Coaches,
I hope you are well and enjoying your summer. As many of you know, this year has a very weird schedule. We will actually have two Saturdays in November before Thanksgiving in which we can compete. Because of this, Polk County High School in Columbus (hour south of Asheville, and 90 minutes west of Charlotte) will be hosting the first ever Ollis Family Invitational on Saturday, November 23, 2024. This will be an individual tournament for both boys and girls (if there is enough interest, we will do JV). Currently, this will be a varsity only event, but you will be able to submit extras if we don’t have full brackets. You will find an attachment with the flyer. If you are interested in attending, please reach out to me and I’ll put you down. Our goal is to have 10-12 teams there. We will have a full hospitality room with breakfast and lunch, and have great facilities for a small school in Western North Carolina. We expect to have great competition as well.
This event is being used to honor the Ollis family who has meant so much to not only PCHS, but also Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. Bruce is the winningest football coach in PCHS history with 150 wins, and during his tenure at PCHS was the second winningest coach in WNC behind David Gentry. Bruce helped bring folkstyle AAU wrestling into SC after he left Georgia. All three of his sons were state finalist wrestlers: Jim was a three time champ, Austin was a four time placer and one time champ, and Jordan was a one time finalist his senior year.
Thank you all!
Thomas A. Hensley
thensley@polkschools.org