Lea leaves as Cedar Ridge football coach to return to Riverside
Once again, the Cedar Ridge football program is without a head coach just weeks before its season opener.
On Friday night, Cory Lea released a graphic on Facebook announcing that he was returning to Riverside to reassume duties as head football coach. Lea departs Cedar Ridge after one, pandemic-shortened, season where the Red Wolves went 0-6.
Lea was announced as Cedar Ridge football coach in February 2020 after leaving Riverside. He brought along a track record of taking once-successful programs that had fallen on hard times and resurrecting them.
According to a source, Lea informed Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons of his decision to return to Riverside Thursday morning. Lea coached Riverside for four years, starting in 2016. He led the Pirates to its second conference championship in school history in 2019.
In his only season with the Red Wolves, Lea was supposed to have running back Isaiah McCambry return after a promising sophomore season in 2019. But McCambry transferred to Walter Williams, who he led the Bulldogs in rushing with 556 yards in only five games.
If that wasn’t enough, Cedar Ridge lost sophomore quarterback Aidan Seagroves in the first quarter of the season-opener against Northwood. That forced Elijah Whitaker, a senior starting wide receiver, to play quarterback for the rest of the year. The Chargers won 48-0 en route to a share of the Big 8 Conference Championship.
The only game where Cedar Ridge held a lead the entire season came against Vance County on April 9, where the Red Wolves scored the opening touchdown. Vance County held on for a 20-14 win.
Lea’s announcement came exactly seven weeks before Cedar Ridge is scheduled to open its season at Chapel Hill, who will once again become a 4A team in August.
Even worse, it continues the pattern of Cedar Ridge looking for a savior in a football coach that starts with promise and ends with uncertainty. On top of that, the Red Wolves are set to start play next month in the new Central Conference, which includes Eastern Alamance and Western Alamance, both of whom won games in the 3A State Playoffs last spring.
Eleven years ago, the Red Wolves were one win away from playing for the 2-AA State Championship. Now, they’re searching for its sixth head coach in six years.
It started in 2015 when Steve Johnson was hired after winning two state championships at Burlington Cummings during a 21-year career, which included coaching the likes of former UNC wide receivers Brandon Tate and Dwight Jones. Johnson never coached a game with the Red Wolves because of thoracic aortic aneurysm suffered just as practice was set to start. His assistant, Scott Loosemore, took over in an emergency role for that year. He remained head coach for three seasons, including Cedar Ridge’s last winning campaign in 2016.
In 2018, Cedar Ridge didn’t field a varsity team because of a lack of players. Loosemore, who never got a full-time teaching position at Cedar Ridge despite plenty of public support, left to become an assistant coach at Scotland County. With Cedar Ridge sporting only a junior varsity team, former Hillside head coach Antonio King was hired in August 2019.
A year later, on the first day of practice, King gave notice to Simmons so he could become an assistant coach at North Carolina Central University. Torrean Hinton coached the Red Wolves in 2020 and led them to a 20-19 win over Chapel Hill on October 11, its first win at the varsity level in 455 days.
Hinton spent the 2021 season as a junior varsity head coach at Riverside. Last season, the Pirates varsity squad was coached by Andre George. They went 0-6, which included forfeits in its first three games.
In 2015, Lea applied to become Cedar Ridge coach before Johnson wound up being offered the position. Instead, Lea went to now-defunct Northern Vance.
Alumni Update: Wilson sharp as Gwinnett wins in Durham
Bryse Wilson: The last time Bryse Wilson started a game in Durham, he admitted that his fastball wasn’t working for him.
On Wednesday night, it was.
In front of 4,205 fans at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Wilson threw seven scoreless innings for the Gwinnett Stripers. Wilson left the game in the eighth inning with the Stripers leading 1-0. Reliever Dylan Lee surrendered a solo homer to Durham’s Ryan Boldt, which cost Wilson a chance to win the game. Gwinnett’s Cristian Pache singled home Terrance Gore in the ninth inning for the winning run as Gwinnett prevailed 2-1.
Orlando Arcia homered in the third inning for Gwinnett.
On the night, Wilson allowed only three hits and a walk over seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. At one point, Wilson retired 12 consecutive batters. Wilson threw 91 pitches, 58 of which were strikes. As usual when Wilson pitches in Durham, many Hillsborough residents and some of Wilson’s previous coaches were on hand to watch.
Dating back to July 21, 2019, Wilson is 10-2 with a 2.53 ERA and a .247 batting average allowed over his last 14 starts with Gwinnett.
This season with the Stripers, Wilson is 4-2 with a 3.97 ERA through eight starts. In 45 innings pitched this season, Wilson has 39 strikeouts and 14 walks.
Gwinnett improved to 23-26. Durham fell to 32-17. The Stripers start a homestead against the Nashville Sounds next Tuesday.
Phillip Berger: Berger made his latest appearance out of the bullpen for the Elizabethton River Riders last Saturday against the Danville Otterbots at American Legion Field in Danville, VA. The Otterbots defeated the River Riders 6-5. Berger suffered his first loss of the season. He threw the sixth and seventh innings for the River Riders and surrendered three runs off three hits. Only one of the three runs were earned. Berger walked one and struck out two.
Since then, Elizabethton has won three in a row, including a 9-2 victory over the Johnson City Doughboys on Wednesday night. Berger still leads Elizabethton with three wins. In seven pitching appearances, Elizabethton is 3-1 with a 3.46 ERA. He has thrown 13 innings and has 12 strikeouts with four walks. Elizabethton is 12-10 and in third place in the Appalachian League’s Western Division. The River Riders are two games behind the Greenville Flyboys for first place.
Joey Berini: Berini continues to play regularly for the Asheboro Copperheads of the Coastal Plain League. On June 25, Berini started at 2nd base for the Copperheads as they defeated the Forest City Owls 4-3 at McCrary Park in Asheboro. Berini went 0-for-4, but had two assists at second base. On June 26, the Florence RedWolves defeated Asheboro 4-2 at Cormell Field in Florence, SC. Berini started at shortstop but finished 0-for-4. On June 27, the High Point-Thomasville HiTome edged Asheboro 10-9 in ten innings. Berini, who started at second base, finished 1-for-5.
The Coastal Plain League crowns it champions over two halves of the season, similar to how the lower levels of minor leagues used to crown champions. Asheboro finished the first half in third place in the Western Division with an 11-11 record, eight games behind the division champions, the Savannah Bananas. Asheboro has opened the second half 2-0 with wins over the Martinsville Mustangs and High Point-Thomasville.