Road to $2.5 million facility began at LCC

Gregg Lassiter is the owner/operator of Champion's Health and Fitness Center in Winterville. He is also a graduate of Lenoir Community College.

"I attended J.H. Rose High School in Greenville before enrolling at LCC in the fall of 1977," Lassiter said. "I was playing American Legion baseball and a friend of mine told me LCC had a baseball team. He was going to play on their team and that piqued my interest."

Lassiter ended up playing baseball at LCC for two years.

"No one ever encouraged me to go to college," Lassiter said. "Education was not a top priority in my family, although my parents did hold me accountable for making good grades in high school. Even my high school counselor suggested I forego college and get a job such as selling shoes straight out of high school."

During his junior and senior years of high school, Lassiter worked in the mornings and attended school for half a day in the afternoons.

"This was the scenario for people who weren't necessarily college bound," Lassiter said. 

When he started at LCC, Lassiter enrolled in the television/electronics program.

"My uncle owned a TV sales/service business in Greenville and was very successful," Lassiter said. "I thought that would be a good way to make a living."

After two days in the television/electronics program, Lassiter's mother encouraged him to leave that program and sign up for traditional classes that would allow him to transfer to a four-year university. 

"After getting my associates degree I transferred to East Carolina University's School of Community Health," Lassiter said. "This course of study would allow me to work for the health department as a community health educator or for the education system as a health education instructor."

Lassiter completed his student teaching at D.H. Conley High School and his internship at the Caldwell County Health Department. He then went back to ECU to become certified in physical education in order to teach health/physical education. 

"While attending classes for my certification, a professor from the health education department approached me about going to grad school," Lassiter said. "So I enrolled in grad school and during that time was a graduate assistant and taught health education at ECU for one year."

After one year of graduate school, Lassiter took a job at Ayden Middle School teaching science, social studies and health/physical education. During his tenure at Ayden Middle School Lassiter also coached football and baseball.

"In 1984 while I was teaching at ECU I asked my uncle to co-sign on a $4,000 loan so I could start Champion's Health and Fitness Center," Lassiter said. "The first version of Champion's ran for four years in Ayden. In 1989 I resigned from my teaching/coaching duties to focus on Champion's full time and relocated the business to Greenville."

Now in its 34th year, Champions is located at 4190 Bayswater Road in Winterville.

"Two and half years ago we upgraded to a new 20,000-sq ft., $2.5 million facility that is owned by my wife and I," Lassiter said. "We have 20 employees at that center."

According to Lassiter, without his time at LCC none of the success he now enjoys could have been possible.

"When I started to focus on classwork at LCC and began making good grades, I realized I could actually attend a 4-year university," Lassiter said. "I made OK grades in high school, but my SAT score wasn't what it needed to be. I was lost and had no idea what I wanted to do. LCC gave me time to grow up and figure out what I wanted to do."

Lassiter said the instructors at LCC had a lot to do with encouraging him to reach further than he had initially planned. 

"I always admired Coach Bobby Dawson. He was one of my instructors in health education, and I really liked the way he taught - same thing with Coach Pete Barnes," Lassiter said. "Those were two men that I certainly admired. Also Charles Taylor, a history instructor who was very passionate about his teaching; same thing with Louie Eargle, the music appreciation teacher. When I began teaching, I modeled my teaching style after the people I learned from at LCC."

Lassiter went on to say Coach Dawson was "a fantastic man".

"Coach Dawson was always encouraging and it hurt me deeply when he passed away," Lassiter said. "He encouraged me after I graduated from ECU and he encouraged me in my health club business. He never made it to the new facility, but his fingerprints are all over that place through the encouragement he gave me. Not just fingerprints, but his hand prints. He was the kind of guy who would put his hands on you when he spoke to you. When he talked to you, it was obvious he cared about you. I will not ever be able to thank him enough. When Champions was just a small club, he was the one that encouraged me to keep building the business." 

Lassiter encourages anyone who may be in circumstances similar to his pre-college days to consider LCC.

"From a financial standpoint, anyone that's not been pushed to go to college but they think there's something out there for them, I'd investigate LCC because it will change their life. Don't let anybody tell you what you can't do."

For more information on how you can help a student obtain an education, contact Jeanne Kennedy at 252-233-6812.