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SALISBURY — A woman from Clemmons was recognized by Catawba College with the Young Alumni Award for Career Development earlier this month during the college’s alumni association awards event. 

Leslie Brooke Long-Stutts, Class of 2014, received the honor during the Oct. 19 ceremony that took place at Newman Park Baseball Stadium on Catawba’s campus.

The Young Alumni Award for Career Development is given to an alumnus for quickly developing success in their career field.

Long-Stutts is a native of East Bend, a small town about 40 miles north of Salisbury. She came to Catawba in 2010 on a golf scholarship and competed in every match for four years. She graduated in 2014 with a degree in physical education. 

After graduation, she moved back to East Bend, where she was a long-term substitute, head women’s golf coach and assistant softball coach at her alma mater, Forbush High School.  

In 2017, Long-Stutts was hired as the head softball coach and assistant volleyball coach at Atkins High School and as a teacher’s assistant at Lowrance Middle School for students with special needs.  

In 2018, she was hired at Atkins as a health and physical education teacher and added head men’s swim coach to her coaching duties. 

In 2019, she was promoted to assistant athletic director and served as interim athletic director at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As interim athletic director, Long-Stutts was tasked with navigating the guidelines for returning to sports from October 2020 to February 2021. 

Having demonstrated excellent leadership and the ability to handle one of the most stressful times in sports, she was promoted to athletic director at Atkins High School in February 2021. 

Long-Stutts continues demonstrating her dedication to her athletes, coaches and school. In March 2023, she received the Citation Award for Significant Contribution and Continued Growth and Personal and Program Development from the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association.

She currently lives in Clemmons, with her wife Natalie, 5-month-old son Reid and dog Finn.