When Karen Edmonds Watson was 10 years old, she used to tag along with her brothers to the local playground in Grifton, N.C., now called Mattie’s Mini-Park. Her brothers would pick her to play basketball on their team so she wouldn’t be left out. Soon, everybody wanted the talented youth on their team.
Watson, who lives in Grifton with her husband, Preston, and her two children, Karen-Nia and Casandra, remembers those days vividly. She still plays basketball in local Pitt County leagues and has that competitive fire. Her skills, her desire and a stable of Atlantic Christian College teammates dubbed the “Six Pack” made Watson one of the greatest female basketball players in school history from 1987-91.
She is the school’s second all-time leading scorer with 2,029 points (Teasha Murphy, a 1996 grad, is first at 2,160) and still holds the highest single-season scoring average (25.8) from the 1989-90 season, when she was Carolinas Conference Player of the Year and led the league in scoring, rebounding (13.0) and field-goal percentage (.593).
Her name dots the school basketball record books in many categories to this day, and she can add one more final, prestigious honor to those annals: Barton College Athletic Hall of Famer.
Born in Brooklyn on Sept. 4, 1969, and raised with five brothers and a sister by her mom, Sandra Edmonds, her interest in sports was really triggered when the family moved to Grifton to care for Watson’s ailing grandmother. After honing her skills alongside her brothers at the park, Watson won some local Super Champs basketball competitions in elementary and middle school, then went on to star in basketball for head coach Kathy Frazier at Ayden-Grifton High School, where she also excelled in softball (still holds the school batting average record) and ran some track & field.
Looking back, Watson takes great pride in her accomplishments, particularly earning a Barton College degree in business administration. She later received a degree from Pitt Community College in Information Systems and is currently planning to attend East Carolina University to seek a graduate degree in computer science management and information systems.
At Ayden-Grifton, Watson did good for herself, earning All-Eastern Plains Conference honors in basketball for three straight seasons, as well as All-Area awards from the Greenville Daily Reflector. She averaged 17 points and five rebounds her senior year and ranked in the top 10 in rebounding and scoring in the EPC all three of her final basketball seasons. She was also an All-EPC performer in softball. Frazier’s sister, Debbie Purvis Keel (a 1999 Hall of Fame inductee) were both AC grads, so they encouraged head coach Mark Tobin to sign Watson to a grant. The rest is history.
Watson was a role player in basketball her first season, when she said her job was “to rebound and not shoot. After my first year, Coach Tobin told me that I had potential, but I had to get the right angle with my arm to improve my shooting form, then I could get a starting position. Well, everybody who plays basketball likes to shoot, so I changed my shot over the summer. I got my elbow in and started using the backboard.” Ironically, Watson was the team’s top shooter (59.6 percent) her freshman season and scored 227 points (7.1 per game) in a reserve role.
The Lady Bulldogs went 19-13 her sophomore year, when the 6-foot center started to take control inside. By her junior season, Watson was unstoppable under the direction of first-year head coach Wendee Saintsing. She was named conference Player of the Week three times, District 26 Player of the Week twice, won Conference Player of the Year and ranked in the top 20 nationally in field-goal percentage, points and rebounds and was named an American Women’s Sports Federation (AWSF) Small College First Team All-American. The team finished second in the Carolinas Conference at 9-3 and went 18-9 overall.
The individual honors were piling up, but Watson wanted to see her team succeed. She got her wish in a magical 1990-91 season. With fellow seniors Jackie Williford, Vonda Williams, Shelley Lewis, Michelle McClure and Cindy Murdoch by her side, the “Six Pack” won the Carolinas Conference regular-season at 10-2 and captured the league tournament championship in convincing fashion with romps over St. Andrews (90-70), High Point (77-45) and Pfeiffer (91-57).
In the district semifinals, the Lady Bulldogs went to Wingate and ended its 77-game home winning streak in a 90-89 thriller. Riding a seven-game win streak, Barton traveled to Belmont Abbey for the District 26 final and right to play in the NAIA Tournament, but suffered an 80-76 loss. Barton finished with the best women’s record in school history at that time of 22-6. The Six Pack broke 10 team records and 18 individual school records.
Watson led the league in scoring (21.9) and rebounding (13.7) once again en route to All-Conference and All-District honors. She was second in the district in scoring and first in rebounding and was co-MVP of the team.
