News

Kiwanis Club honors Stroud with top sports award

Judy Stroud

By Bill Moss, Published: December 4, 2014

Judy Stroud, a McDowell County girl who became a two-sport athlete at Western Carolina University and excelled as a college coach and went on to the highest ranks of women's collegiate basketball officiating, was honored Thursday by the Hendersonville Kiwanis Club as the 2014 Glenn C. Marlow Athletic Achievement Award winner, the club's most prestigious sports award.

A native of Pleasant Gardens, a community so small it made Edneyville look like a metropolis, Stroud played varsity basketball for four years and volleyball for three at Western Carolina, Edneyville native Doug Moon said in presenting the award.
After earning her degree, Stroud coached basketball and volleyball for three years at Boiling Springs High School in Spartanburg County, S.C., then moved to North Greenville Junior College, where she established the volleyball program. She then coached at WCU until 1986, when she embarked on her second sports career as a college basketball referee, reaching the top of the profession by being chosen to officiate 12 women's NCAA basketball tournaments.
In 2011, she became a supervisor of officials and still works as a regional adviser for the NCAA. Besides her work on the hardcourt, Stroud has been active in the Hendersonville community, serving on the boards of the Salvation Army, the Park Ridge Hospital Foundation, YMCA, Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, Special Olympics, Pardee Hospital Foundation and the Free Clinics.
Stroud said she was humbled by the award, which placed her in a club "I'm not sure I deserve to be in."
"I've been blessed not only in coaching and teaching but also in the insurance business," she said. "I've been blessed in regards to officiating. I see about 60 Division 1 games a year. I travel a lot so I can't get in a lot of trouble. I have a wonderful staff. I couldn't be here today if it weren't for them back at the office taking care of things."
Special recognition winners for extraordinary achievement were:

• Coach Erica Cantrell and the Hendersonville High School volleyball team, which won its third straight state championship and its 12th overall. Compiling a record in state championship tournaments of 90-19, Hendersonville is the winningest volleyball program in North Carolina high school sports history.
• Tanis Baldwin, the East Henderson High School senior who owns five state championships in cross country and track. He will run for N.C. State University next year.
• Mike Jennings, coach of the Veritas Academy Warriors, winners of a NACA national soccer championship in Dayton, Tenn., this fall. Veritas defeated Shenandoah Valley, Va., 3-1 to win the title. It outscored its opponents 14-5 throughout the national tournament.