Month: October 2021

There’s something to be said about momentum, and the Cedar Ridge volleyball team didn’t lack it after the first set of its third round game in the 3A State Playoffs on Thursday night. The Red Wolves defeated Harnett Central 3-0 to advance to the state quarterfinals at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Sophomore Addie Reid sent the Cedar Ridge faithful into hysterics with three consecutive kills in the second set, which put the Red Wolves ahead 18-5. On a team full of finishers, junior Anaya Carter is another strong weapon. Carter came away with six kills, including two in the opening set, the only competitive frame on the night. Cedar Ridge is now the winningest team in school history with a mark of 28-2. They will take on a familiar face on Saturday in the regional semifinals. It will be Cedar Ridge vs. Northwood. The Chargers defeated Croatan 3-0 in Newport. Cedar Ridge defeated Northwood twice during the regular season, but the Chargers were one of only five teams to win a set against the Red Wolves this year.

As recently as two years ago, Grace Young wasn’t sure if she was a Division I college caliber volleyball player.

And even if she was, she sure didn’t think being as a defensive specialist on a successful high school team would be her ticket to the next level.

Young thought her future was as a setter on offense, feeding the ball to Cedar Ridge’s big outside hitters Cameron Lloyd and Cameron Lanier, who would slam home point after point almost as will against hapless opponents. That what her role with the Chapel Hill Area Volleyball Club, her summer travel team under coach Tatiana Jackson, a former UNC volleyball player from 2013-2016.

During winter afternoons, Young would show up to the CHAVC gym for workouts. Afterwards, Grace would go home with her father Jeff, where they would place pipes on the ground for setting training.

Those lessons counted for something, but she didn’t accept an offer to play at UNC Asheville as a setter. Instead, her contribution has been defensively for the Red Wolves as a libero, playing in the backcourt as her longtime friend Julie Altieri sets up the Red Wolves’ outside hitters near the net.

“Before last year, I didn’t think I would be playing Division one,” Young said. “It’s crazy to think about now I’m going to Asheville as a DS (defensive specialist). It’s been a journey, for sure.”

Young’s position adjustment has worked out best for everyone. She has a team-high 227 digs for a Cedar Ridge team that has won the 2021 Central Carolina regular season and tournament championships. Under head coach Fiona Cunningham, the Red Wolves have broken the single-season school record with 27 wins as they prepare to face Harnett Central in the 3rd round of the 3A State Playoffs tonight at Cedar Ridge High School.

Young made her decision to attend UNC Asheville after spending the weekend of October 8-9 entrenched inside the UNCA program. That included watching the Bulldogs game against Winthrop from the Justice Center. During pregame, she was invited to watch film of Winthrop with the team in a large conference room. Afterwards, she took a tour of campus.

“I really was leaning towards Asheville,” Young said. “I always had my eyes on Asheville. I went to their camp last summer and fell in love with it. I love the coaches. They’re so sweet. It’s just like a big family environment at UNC Asheville.”

It didn’t hurt that Young’s mother, Brenda, has parents in Asheville and she makes frequent trips to visit that side of the family.

Like many successful athletic careers, Grace Young’s foray into volleyball started with a community.

In this case, it was in White Cross. She started playing volleyball when she was 8, paired against girls named Cameron Lloyd, Julie Altieri and Anaya Carter. There would be Friday night games, where there was as much competition as fun. Afterwards, they’d all sit around to eat hot dogs from the concession stand, located no more than 50 feet from the volleyball’s court baseline.

It’s still a White Cross tradition, and Young often visits on Friday nights.

Years later, those players who enjoyed hot dogs together would band together as a unified front for Cedar Ridge. Since Young joined the varsity as a libero last year, the Red Wolves are 36-3, 20-0 in conference games with two conference championships and three state playoff wins. And counting.

“I give them all of the credit,” Young said of her teammates. “I couldn’t have gotten anywhere without them, honestly. Them and the coaches that led me along the way.”

