New Hanover girls’ basketball coach, and former UNCW player, Vertha Dixon-Wright will be presented the Pat Gainey Coach Award on May 1 at UNC Chapel Hill’s Smith Center.

The award, in honor of NCHSAA Hall of Famer Pat Gainey, follows the listed criteria for selection: 

1) Coach must be an active varsity coach at an NCHSAA member school. 

2) Coach must be recognized as having provided leadership for students on and off the field. 

3) Coach shall have a clear appreciation and high expectations for hard work and maximal effort, and be effectively able to transfer this value to his/her student-athletes to help develop self-discipline, sound judgment, and respect. 

4) Coach shall have strongly enforced an anti-drug/alcohol policy. 

5) Coach shall have shown interest in the student-athletes lives both on and off the field, personally working to ensure sound decision-making in both areas. 

6) Coach shall have a strong appreciation for team success and strict adherence to the rules during competition, and instill this desire for excellence and commitment to fair play in his/her athletes.     

7) Coach must be recognized as scrupulously honest, driven, and task- oriented. 

In her twenty years at NHHS, Dixon-Wright has compiled 293 victories and has worked diligently at getting her girls involved in community service opportunities off the court.