Swannanoa native inducted into Warren Wilson College Athletics Hall of Fame

Debbie Hinson reflects on How Hard WOrk and Appalachian heritage Set her on a path to success

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
October 7, 2025

Debbie Hinson speaks, Oct. 3, as she inducted into the Warren Wilson College Athletic Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of WWC Athletics

Hard work was not an abstract concept while Debbie Adams was growing up in rural Swannanoa in the 1970s, it was built into her daily routine. When her chores and school work were completed, even her recreation involved repeatedly shooting jump shots at a hoop nailed to the side of a barn.

The lessons learned from her Appalachian upbringing served the woman who later became Debbie Hinson well in her 30-year professional career as an educator and coach with Buncombe County Schools and in her personal life as a wife, mother and grandmother. It was her prowess on the basketball court, however, that was honored, Oct. 3, as Hinson was enshrined in her hometown Warren Wilson College Athletic Hall of Fame.

The third generation of her family to call Swannanoa home, Hinson spent much of her childhood on a farm off New Salem Road with her grandmother.

“My grandmother had a wood-burning stove that she cooked three meals on and we used an outhouse, but I never though of us as being poor, because we didn’t know. We were always clean, never hungry and we had gardens and bought pigs from Warren Wilson College,” she said. “They were hard-working people, so I got that work ethic, but we didn’t think of it as hard work, it was just a way of life.”

Many of Hinson’s days were occupied with work in the garden, on the farm or stacking hay in the barn, but she instinctively understood how she intended to navigate her future.

“I just kind of knew, at an early age, that a college education would change a lot of things for me,” she said. “The life and family I wanted to create was going to require a college education.”

Playing school sports was not an option for Hinson before she arrived on the Owen High School campus, now home to Owen Middle, in the fall of 1979, but the hard-working mentality and physical skills she honed toiling alongside her family were valuable assets. She competed in cross country that year and in her first season of organized basketball was named Most Valuable Player on her junior varsity team.

When her friend and mentor Mary Ann Myers continued her playing career at the University of Miami (Ohio), Hinson realized that basketball could help fulfill her lifelong goal of attending college.

“She kind of took me under her wing, and in the summers I would help her move cows around, and I ended up going to a basketball camp in Ohio for around two weeks,” Hinson said. “I got a lot of praise then for being a good shooter, and I knew how to play defense.”

Earning a spot on the varsity Owen roster put her under the direct supervision of head coach Bill Rucker, who led the Warlassies to 90 straight victories from 1964 through 1969. Enshrined in the WNC Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 and an inaugural inductee into the Charles D. Owen Athletics Hall of Fame, Rucker was known for his fiery demeanor on the sidelines and high expectations of his players.

Debbie Hinson and her former Warren Wilson College head basketball coach Jerry Slaughter celebrate her induction into the WWC Athletic Hall of Fame. Slaughter, who was enshrined in the institution in 2018, presented his former player, Oct. 3. Photo courtesy of WWC Athletics

“He was demanding. We played full court man-to-man defense, he demanded perfection and you didn’t miss layups or free throws, which was wonderful,” Hinson said. “I was getting recruited by Furman University, but they wanted me to be a point guard, and I didn’t want to play point guard.”

Just down the road from Owen, former Warren Wilson College basketball player Jerry Slaughter was implementing his vision for the Owls program, which was competing in the National Little College Athletic Association.

“When I started coaching at Warren Wilson, anybody who wanted to walk on to the floor was allowed to play basketball, whether you knew how or not,” said Slaughter, who was enshrined in the WWC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. “Well, I got to thinking with all the talent in this area, I thought I could grab some of it.”

Slaughter closely followed Hinson’s career at Owen, where she earned Asheville Citizen Times Buncombe County Girls Basketball Player of the Year in 1982 and was named to the All-WNC Team, Blue-White All-Star Game, East-West All-Star Game and the Warlassies’ MVP. As a senior, she averaged 18.5 points, 8 rebounds ad 6 steals per game, scoring a career-high 31 points, including a game-winning shot, against Mountain Heritage. Hinson drained another game-winner against Mitchell that season.

“Coach Rucker really believed that defense won championships, and he didn’t care if I could shoot,” she said. “Sometimes, I want to tell the girls today we used to shoot from 22 feet, but they only gave us 2 points for it.”

Slaughter regularly made the short drive from Warren Wilson to Owen to watch the local star.