When things aren’t going good in some games, Young will wear her emotions on her burgundy sleeve. That’s when Cameron Lloyd will walk up to her and say “Grace, turn on that switch.”

“Just those little words will fire me up,” Young said. “Ava Lowry is always good to make a joke. Anaya and I will sit on the bench sometimes and we’ll play a game where we slap each other with a towel or something whenever we score a point. They always keep me smiling.”

If you look at Cedar Ridge’s bench during some noncompetitive games, Cunningham will lead her players to various celebrations after points. After an ace, for instance, all the reserves with twirl with their arms over their heads like a ballerina.

In her formative years playing in White Cross, Young was coached by former Cedar Ridge player Tory McNeil, who played on a Red Wolves squad that went to the fourth round of the 2013 3A State Playoffs.

“Tory was so energetic and really taught Grace that volleyball was meant to be fun,” said Jeff Young.

Grace attended volleyball camps at Cedar Ridge when Charlie Oakley was the head coach. Oakley led Cedar Ridge to three conference championships, including consecutive titles in the Carolina 9 Conference in 2010 and 2011. The 2009 team finished 26-5, setting a school record for most wins in a season that stood for 12 years until this year’s squad broke it on Tuesday night with its win over South Johnston in the second round of the state playoffs.

After playing at Gravelly Hill Middle School, Young joined many of the players that she once played against in White Cross at Cedar Ridge in 2019. Young played junior varsity her freshman year, while Lloyd, Altieri and Carter played varsity. Together, they took a Red Wolves team that went 23-42 in the previous three years and sparked an instant revival of the program. In their freshman year, with Young still at JV, Cedar Ridge went 18-6 and upset defending 3A State Champions Chapel Hill in their first Big 8 Conference game.

It was the time away from Cedar Ridge that shaped Young’s work ethic. In the winter, there would be travel tournaments with CHAVC in Texas, Florida, and Missouri, to name just a few of the states. A standard weekend would have 9-10 games with best-of-three sets, usually three games per day. It left Young utterly exhausted by the time Monday rolled around. With her body sore, she constantly fought the urge to stay in bed and skip Monday workouts with Bittikofer, but she always went anyway.

“I was raised in a family that was taught to work hard,” Young said. “After long tournaments, I would have lessons for defense and serve receives on Mondays. I did not want to go to it. But my Dad would give me a call and say ‘It’s your decision on what I want to do, but it would be good if you went.’ I knew it would work out in the long run if I just put in the work. That mindset really helped me.”

Young started playing beach volleyball in 2019. Sherry Lloyd, Cameron’s mother, would drive Young, Altieri, Carter and others to Bittikofer’s and Linda Lang’s gym. During the pandemic, Young’s CHAVC team practiced four times a week, three hours a day for 2-on-2 games. Originally, Young’s beach volleyball (or sand, for short) partner was Carter. But when Young joined a team called Blue Sky, she teamed with Melissa Benkowitz, then of East Chapel Hill High. Benkowitz transferred to Cedar Ridge over the summer.

Young’s immediate future is unclear. Right now, she and her teammates are riding a #1 seed and hope to reach the state quarterfinals tonight. Of course, the team’s ultimate goal is to play for the 3A State Championship at the famed Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh a week from this Saturday.

But her long term future is set. It will be in Asheville, and her setting days are over.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I will definitely be a defensive specialist in Asheville,” Young said.

