.jpg)
Northwood will induct its Hall of Fame Class of 2024 at halftime of its home football game against Seaforth Friday.
The school will honor and induct six new members, including Tessa Sheets (class of 2017), Kevin Straughn (class of 2006), Jeff Blackmon, Dwight Lynn (class of 1977), Ethel Farrell (class of 1976) and Keith Alston (class of 1986).
Sheets was a track and field standout for the Chargers in the pole vault event, winning two NCHSAA 3A indoor track and field state championships and two NCHSAA 3A outdoor track and field titles. She set the Northwood girls’ pole vault school record and set the NCHSAA 3A outdoor track and field pole vault record in 2017 with a mark of 12 feet, 6 inches (Emma Stone of Marvin Ridge hit the same mark in 2021).
Following her Northwood career, Sheets pole vaulted at Purdue University where she is tied for No. 7 in school history in the outdoor pole vault with a mark of 4.02 meters.
Straughn was a swimmer at Northwood, winning the Chargers’ only three state titles in boys’ swimming despite the school not having a formal swim team for most of his high school years. He won three state championships in the 100-yard backstroke (2003), 200-yard freestyle (2003) and the 50-yard freestyle (2006).
Blackmon was a parent and a volunteer in Northwood athletics prior to his death in 2017. He was known for his contributions to the gameday atmosphere, including the football tunnel and smoke effects that players run out of and his large pig cooker at tailgates before games. Blackmon also played a crucial role in securing a steel donation and orchestrating the construction of the current press box, and he turned his home into a hang out for the school’s wrestling team on Friday nights before Saturday tournaments.
Lynn was a football and basketball player for the Chargers, earning all-conference honors as a defensive end and tight end his junior and senior years. He played in the 1976 North-South All-Star Game prior to continuing his football career at North Carolina A&T.
Farrell competed in basketball, softball and track and field at Northwood, achieving all-county and all-conference recognition in basketball and softball her junior and senior years. She continued her athletic career at Methodist College, where she won a NCAIAW Division III basketball title her senior year.
Alston excelled in track, football and baseball at Northwood, winning the NCHSAA 1A/2A triple jump state title in 1986. He went to North Carolina A&T and later Walden University, and today, he serves as a project executive and a construction business owner.