Special to IFN

Iredell County Sports Hall of Fame Executive Director Steve Rankin announced the class of 2025 inductees on Tuesday.

The annual induction banquet is scheduled for May 19 at the Statesville Civic Center at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:15 p.m.

The new class of inductees includes the second individual to be honored by the unanimous acclamation of the selection committee. Professional Bull Riding world champion J.B. Mauney will join Dale Earnhardt Sr. as the only inductees to be selected in such a manner.

The 2025 class includes five individuals who were honored athletes/coaches during their Iredell County careers. Their accomplishments after moving on to the next stages of their lives and careers are especially noteworthy as well.

The group being inducted this year includes George Conger, Kent Daniels, Jeff Lewis, Natalie Tribble and Chris Woodfin.

Kenny Miller, who had a distinguished 50-year career with Iredell-Statesville Schools will be presented the annual Harold Johnson Community Partner award.

Class of 2025

♦ James Burton “J.B.” Mauney, a Mooresville native and former Lake Norman High student, was a top competitor in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) circuit for several years, winning the PBR world championship in 2013 and 2015.  He is considered one of the greatest bull riders of his generation, and the ninth greatest bull rider in the history of the PBR, according to recent rankings. Mauney was inducted into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame in 2024.

At the very beginning of his career, he rode in both the PBR and Championship Bull Riding (CBR) circuits, before deciding to ride full-time in the PBR in early 2006. Mauney won the Southern Rodeo Association (SRA) junior all-around title in 2002 and the adult all-around title in 2004.

He joined the PBR in 2005 and the PRCA in 2009. In his first year of competition, he won the 2006 PBR Rookie of the Year. Mauney also won the PBR World Finals event in 2009 and 2013. He won the bull riding title during first edition of RFD-TV’s The American in 2014.

On November 5, 2016, Mauney made PBR history by being the first bull rider to reach the $7 million mark in career earnings.

In 2019, Mauney tied another two-time world champion Justin McBride, for the most televised wins within the 26-year history of the PBR. By the end of 2020, he had qualified for the PBR World Finals 15 times in his career (2006 through 2020).

Since 2020, Mauney has been part owner of Ultimate Bullfighters (UBF), an American freestyle bull riding organization. Mauney now resides on his ranch in Stephenville, Texas, and is serving his second year as head coach of the PBR Team called the “Oklahoma Wildcatters.”

♦ George Conger has a distinguished career of over 60 years involvement in Iredell County sports, having started as a teen as a three-sport, standout athlete at Scotts High School, before the consolidation of the Iredell County Schools.

Conger was a multi-sport star at Scotts High School from 1952-56 and was a three-year letterman in three sports (nine total letters), including football, basketball and baseball. He was an all-conference player in all three sports and played on teams that won conference championships in all three sports. He was named the athlete of the year for the Iredell County Conference in 1955 by the Statesville Record & Landmark.

In college, he was recruited to play both basketball and baseball and chose Erskine College and played both sports and was the starting first baseman as a freshmen. He transferred to Pfeiffer College and took up wrestling at Pfeiffer for three years and served as team captain for two years.

He had a successful coaching career, most of it in Iredell County. He coached football and boys basketball at Scotts from 1961-1965 and led the 1964 team to the conference championship. He then spent 1965-1969 at Millville High School in New Jersey, before returning to Iredell County. The Millville team in basketball was a state semi-finalist and had a record of 31-1.

He was the athletic director at North Iredell High from 1969-1974 and served as both assistant and head coaches for various varsity and JV teams in football and basketball. From North, he moved over to West Iredell High from 1974 until his retirement. He was athletic director for one year and assistant football coach numerous seasons.

Conger served in education for 53 years and is an active member of Landmark Church and continues to serve as adDirector for the Iredell County Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He resides on Macon Drive in Statesville with his wife Nancy.

♦ Kent Daniels, a legendary basketball player at Central High School, before the consolidation of the Iredell County Schools, joins this year’s class based on his playing skills as well as a successful, dedicated tenure as a coach in the local school system.

As a player at Central, during his 1963-1964 senior season, Daniels was a Northwest All-Star as selected by the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper and was a Prep All-American Honorable Menton by Coach & Athlete magazine. He was a unanimous selection to the IAAA all-conference team. He averaged 37 points per game during the era of basketball that did not include a three-point shot. His single-game high was 50 points against Union Grove High School. He was the most valuable player and top rebounder on the IAAA Tournament Champion team.