One game at a time. That’s the way the #1 seeded Cedar Ridge volleyball team is taking the 3A State Playoffs. On Tuesday night, the Red Wolves easily disposed of South Brunswick in the second round of the 3A State Playoffs 3-0 on scores of 25-4, 25-11 and 25-14. Cedar Ridge stormed out to the first seven points of the match behind three kills from Cameron Lloyd and three aces from junior Julie Altieri. The Trojans never led nor tied the match in the opening two sets. South Johnston made a run to tie the third set 12-12, but junior Melissa Benkowitz came up with two big kills to keep Cedar Ridge in the led for the rest of the match. Benkowitz, a transfer from East Chapel Hill, has provided another finisher for a Cedar Ridge team that badly needed it after last year’s loss to D.H. Conley in the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs. Sophomore Addie Reed had three big blocks in the second set to send the Red Wolves’ student section into a frenzy. The Red Wolves improved to 27-2 with the victory and will face 9th-seeded Harnett Central in the Round of 16 on Thursday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. This will be the first time that Cedar Ridge has hosted a third-round playoff game since 2015. Game time between Harnett Central and Cedar Ridge will be at 6 on Thursday night.

The Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team did what it had to do to on Senior Night. The Red Wolves defeated Eastern Alamance 6-0 in its final home game of the year at Red Wolves Stadium on Tuesday night. Junior Chris Mendez ended the year with a hat trick. He finished the regular season with 13 goals, the leading scorer for the Red Wolves thi season. It was the final home game for midfielder Alex Jackan, a senior co-Captain. Jackan had an assist against the Eagles. Cedar Ridge wrapped up the regular season with a 7-12-1 overall record, 6-5-1 in the Central Carolina Conference. It was also a fitting finale for senior goalkeeper Benjamin Weaver, who is in his first year at Cedar Ridge after moving with his family from Pennsylvania. Senior co-Captain Jorge Salazar started his final home game. Other seniors included Jesus Quirez-Rivera, John Blake Gonzalez-Vazquez and Noah Montoya. The Red Wolves will now wait for Saturday to see whether they will make the 3A State Playoffs.

Men’s Soccer: Cedar Ridge 6, Eastern Alamance 0: The waiting has started for the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team.

The Red Wolves decisively defeated Eastern Alamance 6-0 in its final home game of the season on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Stadium. Going into the game, the Red Wolves were listed at the top of the “First Four Teams Out” in the latest 3A State Soccer Pairings by HighschoolOT.com. Cedar Ridge did its part to improve its standing on Tuesday.

Cedar Ridge junior forward Chris Mendez scored a hat trick. Mendez ended the year with a team-leading 13 goals.

Freshman Edwin Hernandez-Huerta had two goals and an assist. Hernandez-Huerta had eight goals and an assist.

Another freshman, Melvin Alvarado, scored his first goal for the Red Wolves. Junior Evan Marty assisted on two goals.

The Red Wolves conclude the regular season 7-12-1, 5-5-1 in the Central Carolina Conference. The brackets for the 3A State Soccer Tournament will be released on Saturday.

Orange 9, Eastern Alamance 2: To conclude its season, the Orange men’s soccer team tied a season-high nine goals in a victory over Eastern Alamance on Monday night in Mebane.

Junior Tyler Mann had the first hat trick of his career. Mann doubled his goal output for the season.

In his final game, senior Carter Thompson scored two goals. Thompson, the son of Orange graduates Roger and Cindy Thompson, also had an assist. He wrapped up the year with six goals and two assists.

Juniors Cooper Zinn, Dylan Silverman and Bryan Membreno also had goals for Orange. Freshman Konner Johnson had a goal and an assist.

Senior Jasper Tyll, a co-Captain, had an assist in his Orange farewell. Junior Cayden Cieutat assisted on another goal.

Orange finished the season 7-12-1 overall, 4-7-1 in the CCC.

Women’s Tennis: The Orange women’s tennis team, after winning its first-ever match in the 3A State Dual Team Tennis Tourament, fell in the second round to Cape Fear 5-2 on Tuesday.

Sophomore Erin Sollars had a straight sets win in #6 singles for Orange. Sollars won her match against Wilson Fike last Tuesday in the Lady Panthers’ 5-3 win, which sent them to the round of 16 for the first time in school history.

