‘An absolute giant’: Carver legend Alfred Poe remembered by former players, coaches

There is a good reason that the gymnasium at Carver High School is named after Alfred Poe.

Poe, a fixture at Carver as a teacher, coach and athletics director for 37 years and a pillar in the Winston-Salem community, died on Feb.

14 at the age of 82.

He won 318 games as the boys basketball coach and led the Yellowjackets to the Western Regional championship games in 1996 and 1997, his final two years coaching the boys team before becoming the schools athletics director.

Poe, who began his career at Carver in 1972, also coached football, track and tennis at Carver and before it became a four-year high school again in 1984, his 9-10th grade basketball teams were dominant in the area.

Poe attended N.C.

Central on a tennis scholarship hes now a member of the schools athletics hall of fame, and received his degree in 1965.

He spent four years teaching and coaching at a high school in Maryland, then spent two years teaching and coaching at Livingstone College.

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Poe was among the inaugural class of Carvers Hall of Fame in 2019 and was inducted into the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

He held the athletics director role for 12 years until his retirement at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

While he was the athletics director, he also served as an assistant basketball coach for the girls team with his great friend Gerald Carter, when the Yellowjackets won NCHSAA state championships in 2001 and 2007.

He was just an absolute giant, said Carter, who was an assistant coach with Poe with the boys team for many years before he took over the girls team.

I was privileged to have him as a friend.

The success we had, that Carver had, none of that happens without him.

He was a better friend than he was a coach, and that should tell you something.

The main thing I took away from being around him was how many students he helped, and not just players, but students who would come to him for advice.

He had a special connection with people.

I watched him offer a pat on the back and a gentle word of encouragement and also when it was needed, a verbal kick in the pants.

He helped thousands of people that came through Carver, Carter said.

If you knew Poe, chances are pretty good you are familiar with the terms hunchie dunchie and lottie dottie.

Whether that meant you played for him, coached with him, or worked with him in some capacity, you also knew that when he used those words, they may not have come out of his mouth in a flattering manner.

When we were running lines at the end of practice, he would get on us with one of his phrases, said Porsche Jones, who starred at Carver and helped lead the Yellowjackets to the girls 3-A state basketball championship in 2001.

One of his favorites was get your hunchie dunchie on that line if we werent touching the lines like we were supposed to.

Hunchie dunchie was Poes word for rear end.

And lottie dottie? Well, that was usually just for comic relief.

Once he started fussing at you in practice, he was fussing at everybody, Jones said.

He would say that goes for you, and you, and you and lottie dottie and everybody.

I mean, who would use a lottie dottie but Coach Poe? That was just him.

Coach Poe is more than just a coach and advocate for me.

He was a father figure.

A mentor.

Hes the one that always held you accountable no matter what.

He had the gift of persuasion and there arent many people that can have an impact on sports the way Coach Poe could, she said.

Jones said that at a time when she didnt know much about scholarships and playing at the next level, Poe introduced her to all that.

He took me on campus visits to Wake Forest and N.C.

state and UNC Charlotte, she said.

And its 100 percent because of him that I had the opportunity to play college basketball and get a scholarship, and I am forever indebted to him for that.

Jim Bovender coached football and was the athletics director at Carver when Poe began working there in 1972.

Bovender said Poe cared for the kids and they respected him.

He came to Carver during my second year there, Bovender said.

Basketball was his main thing, but he also wanted to coach football.

He was my defensive coordinator for 21 years.

He did an outstanding job for me and with anything he did.

He was really competitive.

I helped him with basketball one year and I came away from that thinking that I put a lot of time into football, but he just lived basketball.

Marty Stanley, a longtime girls basketball coach and athletics director at Glenn, was a student of Poes at Carver in 1972.

Similar to the gym at Carver being named to honor Poe, the football stadium at Glenn is named in honor of Stanley.

He taught me that anything was possible, Stanley said.

I had been at Kernersville Junior High and then they integrated the schools and I went to Carver.

He noticed me playing basketball in PE class and talked me into trying out for the team.

I was the only white kid on the team and he treated me like a son.

He treated everyone the same and pushed you to be the best you could be.

When he was coaching with the girls, it always meant a lot to me to be able to coach against him.

And then when we both became ADs, we developed an even greater relationship, if thats even possible.

We would always laugh a lot together at the AD meetings and conferences.

His friendship meant so much to me, Stanley said.

Dan Piggott Jr., the current athletics director at Carver and former basketball coach, has a deep history with Poe.

He played for him and coached with him, but also considered him family.

Poe also hired him to become the basketball coach in 2004.

Piggotts father, Dan Sr., and Poe were best friends.

I called him Uncle Poe up until about ninth grade when I got to Carver, Piggott said.

He has always been family to me.

Ive got pictures of him when Im 1 of him rolling a basketball to me.

But as close as we were, I got the same tough love that everyone else did and I loved him for it.

His expectations were always high for me and for everyone else.

I have always tried to move in a way that he could be proud of me.

I love him and Ill always love him.

Richard Daniels Jr., the current boys coach at Walkertown who played in college at Johnson C.

Smith, played on that team for Piggott and Poe that reached the Western Regional final in 2010.

Also on the staff were assistant coaches Clyde Reynolds and Napoleon Cloud, who were also successful former head coaches.

We had an all-star coaching staff, Daniels said.

Coach Poe was one of those guys an old school coach, a disciplinarian.