Daniels made the Central varsity team as a freshman in 1960-1961 and that team won both the regular season and tournament title. He started at Central as a sophomore in 1961-1962 and was an All-Northwest honorable mention and IAAA all-conference. As a junior in 1962-1963, he made all-conference as a unanimous selection on the IAAA conference championship team that also won the conference tournament. He led the Comets at 20.3 points per game.

Kent was awarded a basketball scholarship to Erskine College but suffered a severe leg injury during practice in his freshman year and that closed out his playing days. He graduated from Erskine in 1968 and later received a master’s degree from Appalachian State University in 1971.

He returned to Iredell County as a teacher and coach with 30 years of teaching in the Iredell-Statesville Schools. He returned to his true roots, teaching seventh- and eighth-graders at Central for five years, before the opening of North Iredell Middle School.

He coached boy basketball at North Iredell from1985 to 2005 and his teams qualified for the playoffs in 13 of the 20 seasons. He was selected conference coach of the year in 1990, 1992 and 1996. The 1990 and 1992 teams won conference tournament championships and the 1996 team won the regular season title for the Foothills Athletic Conference.

In recognition of his coaching success, North Iredell High presents the Kent Daniels Coaching Award to the top coach at North Iredell each year and the most valuable player of the holiday tournament receives the Kent Daniels Award

Daniels also coached girls tennis, was an assistant coach for the track team and had successful stints as baseball coach and soccer coach for the Raiders. He coached the 1986 baseball team to the Foothills Athletic Conference championship, the first in the history of the school, and the soccer program, under his tutelage, qualified for the state playoffs in 1992, again for the first time in school history. He was 1989 FAC soccer coach of the year.

Daniels has been married for 46 years to Dinah Feimster Daniels, and they reside on Friendship Road with their daughter Brandy.

♦ Jeff Lewis was a standout athlete at both Unity High School and South Iredell and was a true civil rights icon before a distinguished 30-year teaching and coaching career.

Lewis was a basketball and baseball standout at Unity High School and during the era of segregation. In 1967, when given the opportunity to attend an integrated school, Lewis chose South Iredell because he wanted to play football and Unity did not have a football program. He became the first Black student and first Black athlete at South Iredell High School.

Lewis received 10 varsity letters in high school, lettering in both basketball and baseball two seasons each while at Unity. At South Iredell, he lettered in football two years, basketball two years and baseball two years.

He went to Winston-Salem State University on a football and baseball scholarship and received all-conference honors in 1971-1972. He was named to the second team Small College All-American CIAA in 1971 and was inducted into the Winston-Salem State University Hall of Fame. He was the leading receiver on the Rams 1972 team.

Lewis is a lifelong member of Clarks Chapel Baptist Church.

He taught school and coached for 32 years before retiring, and 30 of those were in Iredell County. The first two years were in Virginia before he returned to Iredell County.

As was the pattern in those years, he coached the entire school year, three sports, including as an assistant coach on the football team. He was best known as the boys basketball coach and head baseball coach at West Iredell High School, where he instilled the character traits we all want to see in student-athletes at any level, not just high school.

Lewis enjoys hunting and fishing and periodically competes in professional bass fishing competitions.

♦ Natalie (Pierce) Tribble, the North Iredell High School record-setting volleyball coach from 2000 to 2017 joins this year’s class. She led the Lady Raiders to the school’s first state volleyball championship in 2008 and the team had a perfect 26-0 record. The team won all 26 matches by 3-0 margins, never losing an individual set in any match.

During her 17-year tenure as North Iredell coach, the team won 396 matches and had just 70 losses. North Iredell won a second state championship in Tribble’s last season in 2017 after finishing as the state runner-up in both 2010 and 2011.

Tribble was honored with the Toby Webb female coach of the year award in 2015 by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) and the team got a MaxPreps Tour of Champions/Army National Guard national ranking award for the 2017 championship team.

North Iredell won 11 North Piedmont Conference championships spanning 2001 to 2017, and Tribble was NPC volleyball coach of the year nine times.

Tribble served as an English teacher at North Iredell for 25 years and was the 2021 teacher of the year.

Tribble resides in Wilkesboro, N.C., with her husband Brennis Tribble. They have one son, Jaxson, a student at Appalachian State University.

♦ Chris Woodfin, a graduate of South Iredell High School who now resides in Raleigh, N,C., was the epitome of student-athlete. He was the valedictorian of the 1986 graduating class at South Iredell and later went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Most Outstanding Scholarship Athlete award in 1990 and was a GTE Academic All-American that year. Woodfin graduated in 1990 from N.C. State as a Magna Cum Laude graduate in Industrial Engineering.

