Heritage senior awarded first annual ‘Get Big Like Ed’ Memorial Scholarship
Tate Thomas has been awarded the 2023 Ed Stec “Get Big Like Ed” Memorial Scholarship. Thomas is a graduating senior at Heritage High School. He will attend Truett McConnell University, where he has earned a wrestling scholarship and plans to major in education.
While attending Heritage High, Thomas has been actively involved in his school and community. Earning four letters in wrestling, he served as team captain his senior year. Thomas is a member of the National Honor Society and volunteers at Ringgold Primary School and youth wrestling tournaments.
His grandparents are Chattanooga Valley High School alumni: Charles Grizzle (CVHS, 1968) and Rachel Roberts Grizzle (CVHS, 1969). He is the son of Paige and Brian Thomas of Ringgold.
The Ed Stec “Get Big Like Ed” Memorial Scholarship is a non-renewable $1,000 scholarship that will be awarded annually to a graduating senior who attended Chattanooga Valley Elementary and/or Chattanooga Valley Middle School or whose parent or grandparent graduated from Chattanooga Valley High School. This scholarship seeks to recognize students based on Stec’s example of perseverance, grit, determination, and generosity.
Stec was a 1960 graduate of Phoenixville (PA) High School. He was a star athlete on the football, baseball, basketball, and track teams and was inducted into the Phoenixville High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. Stec was a scholarship athlete in football and wrestling at the University of Chattanooga and graduated in 1964 with a BS in Physical Education. Stec was also a bronze medalist in the National Senior Games with his team, “The Golden Boys.” Perhaps his greatest contribution to sports came from the many years he served as a coach, mentor, and friend to athletes at various levels — high school, rec league, AAU Ju
nior Olympics, church league, and the Golden Boys — inspiring all to “Get Big Like Ed!” Stec taught physical education at Chattanooga Valley High School from 1964 to 1974. His larger-than-life personality really shined in his play-by-play commentating for Chattanooga Valley High School football in the 1980s. Giving the players nicknames like “Chad the Rad.” He then sold insurance and real estate and was the owner/ operator of Flintstone Fitness for twenty years.
Stec will be remembered for his competitive nature, sense of humor, quick wit, love for Alabama foot
ball, pride in the accomplishments of his children and grandchildren, and devotion to his wife, Lynda. His quiet generosity blessed numerous residents of the Valley and beyond.
The 2024 Ed Stec Memorial Scholarship will open in January 2024. If you are interested in donating to the Ed Stec “Get Big Like Ed” Memorial Scholarship, please mail checks payable to Flintstone Baptist Church, 121 Mountain View Circle, Flintstone, GA, 30725, memo line: Stec Scholarship. To donate online: GoFundMe, Scholarship in Honor of Coach Stec’s Life: https://www.gofundme.com/f/scholarship-in-honor-of-coach-stecs-life.