He brought a mental toughness to us that we didnt know that we needed at the time.

If you can hear him and take the fussing, you can play for any other coach.

That helped me to transition to college ball.

It made it so much easier for me when I got to college because I was prepared, and thats because of Coach Poe.

Poe not only prepared his players, but also the coaches that worked alongside him.

Mike Pennington, the current athletics director at West Forsyth, was an assistant coach at Carver under Poe from 1990-97.

He went on to become the head coach at Parkland and led the Mustangs to the NCHSAA 3-A state championship in 1999.

Ill always be grateful to him because he gave me a chance to coach, Pennington said.

When I came to Carver, I wanted to coach basketball and I was still just a kid.

I loved being there and I loved it because of Coach Poe.

The last couple of years I was there, he let me and Greg Starbuck, another assistant, pretty much run practices.

And that really prepared me for when I got my first head coaching job at Parkland.

I was ready because of Coach Poe.

Not only was he a great mentor, he was a great friend.

Pennington recalled a funny memory that he and Starbuck were able to pull off without Poe finding out.

Alfred was an old-school coach, and if you didnt have your uniform, you werent going to play, Pennington said.

We were on the bus on the way to Trinity one night, when one of our best players, Jerome Mitchell, let me know that he forgot his shorts.

And Jerome Mitchell, he was definitely someone you wanted to play in the game.

And this was before cell phones, so we ended up pulling the bus over to get to a pay phone to call one of our parents to see if they could run by the school and get the shorts.

We were trying to think of everything.

And we were trying to do this so Coach Poe didnt know we were doing it.

Then Coach Starbuck and I realized that the girls shorts were a lot like our shorts, and Jerome ended up playing the game in a pair of girls shorts and went for something like 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds).

Jerome didnt like it too much.

And Coach Poe never knew about it, Pennington said.

Marlon Brim, the current boys basketball coach at West Forsyth, played for Poe from 1986-90.

He was a disciplinarian, and he was loving, caring and just a presence for his players.

He was a father figure to all of us.

Brim said.

No matter how tough he was on you, he loved you.

Even after you graduated, he kept in touch with you.

He always cared for you, always gave you advice.

When Brim was in college at NC Central in Durham, he let Poe know he was interested in coaching.

Poe called a friend at a middle school near campus to put in a good word on Brims behalf.

I got my start in coaching because of Coach Poe at Shepard Middle School in Durham, Brim said.

He was always looking out for us.

Richard Daniels Sr., who played for Poe and graduated in 1986 from Carver, learned firsthand how much Poe was looking out for him.

I was afraid of him and thought I would never be able to play for him, Daniels Sr.

said with a laugh.

He came to one of my middle school games in eighth grade and told me he would see me at tryouts next year.

And when I got to Carver, he was the first person I saw.

And when basketball season came around, I didnt go to tryouts on the first day.

I went next door to the (Carl Russell) recreation center.

And the next thing I know, the gym doors fly open and there is Coach Poe.

He started cussing me out so bad.

Lets just say that I made it back to the gym at Carver for tryouts before he did, he said.

Daniels Sr., who is the vice president of community engagement with the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina and executive director of the William G.

White Family YMCA, is also the president of the Winston-Salem Sportsmen Club.

Coach Poe is one of the patriarchs of the club and he brought me into the club because he always saw it as an impact club and not just a social club, Daniels said.

A lot of my mentors were in thereCoach Poe, Coach (Robert) Wynn, Coach (Bill) Hayes.

Coach Poe had been the vice president for a long time when he asked me to join and help it grow.

The saddest part for me now is that when we take our picture at the Hall of Fame banquet this year, he wont be in it.

Alfred Poe, seated in the first chair on the left, was a distinguished member of the Winston-Salem Sportsmen Club.

John Floyd played for Poe for three years before graduating in 1991.

Like Daniels Sr., he wasnt sure he wanted to play for Poe.

I didnt play basketball until my sophomore year because I was scared to go and play my freshman year, Floyd said.

He was so intense.

He was a motivator.

He pushed everyone, whether you played sports or not.

He maximized his motivation through basketball to get the best effort out of everyone.

Once you look past all the yelling and listen to what hes trying to tell you, there was always a message.

He was just preparing us to fight through any kind of adversity.

Ill always be appreciative of that.

He just wanted everyone to be good at something and he was always there to help, Floyd said.

Carter said that in addition to Poe making him a better coach, he also made him a better teacher for his math classes.

When I started working with him, he called me into his office.

He told me that practice was like a lesson plan you do in your classroom.

He told me to start making a lesson plan for practice and we would talk about it every day, Carter said.

When we went through it before practice, he would guide me along with his thought process.

He would tell me, you spend your time that you allotted for and to not go over that time.

You check off what you did well and what you didnt and then what you dont get to.

And the next day, you pick up with what you didnt get to, then follow that up with what you didnt do well.

Then, you pick up with the new lesson plan.

I took that into my classroom and it made me a better teacher for my math classes.

He was tremendously organized.

I cant say enough great things about the man.

He was really something.

He will be missed.

Poe is survived by his wife, Carol, and his three children, Alisa Anderson, Camille Poe, and William Poe in addition to five grandchildren, one great-grandchild and three siblings.

There will be a public viewing from 1 p.m.

until 5 p.m.

on Friday at Russell Funeral Home.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, Feb.

22 at New Bethel Baptist Church at 12 noon.

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