As a baseball player at South Iredell, Woodin was a three-time all-conference player. In his senior season he pitched 66 innings, allowed only three earned runs, had 141 strikeouts and surrendered only 13 walks. He was the Foothills Athletic Conference most outstanding player and was selected to the all-state team.

He was drafted at the end of his high school career by the Toronto Blue Jays but chose college, accepting a scholarship to N.C. State over offers from Florida State, South Carolina, Clemson and Vanderbilt.

While at N.C. State, he was a four-year starter as a pitcher and an outfielder and his academic excellence continued as he made the dean’s list eight times and the ACC Honor Roll four times.

In 1991, he was signed to a professional contract by the Chicago White Sox . He played for the Sarasota White Sox, South Bend White Sox and Gulf Coast White Sox from 1991-1993. In 1993 at South Bend, following shoulder surgery the previous fall, he had 34 strikeouts in 16.1 innings and a 1.62 ERA.

Woodfin pitched for the Prince William Cannons in 1994 and was a Carolina League All-Star, finishing in the top 10 in game appearances and saves.

During 1994-1995, Woodfin was a member of the Birmingham Barons, where he was a teammate of Michael Jordan’s. He was an AA Southern League All-Star and again was in the top 10 in games finished and saves and his 20 saves set a single-season record for the Barons.

After his baseball career, he has worked with Cisco Systems for 25 years. The South Iredell Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and his wife Courtney live in Raleigh with their three daughters, Mary, Ashley and Samantha. He is the son of Donald and Dorothy Woodfin of Ridgewood Lane, Statesville, and the brother of Heather Woodfin Ramsey.

♦ George K. “Kenny” Miller served the Iredell-Statesville School system for over 50 years as a teacher assistant, teacher, coach and administrator. He was selected to the Iredell County Sports Hall of Fame based on his contributions to thousands of athletes in the system through coaching and supportive roles in administration. Miller was a chief proponent of middle school sports (cross-country, football, wrestling, baseball and softball, soccer) for Iredell-Statesville schools.

A graduate of Troutman High School in 1966, Miller participated in both football and baseball. After graduation, he earned his bachelor’s degree at UNC-Charlotte; a master’s degree in school administration from N.C. A&T and his Doctorate in Education at UNC Chapel Hill, defending his dissertation on the School Facilities & Planning Process.

In 1971, he coached boys basketball, boys softball and track at Troutman Middle School. He advocated for the expansion of sports in Iredell County. In his capacity as coach, PE teacher and administrator, he encouraged and assisted thousands of students participation on sports teams at all levels.

From 1973 to 1990 he was assistant coach at South Iredell to legendary Coach Bill Mayhew in football (1973-1979) and wrestling (1973-1990). He also assisted for several seasons in both baseball and track at South Iredell. Miller was highly respected as one of the best wrestling tournament directors in the state, coordinating numerous conference, sectional and regional championship events.

Miller served from1990 until 1999 as assistant principal and athletic director at West Iredell High School. He organized a capital improvements club to upgrade and expand athletic facilities at West High. He later assisted North Iredell leadership in organization of its capital improvement club. He was principal at West Iredell Middle School in 1999-2000 before becoming director and ultimately assistant superintendent of Facilities and Planning for Iredell-Statesville Schools, where he served from 2000 to 2022.

During his time in that role Miller supported new facilities and upgrades to existing facilities in Iredell- Statesville Schools. Many of the improvements were support / funding for sports-related facilities (public restrooms/concession; high school field houses and auxiliary gyms; improved lighting on fields and in gyms; improved seating at athletic venues; new all-weather tracks; upgrading playgrounds; purchasing athletic equipment and support for new artificial turf playing surfaces as funding allowed. Miller also championed partnerships with boosters and schools to expedite these goals.

Since funding has become available, turf / track replacement has been made at North Iredell High and West High. Work is currently underway at Lake Norman High School and future upgrades are scheduled for both South and Statesville.

Miller was a founding member of the Iredell County Sports Hall of Fame, on which he has served since its inception and that organization proudly honors him this year.

Banquet Tickets

Tickets for this year’s banquet are $50 per person in advance and include a buffet-style meal. For tickets, email srossrankin@yahoo.com. Any tickets paid for at the door on the night of the banquet will be $60, if any are available. Pre-purchase is recommended due to limited seating.

Class of 2026

The Hall of Fame committee is accepting nominations for the class of 2026. Visit iredellsportshalloffame.org to download the nomination form.