"If I had the opportunity to come back and work at home when I was younger I don't think I could've handled it from this perspective," Fewell said. "You have a lot of family and friends, demands, and expectations placed on you that you have to prioritize what you want to accomplish. So when the opportunity presented itself this time, I knew I was mature enough."

Fewell is a role model in the small communities where he came of age. In the last 10 years, he's been inducted into the Lenoir-Rhyne, Belmont and Gaston County Halls of Fame. He has set up a scholarship fund at his former high school and tries to come back as often as he can to engage with the South Point students of today.

"I think Hillary Clinton wrote the book 'It takes a Village to Raise a Child,' and so I was fortunate that the communities of Belmont, Cramerton and Gastonia raised me. So for me to give back to those communities in just a small way, I'm just trying to say thank you for what they did for me. I tried to take advantage of the opportunities I've had, and I could not have dreamed in my wildest imagination when I was a youth growing up out there that I would have those opportunities."