MISENHEIMER — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association recently named Gray Stone Day athletic director Jeff Morris as a 2020 Charlie Adams Distinguished Service Award winner.
On Oct. 1, the NCHSAA awarded Morris, who has also been Gray Stone’s principal since 2015, as its Region 6 recipient of the annual honor that is given to eight individuals with at least 10 years of experience in both education and athletics.
Named after former NCHSAA executive director Charlie Adams, the award is given to those who have “regularly gone ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty at both the local and the state level,” an official press release said.
“It’s humbling,” Morris told SCJ. “I knew Charlie (Adams) when we first got involved in athletics here at Gray Stone and he was a great man. The work he has done for North Carolina has been pioneering, and it’s an honor to be recognized with something that has his name on it.”
Morris holds 25 years of experience in education-based athletics, including 15 years as the director and structural purveyor of Gray Stone’s athletic program and seven years as the Yadkin Valley 1A Conference president.
“Our kids work very hard and our coaches work very hard,” he said. “We set a culture and it has blossomed into something that feels very special; our kids love playing for us. We created a family atmosphere and the coaches try to take that atmosphere and support everything that we do.”
A former president of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association (NCADA) and a lifetime appointee to the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA), Morris recently concluded a four-year term on the NCHSAA Board of Directors.
As a member of the NIAAA’s Accreditation Committee and the state coordinator of the association’s Leadership Training program, Morris has taught more than 30 courses at NIAAA national conferences. He is also a past recipient of the NIAAA’s Bruce Whitehead Distinguished Service Award and the NCADA’s Rusty Lee Professional Development Award.
Prior to his time at Gray Stone, Morris worked at Colquitt County High School (Moultrie, Georgia) as a head soccer coach and physical education teacher.