At #6 singles, Tea Jones won in her final match for Orange. Jones won both of her singles matches in the team playoff.

In terms of wins, this was the most successful Orange season in team history. The Lady Panthers finished 16-5. Orange’s doubles team of Jera Hargrove & Erin Sollars will compete in the 3A State Doubles Championship this Friday at the Burlington Tennis Center. Hargrove & Sollars will face Dabney Osbourne & Emily Mitchum of J.H. Rose in the opening round.

Women’s Golf: Samantha Durham completed in the 3A State Women’s Golf Championships for Orange on Monday and Tuesday at the Foxfire Golf and Resort Club in Pinehurst. Durham became the first Lady Panther golfer to compete in the State Golf Championships since Amanda Hill in 2015.

Four months after high school baseball season ended, the honors continue to roll in for Orange’s Ryan Hench and Davis Horton.

The North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association have named Hench and Horton to its 3A All-State team. They were the only players from the Big 8 Conference honored by the NCBCA.

Both Hench and Horton played their first full season with Orange during the abbreviated 2021 campaign, which was paired down to 14 games due to the pandemic. They comprised a battery that led the Panthers to a share of the Big 8 Conference championship with a 6-1 record, tying Northern Durham for 1st place.

Horton, a transfer from Riverside, was named the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year. Hench shared the Big 8 Pitcher of the Year award with Northern Durham’s Matthew Lombard.

Hench, a junior, was on the Orange varsity as a 9th grader. He season was limited to one game on March 4, 2020, against Eastern Alamance. In his first high school pitching appearance, Hench recorded the final five outs in order against the Eagles in a 6-2 Panthers win. His older brother, senior Cooper Hench, started at third base that night. It was the first time the siblings shared the field in an Orange uniform, and neither had any idea it would also be the last. A week later, the season shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost Cooper the rest of his Orange career.

Orange entered 2021 with question marks about its pitching rotation, which were answered during a four-day span starting on May 7. Hench threw four shutout innings against Northwood for his first varsity win. Four nights later, Hench was selected by head coach Jason Knapp to start again, likely with a state playoff birth on the line, at Chapel Hill. Hench put on a dazzling performance, throwing a two-hit, complete game shutout with 14 strikeouts. Orange won 5-0, a win that would carry them to the 3A State Playoffs.

Hench threw 18 consecutive shutout innings to start 2021. The first run he surrendered, which came at Northwood on June 1 in Pittsboro, was unearned. Hench ended the season 3-0 with a a 2.22 ERA. He also swung a strong bat, to the point where Knapp would often position him as a pitcher and designated hitter. Hench hit .421 with three home runs, which led the team.

Though it came in a reduced regular season, Horton hit safely in all 14 of Orange’s regular season games. The streak started in a 15-5 win over 2019 Big 8 Conference champion East Chapel Hill on April 27, when Horton went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run. He finished with five RBIs against the Wildcats.

Horton, a junior, ended the regular season with a 16-game hitting streak. That extended to his final days at Riverside, where he had hits against Wake County Home Schools and Green Level in 2020, the only games the Pirates played that year.

Last spring/summer, Horton led the Panthers in four offensive categories. He hit .490 with 24 hits and 15 RBIs. He tied with Hench with a team-high six doubles.

Defensively, Horton provided Orange with its most reliable presence behind the plate since the graduation of Brad Deno in 2016. Debo went on to play four seasons at N.C. State.

Though the Big 8 Conference was limited to two automatic state playoff spots, Orange still made the field of 32 as the #2 seed from the Big 8. In the opening round, Asheboro defeated Orange 5-4 at McCrary Park on June 15 in a thrilling game that ended with the Blue Comets’ Tanner Marsh doubling off the left field wall to score Camden Walker. Orange battled back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game 4-4 at the end of the fifth inning. Hench helped spark the rally with a double and eventually scored off an RBI single by Jaren Sikes. Hench singled in the fifth, which set up Conner Funk knocking in Will Walker for the tying run.