“One time, Coach Rucker said to me, ‘what are you doing here?’” he recalled. “I told him I was watching Debbie play because we were really interested. He told me she wasn’t going to play for me.”

Hinson, on the other hand, was open to the idea.

“The first time I went to WWC it was a whole different world,” she said. “Coach Slaughter wanted me to be a shooting guard, and I knew he had a program centered around the type of player I was, instead of me playing point guard.”

Her experiences on the family farm made the college’s work program appealing, she added. Slaughter knew Warren Wilson could provide the prospective player with something no other school could.

“She loves this place,” he said of the Swannanoa native. “I had a feeling she wanted to stay local, because if she wanted to, she could go home for dinner.”

Hinson’s decision to attend Warren Wilson came while attending the WNC Sports Award Banquet at the Grove Park Inn.

“It just hit me that I needed to go to Warren Wilson College and stay here in the mountains,” she said. Her impact on the Owls, just a few months later, was immense.

Hinson earned recognition on the National Little College Athletic Association All-American Womens Basketball Team in 1983, while her 475 points that season marked the highest total on the squad. She averaged 18.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game for Warren Wilson while recording 75 steals, 41 assists and 39 blocked shots.

“She had everything she needed,” Slaughter said. “Everybody loved her, too. But, her stats only represented a small part of what made her so special.”

Hinson married her husband, J.D., following her freshman season. She returned to campus the following fall with her first child.

Former Owen High School and Warren Wilson College basketball standout Debbie Hinson is joined by her family, Oct. 3, as the longtime Buncombe County Schools educator was inducted into the WWC Athletic Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of WWC Athletics

“One of the things I admired about her was that she decided she was going to have a family, and her sophomore year, she still wanted to play,” Slaughter said. “I’ve always called her ‘moms,’ because she walked into that gym the next season with Jennifer in one arm and a playpen in the other. She set it up in the corner, and put Jennifer in there so she could practice.”

At that moment, Hinson was doing what she had always done — showing up to work.

“I played for like 75% of that season, but being a mom was more important to me than playing basketball,” she said. “I stayed in school and graduated because I knew that was going to be life-changing.”

Hinson graduated from Warren Wilson in 1987, before immediately returning to Owen to teach coach varsity volleyball and fill the assistant coach position for Tim Raines on the basketball team. After 20 years, she left to teach Kindergarten at Emma Elementary, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2016. Even after her retirement, she continues to substitute at Owen High and Black Mountain Elementary Schools.

“I graduated from Warren Wilson on a Saturday and started interning at Owen that following Monday,” she said. “My kids grew up in the gym.”

When the call came from the WWC Athletic Hall of Fame Committee, she knew exactly who she wanted to present her.

“We’ve been neighbors for a long time now, and she regularly walks through the neighborhood with her kids. When I see her, to this day, I say ‘hi, moms,’” Slaughter said. “One day, I happened to walk out and she was walking by. She asked to talk to me a minute, and she told me she being inducted into the hall of fame. Then, she told me I was the only one she wanted to present her, and we both started crying.”

Her plaque signifying her induction into the hall was presented by another Owen graduate and current Owls player Ellie Martin, who competed alongside Hinson’s granddaughter, Mia Roland, as a Warlassie.

“It’s such an honor to even be considered for this,” Hinson said of her selection. “The day I got the news was one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me, besides the day I got married and the days my children and grandchildren were born.”

While her college degree did, in fact, prove to be the key to creating the life she envisioned on that Swannanoa farm, Hinson passed down her work ethic and Appalachian heritage to her children and their children.

Her oldest daughter, Jennifer, won two state championships as a softball player at Owen, while her son, John, starred at Reynolds High School before appearing in the College World Series with Clemson University and going on to play minor league baseball. Her youngest daughter, Nikki, is currently coaching the Owen volleyball team to what is, perhaps, the best season in the program’s history, while her granddaughter, Mia, recently committed to play softball at the University of S.C.

“Honestly, J.D. might tell you differently, but as their mother, I never thought about my kids accomplishing these kinds of things,” she said. “I want to believe I planted a seed, but having a work ethic has been a big part of our lives, and they’ve always been around sports. They all want to be the best at what they do, and they all work hard everyday.”

Although her days of farming are behind her, Hinson carries fond memories of her childhood and remains grateful for the lessons she learned in her hometown.

“I’m so proud of my Appalachian heritage, and the way I grew up with my family,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade any of that for anything.”