William Knight has stepped away from his favorite place in front of the bench of the D.H. Conley girls’ basketball team.
He hopes it won’t be for too long.
Knight, who also guided the North Pitt girls in recent years, is in need of a kidney transplant to replace the one he received a little more than a decade ago. Knight left his post as the Conley girls’ coach about three weeks ago to once again undergo treatment and wait for a possible donor.
“I had a kidney transplant in October of 2012, and I was on dialysis for three and a half years before that,” Knight said. “I did home treatments, so I was sticking myself with needles and all of that.”
Knight said his kidney functions are once again starting to decline and he has been placed on the transplant waiting list again.
“Now, it’s just a thing of going through the process again,” Knight said. “Probably, I will start dialysis again in the next week or two.”
The coach said the waiting process of being on the list has not changed much since the last time he endured it.
He said he has already completed most of the preliminary procedures and testing to be eligible to receive a new kidney when that time comes.
“The thing now is just wait an find a donor, a living or deceased donor, that I can get a kidney from,” Knight said. “I was on that wait list before for a good four years before I got a kidney.”
Knight said the wait now is more like five or six years.
In the meantime, Knight is hoping to raise awareness about his situation, mostly as a means of helping to educate others, including about the value of being an organ donor.
Knight organized a function to be held on May 11 at the Biscuit and Bean Cafe in Winterville to bring greater awareness about organ donation, to allow people to sign up to be a donor and to give the public more information on the subject.
Doctors and nurses will be on hand to answer question from roughly 10 a.m. to noon. For more information, call the transplant center 252-744-2620.
Knight said he pushed himself the last two or three months in hopes he would feel up to continuing coaching through his medical process. But many factors, namely increased fatigue, helped to make his decision to step down as coach.
“If I can’t give 110 percent in coaching then I’m short-changing the girls,” he said. “If the lord is willing and I can get a kidney over the summer, hopefully I’m back in there in time for the basketball season to start up again.”
Knight said he is no different than anyone else stuck on the waiting list. He hopes to get the word out about the process and the availability of help and to dispel negative notions about being an organ donor.
“When people die, their organs go with them,” Knight said. “I was skeptical before I got the kidney transplant. Especially African Americans think that if you become an organ donor that if something happens, your doctors are not going to give you 100 percent to try to save your life. That’s a myth that a lot of people think.
“Everybody knows that they’re going to die. So if there is an organ or something else, and you can help someone to live a better life, why not do it?”
SOFTBALL
D.H. Conley 3, New Bern 1 (10 inn.)
After four straight scoreless innings and with the game deadlocked at 1-1 since the fifth, D.H. Conley scored twice in the top of the 10th on Thursday night for a 3-1 softball triumph over New Bern.
The Vikings managed just two hits off New Bern pitcher Anna Champey, who struck out 13, but the Bears committed a staggering nine errors.
Conley (15-4, 10-1) has a Big Carolina Conference showdown at South Central on Tuesday. The Vikes won the first meeting, 3-2, on April 9.
South Central 10, Jacksonville 0 (5 inn.)
SC ran its current winning streak to five, running up 10 runs on nine hits and stifling the Cardinals two two hits.
Haven Roebuck continued to destroy opposing pitchers, finishing 3-for-4, cranking a home run and driving in three runs, and Ava Coward was 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Kamdyn Haislip was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, Maddie Zobre was 3-for-3 with and RBI and freshman Hailey Mickey struck out two in five shutout innings.
The Falcons (12-4, 9-1) host Conley on Tuesday.
West Craven 18, North Pitt 3 (4 inn.)
The Panthers ran into a West Craven wall on Thursday night as the visiting Eagles pounded out 17 hits.
West Craven scored four in the first, eight in the second and three each in the third and fourth to end the game and deal NP (6-14, 3-7) ninth straight loss.
The Panthers play at Farmville Central on Tuesday.
BASEBALL
D.H. Conley 10, New Bern 2
The Vikings won their eighth straight game on Thursday night on the road at New Bern.
Conley jumped to 10-1 in the Big Carolina Conference. The team’s lone league loss came back in mid-March against the same J.H. Rose team the Vikes beat last week.
DHC (17-2 overall) hosts Ayden-Grifton at 3 p.m. Saturday.
South Central 17, Jacksonville 9
The Falcons won their fourth straight on Thursday night at home, surviving a six-run Cardinals first with two in the bottom of the inning and six of their own in the third before running away with the game.
Freshman Brody Brannan shined with two doubles and four RBIs in a 3-for-3 game, and senior Carter Hale was 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Brody Stallings and Tyce Thomson both doubled and drove in two, and Rahkeem Williams added a double as part of his 2-for-5 outing.
SC (15-4, 7-3) hosted Rolesville on Friday night before hosting Conley on Tuesday night.
West Craven 16, North Pitt 8
The Eagles endured an eight-run second inning at the hands of West Craven on Thursday night and could not recover despite scoring eight runs on 10 hits.
Garrett Bailey doubled and drove in three runs for the Panthers, Kolby Burroughs had an RBI double and Bryce Henderson (RBI) and Kamien Little-Burgess each had two hits.
North Pitt (3-15, 0-10) travels to Farmville Central on Tuesday.
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