State championship coach remembers Russell roots

Thirty-three years ago, a senior girl at Russell High School came excruciatingly close to getting a coveted taste of a Sweet Sixteen.

Now 333 miles away, Amy Sarratt has coached her girls basketball team to the pinnacle.

Sarratt — perhaps known locally as Amy Dunaway or Amy Ross — guided Southeast Alamance High School to a North Carolina Class 2A state title this past weekend. The Stallions capped off a 29-3 season with a 43-33 win over North Wilkes at Wake Forest University.

Sarratt is in her 19th year of coaching — five years as a junior varsity boys coach before accepting her first lead position of a girls team at Wake Forest Rolesville High School near Raleigh.

Sarratt is in her second year as a physical education teacher and coach at the high school, which opened in 2023. It is located between Greensboro and Durham in the Tar Heel State.

Sarratt’s team has no seniors, so the goal is already in place for next season. However, the Stallions preferred to focus on what they had just accomplished.

“Let’s enjoy this one,” she told her team after Saturday’s victory.

Like many champions, they faced adversity along the way. The Stallions lost to rival Seaforth in the conference tournament championship after splitting the regular-season series with them. They seized the chance for a little revenge in the state’s elite eight, though, earning a berth to the final four against No. 1 Fairmont.

Southeast Alamance had the 12-seed in the 36-team field — despite sitting at No. 3 in the state — because it was a conference runner-up.

“Looking back on it, we felt like (losing to Seaforth in the conference finals) was a blessing in disguise because we had gone up against really good and physical teams,” Sarratt said. “I honestly think it helped prepare us.”

The Stallions went 6-0 in the state tournament.

Shaniya Porter was the state tournament Most Valuable Player. Clara LaChappelle was the championship game MVP as she posted 14 points and 10 rebounds. Both are juniors. Sarratt used a seven-person rotation for much of the postseason.

“I had coached this junior group at the other school before a rezoning to this new school,” Sarratt said. “That group laid the foundation for the team in that they were super committed, not just during the season but the offseason. They set the standard for the young kids, followed in their footsteps.”

Special guests attended the semifinal matchup with Seaforth. The Ditty family from Bellefonte was in the stands.

Sarratt grew up with them. She and Amy Ditty (Lochow) were best friends.

“I was super excited to see them,” Sarratt said. “They were like family to me. I don’t get to see them often, but we still keep in touch. That meant a lot that they came down.”

Sarratt said the Dittys were “instrumental” in properly introducing her to sports.

When she was a fifth-grader at Advance Elementary — a former school in Flatwoods — she competed against Amy Ditty, who was at Bellefonte.

“We just happened to be out at a department store one day, and I hear somebody calling my name,” Sarratt remembered.

It was Dr. Jack Ditty, Amy’s father.

Dr. Ditty established the Angels, and his vision was to compete with this club in various sports.

“It was basically AAU before AAU came about,” Sarratt said. “We played basketball in West Virginia, Ohio, everywhere, so that was really what got me started. I loved it.

“Their family is big into tennis, so I picked up tennis,” she added. “And I played a little bit of softball.”

In 1992, Russell fell to Ashland in the region championship — one game short of the Sweet Sixteen in Kentucky.

“We had a really good team,” Sarratt said. It was coached by Mary Robinson and included players such as Carrie Davis, Melissa Brown and the two Amys — now Lochow and Sarratt.

“I will never forget my senior year,” Sarratt said.

Sarratt said she grew up craving the chance to play basketball in college. She earned the opportunity, achieving a partial scholarship to play tennis and basketball at Mars Hill University — near Asheville, North Carolina.

Sarratt returned to the commonwealth of Kentucky for a few years to serve as a sports director at a YMCA in Lexington, but she ultimately landed back in North Carolina, where she’s a 19-year teacher and coach — a state championship coach.

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