For the first time since 2015, the Orange volleyball team has advanced to the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs.

On a busy Saturday afternoon across Hillsborough, the Lady Panthers defeated West Johnston 3-0 in the opening round of the NCHSAA State Playoffs at Panther Gymnasium. Orange (11-9), hosting its first state playoff match in nine years, prevailed over the Wildcats on scores of 25-23, 25-17 and 25-19.

Across town, the top-seeded Cedar Ridge Red Wolves had no problem with the 32nd-seeded South Brunswick Cougars 3-0. The Red Wolves (26-2), who have already set the school record for wins in a season, prevailed on scores of 25-8, 25-8 and 25-12.

Orange will travel to face Wilson Hunt on Tuesday night. The Warriors (22-4), seeded #3, won the Quad County Conference championship with a 14-0 record. Hunt swept Triton in the opening round on Saturday.

Cedar Ridge will return home on Tuesday to face #17 South Johnston on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Trojans defeated West Carteret 3-1 in Morehead City on Saturday.

Against West Johnston, Orange trailed 15-11 until Emma Wimsatt scored a kill off an assist from Caitlin Carden. Then junior Allie Wilkerson took over the match. She served 12 consecutive points for the Lady Panthers, including three aces. Wimsatt had four kills during the run, while Avery Miller had another. All five kills were assisted by Carden, who had 14 assists in the second and third sets. In a frame that had six ties and four lead changes, Miller scored set point on a spike that caught the center of the floor.

In the second and third sets, Miller had eight kills and eleven digs. Wimsatt recorded seven kills, seven assists and seven digs. Senior Ella Van Tiem had six kills and six digs.

West Johnston jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set. Orange went on a 8-3 run to take an 11-10 lead off three kills by Miller. Kinzy Rowney and Wilkerson also had finishes.

Orange would take the lead with three straight points off kills by Wimsatt and Van Tiem. Wilkerson served the final three points for Orange, including an ace on match point.

It was Orange’s first home win in a state playoff match since they defeated McMichael 3-0 on October 20, 2012.

Cedar Ridge didn’t face a deficit against South Brunswick (4-14) until the third set. The Red Wolves scored the opening five points of the first set and led 6-0 in the second set. Cameron Lloyd finished with eleven kills, ten aces and nine digs, coming one dig short of a triple-double. Cameron Lanier had eight kills. Junior setter Julie Altieri finished with five aces and 13 assists. Rachel Alverson, who replaced Altieri as setter in the third set, had eight kills.

Junior libero Grace Young led the Red Wolves with 15 digs.

Lloyd racked up the opening three kills of the match. Altieri followed with consecutive aces. Cedar Ridge finished the opening set with eight of the last nine points, including a block by Lanier, followed by a kill by Lanier.

Altieri opened the second set with three aces. Lloyd had two kills, both assisted by Altieri, while Lanier scored another. Midway through the second, Cedar Ridge went on a 13-0 run, which included six assists by Lloyd, who finished with 10 aces.

Melissa Benkowitz, who had five kills and eight digs, notched a finish to wrap up the second set.

South Brunswick had a 3-2 lead in the third set, its only advantage the entire day. The Red Wolves quickly erased that with a 10-1 run.

It’s not everyday that the Orange women’s tennis team wins in the 3A State Dual Team Tournament.

In fact, it may not have happened at all in school history—until last Wednesday.

Orange, who qualified as a wildcard from the Central Carolina Conference, stunned Fike in Wilson 5-3 in the opening round of the state tournament. The Demons entered the match with a 17-1 record and won the Quad County Conference championship with a 14-0 mark. They were ranked #4 in 3A, according to North Carolina High School Tennis Coaches Association.

Orange became the first team from Hillsborough since the 2016 Cedar Ridge squad to win a match in the state tournament. The 2016 Red Wolves won the Big 8 Conference Championship with a 12-0 conference record and advanced to the state quarterfinals.

