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By Marc Pruitt

The time has come for Kevin King to become a full-time golf dad.

King, who has been the boys basketball coach at West Forsyth for the last three seasons, announced his resignation today. He will remain at West as a social studies teacher and coach of the boys golf team.

Stepping away from the sidelines will also give King more time to travel to tournaments with his daughter, Mary-Paige, a budding junior golfer, who will be a senior at West next school year.

“Since COVID, and with Mary-Paige playing more and more golf, I’ve felt like I’m being pulled in two directions,” King said. “The year we were home for remote learning, she and I would play golf every day, and that’s really when she started playing tournament golf. And this year, we’re leaving school and I’m taking her to the golf course and when November rolled around, I was doing that and then getting back to the gym for practice. And I really felt the pull between helping her but cheating my players during the season. When I saw her summer playing schedule and what was going to be our summer schedule, I knew someone was going to be getting slighted and I had to make a decision.”

King spent one season as an assistant to Howard West for the Titans in 2018-19 before becoming head coach for the 2019-20 season. His teams went 16-45 overall and 8-24 in the Central Piedmont 4-A Conference.

Before coming to West, King spent five seasons coaching at his alma mater, North Surry, where he compiled an 88-47 record and led the Greyhounds to an appearance in the NCHSAA 2-A state championship game in 2017. He also got to coach with his father, Ron King, one of the most successful high school coaches in the state before his retirement.

He has also had coaching stops at Reynolds, Reagan, North Davidson, Wilkes Central and East Forsyth.

“This is something that I’ve always done and have always been a part of,” King said. “When I was growing up, our vacations were at basketball camps. Basketball is always something that I’ve known. I think the hardest part of stepping away is being honest with yourself and realizing it’s time. It just got to the point where I realized that these kids need someone to be in the gym with them all summer long and I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that this year. Those kids deserve that. And talking with other people who were coaches, they all said you’ll know when it’s time.”

Mike Pennington, the athletics director at West, said that the job would be posted, and he hoped to have someone in place in June.
“We’re looking for someone with experience who are ready to get these guys in the gym as soon as possible,” Pennington said.

King had nothing but positive things to say about his final team.

“To have a group like I did with the guys this season was a real blessing,” King said. “They did everything I asked of them and more all season. They genuinely enjoyed hanging out with each other after practice, sometimes to the point where it got to be too late, and I told them I had to get home for dinner because it was 8:30. It meant a lot to me to have a chance to coach this group.”

King’s oldest daughter, Peyton, is graduating from Appalachian State on Friday and will also be coming back home to Clemmons.

“A lot of things told me that this was the decision I had to make,” King said. “Having that time to be with my kids and support them in what they do because neither one of them played basketball. All basketball was for them was them coming to our games. It will be nice to be able to spend time with them as their dad. Maybe I’ll even be able to beat Mary-Paige more regularly on the golf course now. But that’s a whole different story.”