Patton High School on Monday via its Robert L. Patton High School Athletic page on Facebook named Chris Wiseman its new volleyball head coach.
Wiseman
A Morganton native and Patton alum, Wiseman is the current athletic director at Liberty Middle School. He has also served as Lady Knights volleyball head coach for the last dozen or so years, leading the program to Foothills Athletic Conference championships in 2017, 2018, 2023, and 2025.
Under Wiseman, Liberty enjoyed perfect FAC regular seasons in ’18, when there was no FAC tournament, in ’23, when the team won the FAC tourney title and finished a perfect 14-0, and again this past fall.
Between LMS’ 2018 and 2023 volleyball titles, Wiseman also guided the team to three straight second-place finishes in the FAC standings.
In addition, Wiseman is boys basketball head coach and is an assistant softball coach at LMS, having been part of FAC titles with both of those programs as well.
Wiseman will be a non-faculty coach as he will remain at LMS as athletic director and continue to coach at the Patton feeder school as well, said PHS athletic director Rob Gregory.
“Coach Wiseman has years of experience and success at Liberty Middle school that he brings to the Lady Panther program,” Gregory said. “He is a great addition to a talented team, and we look forward to seeing the Lady Panthers on the court this fall.”
Wiseman replaces Hayden Huffman, who coached the Lady Panthers for the past three seasons, culminating in the program sharing a conference regular-season title this past fall. After a 5-17 record in her first year, Patton won 16 matches in 2024 and 19 matches in 2025.
Huffman seemed to approve of the hire, sharing the news on her Facebook page with the caption, “In good hands.”
Many of next season’s projected PHS rotation players were part of LMS’ title squad of 2023, including most notably Soraya Hartman. Hartman, a rising junior opposite hitter/setter, and NCAA Division I USC Upstate class of 2027 verbal commit Hannah Huggins, who will be a senior middle blocker, combined to either lead last year’s Patton team or rank second in all five major statistical categories.
Both players were named to the all-region squad, with Huggins also earning all-state honors in 2025.
More local high school summer camps
Information for five more local youth summer sports camps, including four run through area high schools, was announced recently.
The East Burke football camp for rising second- through eighth-graders will be held July 18 from 9 a.m. to noon. Registration is $50 per player and begins at 8:30 a.m. that morning. Email Cavaliers coach Chris Cogdill by July 9 to sign up at chriscogdill@burke.k12.nc.us.
The East Burke softball camp for rising third- through 10th-graders will be held June 8-10 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the EBHS field. Registration is $40 and includes a camp T-shirt if registered by May 29. For more information or to sign up, contact East Burke Middle coach Carl Lowman at carllowman@burke.k12.nc.us or by text at 828-313-7533.
The Freedom volleyball camp for rising third- through fifth-graders will be held June 22-23 from 6-8 p.m., and the rising sixth- through ninth-grade portion will be held the same times on June 24-25. Cost is $40 and includes a camp T-shirt if registered by June 9. Registration is available at shorturl.at/9RgtH. For more information, contact Lady Patriots coach Megan Treadway at megantreadway@burke.k12.nc.us.
The Freedom softball camp for rising kindergarteners through ninth graders will be held July 7-9 from 6-8 p.m. Cost is $40 and includes a camp T-shirt. Campers should plan to bring their own glove, bat, and helmet. Registration is available at shorturl.at/Nb8Zz. For more information, contact Lady Patriots coach Connor Townsend at connortownsend@burke.k12.nc.us.
And the Arena Morganton summer youth baseball camp for ages 8-14 will be held at Patton High School on June 8-11 from 9 a.m. to noon daily. Instruction will be led by PHS alum and former NCAA Division I college pitcher Kross Robinson. Cost is $75 for one day, $125 for two days, $175 for three days, or $200 for all four days. Registration is available at shorturl.at/gBhwv.
Greenes, Kirk claim Bear Crawl race wins
The annual Bear Crawl Obstacle Course Race (OCR) was held May 16 at 5372 Roy McGalliard Ave., near Glen Alpine, which also serves as the site of the Ohana Mud Run.
The event featured both six-mile open and elite races as well as a three-mile open race.
Morganton runners Tiffany Greene, 34, and Joshua Greene, 33, swept the titles in the six-mile open race, both finishing the course in roughly 1 hour and 19 minutes. Morganton residents Dylan Johnson and Tanner Patton finished seventh and 10th, respectively, in the same division.
Kevin Thompson of Charlotte (1:03:52.40) and Courtney Washington of Gadsden, Ala. (1:11:14.36), won the men’s and women’s six-mile elite races, and 14-year-old Abbey Kirk of Morganton (50:55.05) and Karl Scholegel of Asheville (41:28.48) were the three-mile open race winners. Teenager Christian Lawhon of Morganton was the top local male three-mile race finisher, in 11th place.
