A writer for much of my life, a skill and joy I discovered in grade school, it’s not often I struggle to find the right words when typing an article.
Then again, this one is a little different. Maybe it’s because it’s more personal, more direct, more sincere and heartfelt. Or perhaps it’s because it’s my attempt at a “love letter” to Richmond County.
After nearly 12 years of being a resident here, spending all of that time in a classroom by day and nine years as The Richmond Observer’s sports editor by night, it’s time for me to begin writing a new chapter.
Effective with the publishing of this column, I am leaving my post with the RO. Not an easy decision, it was one based on a singular fact — it’s time to go home.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, the narrative was always to go to college, get a degree, move away and then spread your proverbial wings and fly. I did that when I moved here in January 2015, chasing a dream, but mostly chasing my fiancé Jordyn, who is now my wife of nearly a decade.
When I drove my two-door Ford into town, the only thing I knew about Rockingham was the Speedway. My two memories were the race following Dale Earnhardt’s death when I was in third grade and Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights. Nothing more, nothing less.
But how that would change without expecting it.
As I started my teaching career at Ellerbe Middle School (Go Wildcats!), the plan was to get enough teaching experience to move back to Pennsylvania in a couple of years. Yeah, you can see how that plan worked out — it’s one of the few times in my life I’m glad things didn’t go according to plan.
A year quickly turned into two, and then five and then 10 years. This quiet community nestled in the North Carolina sandhills became our home away from home before we knew it.
I’m proud to say I’ve been with the RO since the beginning, attending its first interest meeting in the spring of 2017 and helping launch the hometown, grassroots publication on July 1 of the same year. I was a general reporter at first, followed by a seven-month stint as the managing editor, which turned into the role of sports editor in February 2018.
It was this blind chance of two local businessmen, one of whom is Kenny Melvin and still the current co-owner, beginning a media upstart that has kept me here this long. The success of the RO and the opportunities it’s given me have played a large role in my time within “The County.”
Since joining the team, I have published more than 5,000 articles and likely covered thousands of live sporting events, both in Richmond County and across the state. I’ve helped the RO win 24 awards from the North Carolina Press Association, all of which are special in their own way. What began as a dream job for a kid who graduated journalism school just a few years prior, turned into a nearly decade-long relationship with a community driven by its tradition-rich sports history and affection for the formidable Richmond Raiders.
Where I grew up, which is actually the school district I’m moving home to, sports and community were par for the course. It wasn’t until I moved here and became immersed in the lore and day-to-day happenings of Richmond Raider athletics that I realized how special a bond between community and its sports scene can be.
In college, my sports journalism professor Randy Jesick had our class read H.G. Bissinger’s timeless novel Friday Night Lights. Only in West Texas in the late 1980s did I think high school sports, in this case football, could be the heartbeat of a town. Surely those types of schools or communities were exaggerated upon book pages and movie screens, right?
I was wrong.
Richmond County loves its Green and Gold. Yes, Friday nights take the spotlight, but over my nine years as sports editor, I’ve seen that love transcend all of its programs — baseball, softball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, wrestling, and so on.
Love can look a lot of different ways. It’s the old timers dissecting plays in the bleachers during a Thanksgiving week playoff game. It’s the mamas cheering for their babies on just another spring Tuesday night. It’s when former students and players return to campus to coach today’s youth. It’s the quiet moments and hugs shared after big wins and tough losses between multiple generations of Richmond Raider athletes.
Regardless of how it’s defined, all are examples of love I’ve seen and heard in Richmond County.
Perhaps the most important takeaway I’ve learned in my time here is that community and people matter. The scores, the statistics, the wins, the losses, the game-winning moments — they are important today, but they’ll fade over time with the pages of the books they’re written in. They’ll be discussed at the local diner until next season, or relived by those who were there until the next big thing happens. But what stays true and strong and consistent is that pride and dedication and love to a school and a diamond centered with an “R.”
As a one-high-school county, Richmond County gets its very best student-athletes to funnel through Richmond Senior. There’s no second option, no “little brother” school — just the Raiders. And I believe that’s a defining characteristic of this community that has allowed for it to become one of the best in the state since its inception in 1972.
I began my journalism career freelancing high school athletics for The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Covering games all over western Pennsylvania, I can promise you nothing ever came close to or felt like the way Richmond County supports and backs its Raiders. Love almost isn’t the right word to describe it.
What I’m most grateful for is how quickly and how loyally Richmond County, its readers, its sports families, its coaches and players took me in as one of their own. I was an outsider, an unknown, who quickly became a part of the Richmond Raider sports fabric. And to be frank, I think a lot of it had to do with my unique position as a public educator in the county and as the neighborhood sports editor. And for all of the acceptance and love, I’m forever thankful. It made my “job” more fun, more rewarding and more enjoyable.
I always felt welcomed at practices, felt at home on Richmond’s sidelines (insert football playoff game joke here) and in the dugout or on the bench. Year after year it was like I became more and more part of each team and the Richmond Raider sports culture. That was really one of the best parts — to be greeted by the players, to bond with the coaches, to have the inside edge, and to be a part of the triumphs and tribulations more than just the average fan.
