Cullowhee, N.C. – Longtime play-by-play "Voice of the Catamounts," Gary Ayers and former Catamount quarterback, and head football coach Kent Briggs will both be presented with the Adams-Ochsenreiter Lifetime Achievement Award by the Mountain Amateur Athletic Club (MAAC) at their annual Hall of Fame event on Sunday, Oct. 4. Briggs will be honored posthumously after succumbing to his battle with cancer back in June.
 
The prestigious event is scheduled for the first Sunday in October and will be held at the Omni Grove Park Inn beginning at 5 p.m. Tickets for the event are $75 and can be purchased online at www.WNCSportsAward.org.
 
Founded in 1959, the Mountain Amateur Athletic Club banquet honors Western North Carolina athletes through annual awards, scholarships, and the Sports hall of Fame, celebrating excellence in both sports and life while preserving local athletic history. Since 2000, the lifetime achievement award has been awarded by the MAAC, with longtime WCU sports information director Steve White earning the honor back in 2016 and former radio announcer Zeb Lee recognized in 2007.
 
Originally from Asheville, N.C., and a standout at A.C. Reynolds High School, Briggs stayed close to home to play for the Catamounts from 1976-79. It was in Cullowhee that he earned his start in the coaching profession, studying under mentor and former head coach Bob Waters for nine seasons from 1980-88. He then spent 11 seasons at North Carolina State, helping the Wolfpack to seven postseason berths, and coached at the University of Connecticut before the mountains called him home.
 
A two-time WCU graduate, Briggs was the head coach at his alma mater from 2002 through 2007. He spent 15 of his 36-year coaching career at Western Carolina, including the six seasons as the head coach.
 
Briggs later served as an assistant coach in football and track at nearby Smoky Mountain High School from 2010-12 before guiding Cherokee High School to the 2017 North Carolina state football championship, the first in school history. Following the remarkable turnaround, he was named All-Western North Carolina Coach of the Year and was named an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians after team members unanimously petitioned for the recognition. Briggs announced his retirement from coaching in 2019 and later returned to Western Carolina as a part-time adjunct instructor.
 
First plugging in his headset in 1985, Gary Ayers has been behind the microphone for 40 of the past 41 years at WCU entering the fall of 2026 – and has been a familiar friendly voice to the region's sports fans for nearly five decades. In addition to serving as the "Voice of the Catamounts," on football and men's and women's basketball broadcasts, the Swain County native has a broadcast career that dates to 1975, providing play-by-play coverage for Pisgah, Tuscola, Franklin, Cherokee and Swain High School football and basketball.
 
In 2023, Ayers was enshrined in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame and previously served as a media representative on the Hall of Fame committee – and is now back on the committee as a past Hall of Fame member.
 
Ayers, who retired as the president of Allison Outdoor Advertising in Sylva, also spent several seasons as the public address announcer for WCU Athletics and many other Western North Carolina high schools. The press box at Swain High School in Bryson City bears his name – though the nickname, Gary "the Bear" Ayers, stems from his time at WWIT in Canton and spent on Pisgah High broadcasts.
 
Joining Ayers and Briggs as Lifetime Achievement honorees from the organization is sportswriter Pete McDaniel. Also recognized are five individuals inducted into the MAAC Hall of Fame, including former A.C. Reynolds football coach Scott Conner, former Mars Hill football coach Tim Clifton, former Brevard College cross country coach Norm Witek, former Clemson women's basketball player Annette Wise, and former UNC Asheville women's basketball player Shiela Ford Duncan.
 
For more information or to purchase tickets for the event, visit www.WNCSportsAward.org.
 
Former Catamounts in the MAAC Hall of Fame:
Henry Logan, men's basketball – Class of 1981
Ralph James, football – Class of 1983
C.C. Poindexter, football – Class of 1986
Ronald Rogers, men's basketball – Class of 1989
Bob Waters, football coach – Class of 1989
Jim Gudger, men's basketball – Class of 1989
Don Dalton, football – Class of 1993
Charles "Babe" Howell – Class of 1998
Joe Hunt, football – Class of 2003
Bruce Peterson – Class of 2004
Gerald D. Austin, football official – Class of 2007
Cindi Saltz Simmons, volleyball and basketball – Class of 2018
"Tiger" Green, football – Class of 2019
Judy Stroud, women's basketball – Class of 2022
Jayne Arledge, women's basketball – Class of 2024
Tom Smith, baseball – Class of 2024
Paul Johnson (WCU Graduate), football – Class of 2024
Susan Hartsell, volleyball – Class of 2025