Late teacher, coach Charlie Bishop’s impact felt by many

ROCKINGHAM – Nikki Wells Smith has known Charlie Bishop her entire life.

When she was young, Smith lived just one street over from Bishop and often babysat for his grandkids while she was growing up.

Bishop was the track coach at Richmond Senior High School at the time, and before Smith ran track for Richmond in the 1990s, Bishop helped train Smith, working with her on her various events – long jump, triple jump and high jump.

“He was good friends with my parents,” Smith said. “He was more than just my coach. He was more like our family.”

When she was nine years old in the 1980s, Smith was running summer track and she said she qualified for a national track competition in Spokane, Washington. Bishop was so close with Smith’s family that they allowed him and his wife to take Smith to the nationals without them.

“They made sure I did everything I needed to do,” Smith said, “and I actually won a national championship that year and broke a record or two. My parents trusted him enough for me to travel with them.

“He was hard on us and he was tough, but he taught us how to be dedicated and to work hard,” Smith continued. “Even when we did our best, he expected us to go beyond and he knew what we were capable of doing and he pushed us. He pushed for us to be our very best.”

A couple weeks ago on March 16, Bishop passed away in Little River, SC. He was 85 years old.

Smith’s brother Wendell Wells was a part of Bishop’s Richmond track and indoor track teams that won a couple state championships in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“He taught me how to fight, win, be responsible, run, jump and respect others,” Wells said in a Facebook post in the wake of Bishop’s passing. “One of the most caring men I ever met! He took me in, my sister in and my brother in when we needed him and loved us like we were his own. He did that with everyone.”

Bishop served as a teacher and coach in Richmond County and North Carolina for 35 years before moving to Myrtle Beach, SC.

Starting off at the old Hamlet High School in 1959, Bishop eventually coached track, cross country, basketball and football during his career and continued to do so when the county high schools all consolidated into Richmond Senior High School in the early 1970s, according to Historic Hamlet.

During his coaching career, Bishop amassed 1,664 wins to only 125 losses and received 46 Coach of the Year awards, according to his obituary. He was also named National High School Coach of the Year in 1977 and 1987.

“Coach Charlie Bishop is a legend in these parts,” said current Richmond football assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Greg Williams. “You probably couldn’t find anyone that he taught or worked with that wouldn’t have a good Coach Bishop story. He wanted to see kids be successful and he did what he could to put them in that position. It’s the tradition of Raider sports and I think guys like Coach Bishop help lay the foundation.”

Williams said he did his social studies student teaching with Bishop at Richmond starting in the spring of 1990, adding that Bishop helped guide him in the classroom, while teaching him how to work track meets and do fundraisers for athletics. In fact, Williams said the classroom that he did his student teaching under Bishop, has been the same classroom he’s taught in for all but two of the years he’s been at Richmond.

“Coming into a high school setting can be really intimidating when you’re only a few years older than the students, but Coach Bishop eased all that right away,” Williams said. “He showed me around, introduced me to some people and then just told me to relax and that he would help me out.”

Williams got his first teaching job elsewhere, but returned to teach at Richmond in 2002. But, by that time Bishop had retired.

“He showed me early on that you don’t have to micromanage people for you and/or them to find success,” Williams said. “He was a ‘treat people the way you want to be treated’-type of guy. That is very important in all facets of life, but maybe even more so in the teaching/coaching profession.”

Smith said the impression that Bishop has left at Richmond is still felt even to this day, adding that he touched the lives of generations of people.

She said she’s hoping to get a local track named after him because of that and all the success he had.

“It’s a loss for this county,” Smith said. “His doors were always open to everyone, to all kids, no matter where they came from or what they looked like. He has been such a father figure to so many people in this community. He will be missed.”