Coaches, student-athletes, family members and those in the community made it commonplace to thank me for my coverage or share how they’d printed out an article or photo to frame. To know me is to know I’m bashful and I don’t respond to compliments well. But please know that every “thank you” and “we appreciate all you do,” and expression of gratitude was taken to heart. They were part of the fuel on late Friday nights driving back from some far away city school after a football game, or when I sat down to write four or five game stories in one evening during spring sports.
More so, my wife and I were welcomed into families’ homes for holiday meals, invited to graduation parties, asked to attend baptisms and weddings. For several years we ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Lampley family, a gesture so kind to a young couple who couldn’t make it home. I became part of senior nights as an “impact teacher,” I shared my love and knowledge of writing and photography with many others. Numerous students asked me to write recommendation letters for college or a job. The list is long over the last nine years, but the rewards of being accepted by this community far outweigh the stress of deadlines, an overwhelming workload, or burning the candle at both ends as a teacher and a sports reporter.
Sometimes in the fast-paced blur of sports coverage, it’s been hard to appreciate what’s been afforded to me. But I really tried to make it a point to always take in the big moments with our teams, as well as the smaller moments and the ones that left a sting at the end of the season.
I can still visualize Brad Denson, then just the offensive coordinator, jumping up and down on the tailgate of a gator to hype up the sellout crowd during the final moments of Richmond’s third-round redemption playoff win over Myers Park in 2019, followed by the team storming the field.
I still hear the crack of the bat of Taylor Parrish’s grand slam homer at South Caldwell in the 2018 West Regional finals that gave the Lady Raiders a lead in game two, but ended in heartbreak. Earlier that spring, I faced Greyson Way, the top 4A strikeout pitcher that season, in a postgame session of batting practice. I can still remember getting my hands around on a fastball just enough and launching it to the alley in right-center field. Core memory made.
The thousands of smaller, more intimate moments are also important to me. Seeing student-athletes smile as they sign college scholarships to play at the next level, asking tough questions after a playoff loss and trying to write about the positives, being present with programs as they maneuvered coaching changes and laid out the next steps.
The only state championship game I covered was the Raider basketball team’s run at the 4A title in 2023. Led by Paul McNeil Jr., the Raiders brought excitement to Richmond County during the winter months for the first time in 25 years. While that game didn’t end the way Richmond wanted it to, it was such a special honor to document and report on the successes of a special group of young men that season.
I got to write about the cheerleading team winning its bracket in the NCHSAA state championship in 2024. Most recently, I’ve written about Domonic Tillman’s 2026 state championship win in the triple jump. Several times I’ve been able to speak with and write articles about Dannell Ellerbe, Melvin Ingram and Dante Miller, all local players who made it to the NFL.
There were tougher times when I was tasked with trying to appropriately capture and write about the legacies left behind by Raider great Jason Norton, former standout basketball coach Tom Baucom and Raider superfan Preacher Ricky Jacobs. What made each of those stories more profound was the local community’s feedback and contributions, whether through spoken quotes or video interviews.
An English teacher at heart, it was always a goal of mine to try and prepare student-athletes for real life situations when we conducted interviews — proper pace and grammar, you know, the fun stuff. One of my most rewarding anecdotes regarding this happened this past year when McNeil Jr. and I talked after his record-breaking three-point shooting game for N.C. State. He told me “You helped me prepare for this. The cameras and the media. Thanks, KP.”
And that’s just one example why it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to serve this community as its sports editor.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Kenny and Charlie Melvin, the co-owners of the RO, for their trust in letting me run the sports department. They never questioned my judgement and gave me total creative control.
I couldn’t have done as much as I did without the help of managing editor William Toler and sports contributor Deon Cranford III. Both of them are spectacular writers and photographers who give their best to this county. They’ll be your dynamic duo of sports coverage moving into the 2026 fall sports season.
Since hindsight is 20/20, I want to thank my wife Jordyn for moving to Richmond County six months before me to take a job at Rockingham Middle School. Even though I didn’t want to leave the Pittsburgh area, that move set us on a course to Richmond County that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
And, of course, thank you to our student-athletes, coaches and readers. Without you, there’s no me.
I like to think I’ve done some good the past 12 years in Richmond County, both in the classroom and on the sidelines. Nothing great or spectacular, just a kid who grew into his mid-30s and tried to help the next generation as best as I could.
And I have the community, the school system and the Richmond Raider faithful to thank for reciprocating that goodness back to me and my family ten-fold.
While this chapter of my career is done, and the thought saddens me with its finality, I hope to always carry Raider Magic with me. While I admit I could have covered more events or written more articles, I regret nothing during my time as the RO’s sports editor.
What started out merely as a second job quickly became another avenue to allow me to serve my life’s purpose. Teaching and sports reporting have many things in common, chiefly among them the ability to connect with students, athletes, family members and the community, both in the classroom and on the field, as well as out of and off of them.
I couldn’t have asked for a better place to have called “home.” I don’t think I could say “thank you” enough times to enough people to truly share how grateful I am, how remarkable a place Richmond County is and what this town has done for me and my family.
There’s nothing like going home, and we’re excited to write our next chapter in the Keystone State. But I know Richmond County will also always be home for the Pillars, a fact that makes my heart smile despite the emotions of leaving.
Thank you for everything and more, Richmond County. I’ll see you sometime soon at a Raiders sporting event, but just as a fan.
Best,
Kyle Pillar
