Parkwood High football coach Terrence Gittens passes away suddenly
Parkwood High football coach Terrence Gittens passed away suddenly Thursday night. This coming fall would have been his third season with the team.
Gittens was hired in May 2020, replacing Tim Speakman. Gittens came to Parkwood from Cox Mill in Cabarrus County, where he was assistant athletic director and defensive coordinator for the football team. Gittens was at Cox Mill for five seasons.
Prior to Cox Mill, Gittens coached for more than 20 seasons, including at Pinecrest and Union Pines. He was born in New York, where he played in high school before playing college football at Cheyenne University in Pennsylvania.
Gittens — who has a son Terrence and a daughter Mya — moved to North Carolina in 2008.
Parkwood was 6-3 last fall under Gittens and 2-5 in the spring 2021 season.
The news of his passing rocked the Parkwood community.
“Everything happened pretty quickly,” Parkwood athletic director Rocky Richar said. “We’ve shared the news with our school community and we’re all just processing it. You don’t know what to say. There’s no protocol, no script and there are a lot of people that are hurting.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 6:28 PM.
