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By Jay Spivey 

For the Clemmons Courier

West Forsyth is having a sterling spring sports season, so it’s only fitting that the school had a chance this past Friday night to honor two of its former all-time great athletes and coaches. 

Kevin Besecker and Nathan Newsome were two of the 10 people honored at Benton Convenience Center this past Friday night with induction into the Winston-Salem Forsyth County High School Sports Hall of Fame, which is sponsored by the Winston-Salem Sportsmen Club. Besecker graduated from West Forsyth in 1986 as a three-sport athlete and Newsome graduated in 1989 as a multi-sport athlete before going on to coach at the school for 31 years.

Besecker played soccer, basketball and track and field for the Titans.

“It’s fantastic,” Besecker said. “You had all the individual one-time honors. And then now, many years later, to feel like I’m in that elite club.” 

Not only was Besecker there for a celebratory banquet with the rest of the honorees, Besecker made the most of the day. 

“I drove over here by myself without family and just really was able to have a moment to reflect on something that will be with me forever,” he said. “I’m really appreciative.” 

Newsome coached seven different sports at West Forsyth, but he was mainly known for coaching cross-country as well as indoor and outdoor track and field.  

“On one hand, it’s weird because I don’t really feel like I did anything special,” Newsome said. “I think I was just at a good school. I was lucky to be somewhere where I don’t think I did any different than most coaches. I think I was just able to be more successful as far as that goes, meaning I think I could’ve done the same thing at another school and we would not have won and not gotten championships.” 

Newsome retired as a coach and art teacher at West Forsyth in January and now is the head track-and-field coach and director of track and field at Salem College.

“It’s a reflective moment,” he said. “It lets you realize time’s moved on by pretty quick.” 

One thing that put an exclamation point on Newsome’s induction was that it fell on Mother’s Day weekend.  

“The first thing I thought was my mom was going to be so happy,” he said. “She’s here. She’s right outside. As they get older, you know, you’re always a parent. I thought, ‘that will tickle her to death.’ That was my first thing. And I thought, that’ll be a cool thing for my kids. They’re (all four) all here tonight.” 

Even though Besecker played three sports, he was primarily known for soccer and basketball. 

“Track, (I) just happened to be a distance runner in the spring,” Besecker said. “I was primarily soccer and basketball. And I was still playing at the time in that split system when it was two years in town at Kennedy (High School) and then two years at West Forsyth (Senior High School).”

In soccer, Besecker was the Central Piedmont 4-A player of the year and was named all-conference twice. He was also the conference player of the year his senior year in basketball and was named all-conference both years. And largely because of all he accomplished as a senior for the Titans, Besecker was named West Forsyth Male Athlete of the Year for the 1985-86 academic year.

“The footwork of soccer and basketball have similarities and basically playing point guard in both,” Besecker said. “I played center midfield in soccer and then point guard for basketball. So, running the show was fun.”

It’s been nearly 40 years since Besecker graduated from West Forsyth. 

“It kind of brings back the memories of the learning experience through high school, the challenges, but then now the pride to be a Titan even more than ever,” said Besecker. 

Besecker, who lives in Greensboro, made a day out of going into the Hall of Fame. 

“We had a great day going on campus today,” he said. “We did a big tour of the old gym and the field. So, it’s a very, very special day.”

Even though it’s only been three and a half months since Newsome left as a coach at West Forsyth, he still has plenty of memories. In addition to coaching at West Forsyth, he played football, basketball, baseball, wrestling and track and field when he attended the school. 

“I just liked competing, whatever,” Newsome said. “I was competitive. I was a little brother. All I ever wanted to do was beat my big brother as far as that goes. I liked being able to do things that other people couldn’t.

“I was not a very big person. I wasn’t very tall, so I got a kick out of being able to do things that little people couldn’t do — dunk a basketball or jump real far or run real fast — those types of things. It was kind of cool. And my mom always said, ‘If you were on the ballfield, it kept you out of trouble.’” 

Now that Newsome is coaching college athletes, it’s given him a second chance to realize how many lives he’s helped influence over the years. 

“It’s just kind of cool. It makes you feel like it was worthwhile,” he said. “And it’s some validation, intrinsic validation on, I feel like I did OK.”