Whittington remembered as 'everybody's coach'

Donald “Donnie” Whittington, the retired athletic director for the Boys & Girls Club of Cabarrus County, died Wednesday. He was 70.

Whittington retired as the athletic director in 2009, after 55 years of service, which included running sports clinics, coaching teams and participating in other events at the Boys & Girls Club.

During those five decades, Whittington often spoke of sneaking into the then Boys Club when he was too young to join. Whittington officially joined at the age of 5 and never really left, except to serve in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965, staff members at the Boys & Girls Club said.

According to sources, Whittington had been sick for several weeks.

“He was a huge part of this club and always will be,” said Valerie Melton, executive director for the club.

As a youth, Whittington began working for the club part time and was later offered a full-time job there.

When he received the “From the Heart Award” from the club in 2009, Whittington spoke of the growth he had seen and the people he had coached in his decades of service.

“We kept a lot of kids off the street,” Whittington said in 2009. “You’re not going to save the world, but we saved a lot.” 

At the time of his retirement, Whittington said he hoped to volunteer at the club, and staff members said they still saw a lot of him after he retired. Whittington continued to serve as a volunteer coach, referee and member of the advisory committee.

“It wouldn’t be possible to find somebody who was more dedicated and devoted to youth,” said Mike Blackwelder, development director for the club. “The many lives he’s touched with his work with the youth was inspiring. Anyone who works in this field should aspire to be the kind of man Donnie was.”

Even as the club posted news on its Facebook page of his being admitted to the hospital and updates on his health over the last few weeks, dozens of people wrote messages of support and shared memories of how Whittington had influenced their lives.

E.Z. Smith, the longtime and retired head football coach for Concord High School, spoke Thursday about Whittington’s influence on him. Whittington was Smith’s first coach, and Smith will deliver the eulogy at a service on Saturday, as Whittington had previously asked him to do.

“I always called him ‘coach,’ even in later years in life,” Smith said. “More than being a son or father or husband, more importantly, he was everybody’s coach.”

Smith recalled Whittington taking him and several youth to a college basketball game in Charlotte in the 1960s and buying them a meal on the way back from it, and he remembered that Whittington and his wife, Lannie, traveled for three hours to attend Smith’s wedding.

“When I became a head coach, I decided I wanted to treat every one of my players like Donnie treated me,” Smith said. “No coach loved me and his players like Donnie Whittington did. It wasn’t just me. It was every kid. … Donnie Whittington had a lasting effect.”

The Boys & Girls Club recently celebrated its 65th anniversary, and staff members recalled the local Rotary Club meetings they attended where Whittington shared stories of his time with the club.

“Not knowing he was sick, I didn’t realize I needed to appreciate that time with him,” Melton said. “Every time he spoke, he would have a different story. To see how much he enjoyed talking about the club and to see those people like to hear him speak, I enjoyed that.”

Melton also spoke of Whittington’s love for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

“It’s safe to say his office here will remain Carolina blue,” Melton said.

Two days before he died, the club’s board of directors voted unanimously to make Whittington a member of the Lifetime Honorary Board, Blackwelder said. The board also approved naming the club’s basketball courts after Whittington.

Exactly a month after his death, the club will host its annual Pancake Day, and Blackwelder said Whittington will be honored in some way during the event.

“He was always an important part of that,” Blackwelder said.

Survivors include his wife, Lannie Whittington; daughter, Kimberly Whittington; and sister, Lillian Carter.

The funeral service will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, at the Boys & Girls Club, located at 247 Spring St. N.W., Concord. The family will receive friends at 12 p.m., prior to the service.

Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152