. Right now I have Holden Haggerty on the boys team and I was coaching his dad Joseph during my first season back at RMHS, so as I said, it’s been a total blessing to be a part of so many families.

Who is someone you look up to and why?

As far as coaching goes, Donald Clark (now at Parrott and formerly at Greene Central) and Lee Mathews from Wilson Fike have had significant impacts on my career. I’ve coached against them all 33 years so they have become good friends. I’ve learned a lot of strategy with Donald and have incorporated much of what his teams do into what we try to do at Faith. Lee has always had a knack for having great relationships with his players and their families and that’s something I’ve always taken notice of with him and also tried to use his approach often to develop similar relations with kids and their families.

If you could go back 5 years and tell yourself something that you know now, what would it be?

Life comes at you fast as they say. One day your playing Parrott and the next day the season is cancelled due to a virus from China! Go figure! So enjoy each practice, each match and every day because you never know what the Lord has planned.

If someone wants to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give them?

Marry well! Coaching the right way takes tremendous sacrifice on everyone’s part, yours, your wife, your family. The hours spent away from your family can take its toll if the family doesn’t support what you are doing. They have to know you love it and in turn,  either love it themselves or in my situation allow you to do it because of the love for it. If you chose coaching you have to be “all in”, you can’t be a 3 months a year coach. It’s taken my entire family to allow me to coach this long without feeling so guilty for the time I miss with them. They know how much I love it so it’s worked for us, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

After the pandemic is over, what is the first thing you are looking forward to that you can’t do now?

As soon as we get the green light I’m planning a “TENNIS IS BACK BABY!” Tournament with current players, former players, and parents. It should be a blast! And I’m going to church!!