Jim Ruark
Coach Ru grew up in Lenoir and attended Hibriten High School where he participated in football, wrestling, and baseball. As a Senior in High School Ruark was a Scholar Athlete and earned an opportunity to play football and baseball at Davidson College. After one year of being a dual sport athlete Ruark decided to focus on academics and football. He served as the Captain of the 1987 Davidson Wildcat Football team and graduated in 1988 with a degree in History.
After a brief stint in the Construction Industry, Ruark was led into the coaching field. He soon took on the role of Coach Ru and that is who he is to this day. After serving as an assistant coach at C.A. Erwin and Burns High Schools, Coach Ru became the Head Football Coach at East Lincoln making the playoffs in each of his 2 seasons.
Coach Ru moved on to Myers Park High School and lead the Mustangs for 7 years where his teams made the playoffs 5 of the 7 years and advanced to the Western Finals in 2005. After leaving the Myers Park program to move closer to home, Coach Ru served as the Head Football Coach at East Burke High School for 4 years.
Coach Ru retired from public school and has served as the Athletic Director for Hickory Christian Academy for the past 10 years. During that time, he coached the Hickory Hawks (a team designed to give home school and private school students an opportunity to play football) for 5 years leading them to a National Championship in 2016 before his retirement from football to care for his mother.
Today Coach Ru has come out of retirement to help form the Christian Knights and serve the young men of our community and help foster Biblical Manhood through the vehicle of football.
Coach Ru has been married for 35 years to his wife Margaret. They have two sons; Ian who is 29, played football for App St. and is currently an investigator with the Catawba County Sheriff’s department and Keegan who played for Campbell University and runs Ru2 Construction, LLC with his dad.
Keegan Ruark
Coach Ruark is a graduate of Hickory Christian Academy. He played college football at Campbell University. He is entering his 5th season as a high school football coach under Jim Ruark. Coach Ruark is also his father.
Keegan is happily married to his wife Emma and runs Ru2 Construction, LLC..
Mark Maier
Coach Maier grew up in Winston-Salem. After playing a lot of backyard football and playing high school football at Mount Tabor, he played for two years at Appalachian State. Since school, he has served on coaching staffs at West Forsyth, Mount Tabor, Hickory High, the Hickory Hawks, and HCA flag football.
Married to his bride, Stephanie, since 2001, they share four children. He currently serves in an administrative capacity at Hickory Christian Academy.
Jonathan Friar
Coach Friar is a junior at Appalachian State University. He was born in Georgia, where football runs deep, but has spent the last 10 years in Hickory. He enjoyed playing football for the Hickory Hawks until suffering an injury. He also played baseball as a teen. He has excelled in coaching youth, being actively involved in his younger brothers' sports teams. His passion for coaching has taken another step by him joining the staff of the new Christian Knights football team.
