As an athlete and a coach, Debbie Purvis Keel made a name for herself on the basketball and volleyball courts in Pitt County. Now one of those courts is being named in her honor.
The county’s Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to name the gymnasium floor at A.G. Cox Middle School for Keel, who coached there for more than three decades. From 1975 to 2007, her teams earned almost four dozen conference championships across three sports.
“When Coach Keel was a teacher at A.G. Cox, I was very fortunate to have spent part of that time with her,” PCS Director of Athletics Rob Maloney said in a recommendation to the school board last month. “I got to witness (her achievements).
“This is a huge list of accomplishments that Debbie had,” he said, referring to a document recording more than two dozen of Keel’s honors, including being named the state’s middle school coach of the year.
Keel was an all-conference basketball player for North Pitt High School, where she graduated in 1971. She went on to Atlantic Christian College (now Barton), where she played both basketball and volleyball and was later inducted into the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
At A.G. Cox, she coached 27 volleyball teams, 12 basketball teams and eight softball teams to conference championships.
“She won 27 consecutive championships (in volleyball),” Maloney said. “That’s 27 years of being in first place. As a coach, I can tell you that just doesn’t happen by accident.”
District 9 representative Benjie Forrest called Keel’s record amazing.
After her retirement from A.G. Cox in 2007, Keel went on to coach volleyball and softball at C.M. Eppes Middle School, adding to her championship wins. Today she serves as a substitute teacher and coach at Bethel School.
“Debbie Keel has proven that she’s in it for the right reasons,” Maloney said. “She’s about reaching young kids whether they are winning on a court or not. She’s phenomenal.”
Keel was nominated for the honor by former North Carolina senator and Winterville Town Council member Tony Moore.
This is the fourth time in less than two years that the school district has agreed to rename part of a gymnasium in honor of an educator and/or coach. In 2022, Elmhurst Elementary School’s gym was in honor of former principal Colleen Burt, and South Central High School’s basketball court was named in honor of Athletics Director and longtime basketball coach Chris Cherry. Last year, the floor of D.H. Conley High School’s basketball court was renamed in honor of Maloney, who taught and coached at the school for more than two decades.
School calendar
Pitt County Schools will begin the next academic year on Aug. 26 and end classes on June 10, 2025, according to a calendar the school board approved Monday.
While the 2024-25 calendar was the subject of much discussion before Monday’s meeting, it was adopted without comment as part of consent items on the agenda.
A calendar option that would have allowed high school graduations to take place June 6-7, 2025, was favored by 90% percent of those responding to a survey by the school district. Much of the feedback indicated people wanted a calendar that would end the fall semester by Christmas break.
Board members said last month said state requirements make it difficult for school districts to adopt a school calendar that many parents and educators want. State law requires traditional public schools to start no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11. Schools are required to provide either 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction during the academic year.
For the 2024-25 school year, Pitt County Schools’ weeklong spring break (March 17-21) will align with that of Pitt Community College to accommodate high school students also enrolled at PCC. There is shorter break scheduled around the Easter holiday, April 18-21. The calendar includes more than half a dozen early-release days, including some to accommodate required LETRS (science of reading) training for new employees.
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