HHS basketball court named for Hartsville coaching icons Pat Hewitt and T.B. Thomas
By JIM FAILE
DARLINGTON - The basketball court in the new Hartsville High School gymnasium will bear the name of two of Hartsville’s legendary high school athletic coaches.
The Darlington County Board of Education voted Monday to name the court Hewitt-Thomas Court in honor of longtime Hartsville High girls’ basketball coach Pat Hewitt and former Butler High School boys’ basketball coach T.B. Thomas. The vote was unanimous.
Darlington County School District officials said the move is intended to pay a lasting tribute to the two coaches and their influence in the lives of hundreds if not thousands of student athletes and other young people in Hartsville over the last 60 years.
Hartsville High School Principal Dr. Charlie Burry said the honor is a fitting one.
“I had the pleasure and honor of coaching with and against both of these fine educators during my career, so I’ve witnessed first-hand the tremendous qualities that have made Coach Hewitt and Coach Thomas so successful,” Burry said. “They are both truly icons in South Carolina high school athletics.”
But Burry said their influence continues to be felt and goes well beyond the basketball court and the athletic field. “For students in Hartsville to have been guided by two such legendary figures for so many years has blessed and positively influenced our community, our society and our world in ways that simply cannot be measured,” he said. “A person gets into education to make a difference in the lives of young people, and nobody has done it any better than Coach Hewitt and Coach Thomas.”
Hewitt has retired from teaching but still coaches basketball at Hartsville High. She came to Hartsville High as a physical education teacher in 1969 after graduating from Coker College in Hartsville.
Over the past 41 years, her teams have won nearly 600 games, 11 region championships and three state championships.
Hewitt has won numerous state Coach of the Year awards and was named National Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2001. In 2009, she was inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Notable basketball players coached by Hewitt during her high school career have included Women’s National Basketball Association CEO Beth Bass, former N.C. State star Tammy Gibson and Hartsville Olympian Shannon Johnson.
Thomas came to Butler as a physical education teacher and coach in 1950. There he coached football, basketball and baseball. During his 32-year career, the man known widely in the community over the years simply as “Coach” won more than 800 basketball games that included 16 conference championships, 20 basketball tournament titles, four state runner-up titles and two state championships.
His alma mater, South Carolina State University, inducted Thomas into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.
Thomas retired from the school district in 1982 when Butler High School was closed and consolidated with Hartsville High. But he continued his life of public service to the community as a longtime member of Hartsville City Council and as mayor pro-tem, a post he held until he retired from council in 2008. He also continued mentoring young people in the community.
The basketball court is the second athletic facility in Hartsville to be named for Thomas. The gymnasium at Hartsville’s Byerly Park also bears his name as The Coach T.B. Thomas Sports Center.
Burry said the naming of the basketball court for the two coaches has another purpose as well. “While Coach Hewitt and Coach Thomas are most deserving of this recognition, we also want to honor the heritage of Butler High School,” he said.
“When Hartsville High and Butler High were consolidated in the 1982-83 school year, the Butler tradition, colors and mascot were retired. Now, everyone in our community can look at those two names together on the basketball court of a wonderful facility and be proud of the history and tradition from both schools that is represented by these remarkable educators.”
Construction of the new gym is on schedule, according to Larry Stegner, operations director for the school district, who gave the board an update on the project. The new facility has a budget of about $6 million but is projected to be finished at just under that amount,
Superintendent of Education Dr. Rainey Knight said.
The hardwood floor for the basketball court has yet to be installed, Stegner said. Landscaping and paving also remain to be done, but that exterior work will be done over the summer months, he said.
Stegner said the building is scheduled for an inspection by the S.C. Office of School Facilities on Nov. 30. Plans call for the gymnasium to open for play in January, he said. District officials are planning a dedication ceremony for the new facility sometime thereafter, possibly in February, Knight said.