“I told the team it’s a huge accomplishment,” said Orange coach Justin Webb, who took his team to Chipotle for a celebratory dinner on the bus ride back to Hillsborough. “There’s 109 3A teams. Of those 109, only 32 make the playoffs. No one is going to be super easy. Now, we’re in the top 16 and that’s a huge honor.”

Against Fike, Orange won four of the six singles matches. Senior Jinkie Andrews won the most pivotal mach of the day when she defeated Mary Thomas Watkins in a three-set affair, 3-6, 6-0 and 10-7 (10-point tiebreaker). At #4 singles, senior Tea Jones continued a strong season with a 6-2, 6-0 victory. Erin Sollars, a sophomore, defeated Zoe Mitchell at #5 singles 6-2, 6-3. Sollars’ younger sister, Shannon, defeated Kaden Biamby 6-0, 6-2.

On Tuesday, Orange will travel to Fayetteville to face Cape Fear in the 2nd round. The Lady Panthers are 16-4, reaching what is widely believed to be a school record for wins in a season.

Orange’s #2 doubles team of Jera Hargrove and Erin Sollars sewed up the milestone win for the Lady Panthers with an 8-1 victory.

The victory also served as a homecoming for Webb, a Wilson native for graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.

The big week for Orange tennis didn’t end there.

On Friday, Hargrove and Sollars qualified for the 3A State Doubles Tournament. On Friday at the 3A Mideast Regionals at the Burlington Tennis Center, Hargrove and Sollars defeated Evelyn Lippers and Julia Earnshaw 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to earn a spot in the state tournament.

Hargrove and Sollars will be the #3 seed in the Mideast. On Saturday, Hargrove and Sollars defeated a team from the Durham School of the Arts in the consolation round 7-5, 7-5. Hargrove qualified for regions as Orange’s top singles player during her freshman and sophomore years, but feel just short of reaching the state championships.

“Jera has made a big difference, particularly towards the end of the season,” Webb said. “She has a ton of experience. I think the girls look up to her and her being in the lineup gives the team more confidence. It also makes us much deeper than we were at the start of the season.”

One of the many reasons why this season has been so successful for Orange is depth. Webb started the season with 23 players, the most during his tenure. Fike, despite winning its conference championship, had just seven.

“It’s makes a big difference when you have that much depth,” Webb said. “I think some of it is just word of mouth. The girls have done a great job in promoting the team and promoting the sport. People come out and see how much fun it is. That makes them want to come out and play it. I think COVID has helped in some ways. Tennis is definitely a low contact sport, so I think a lot of people feel safer playing this.”

Cedar Ridge singles players Cameron Mayhew and Chloe Patz competed during the Mideast Regionals on Friday. So did Orange sophomore Finley White, who qualified for regionals for the second straight year, and sophomore Grace Pell.

Photo by Angie Carden Hurdle

The Orange Couty Parks and Rec Department gym got quiet.

Jamey Hall was about to shoot two free throws for his pee wee recreation team, the Celtics, that could tie a game.

As he took the ball, a voice yelled out “Jamey! Remember the Alamo!”

It was his mom, Janice.

Jamey proceeded to miss the free throws, possibly because all that was going through his head was “Remember the Alamo?!”

But that was Janice. If you were family, one of her students, or a friend of her children, she was always in your corner. She was more than a friend. She provided a safe home.

Janice Hall was the mother of my best friend, Jamey. Some of my earliest memories harken back to when Jamey, his sister Gwen and I would ride in the backseat of Janice’s green station wagon. She would sing Ronnie Milsap’s “What a Difference You’ve Made in my Life” in a falsetto tone that was impossible to forget.

Rides with the Hall family would be the theme of my youth. I didn’t know it at the time, but it would also shape a large part of my professional life. As Jamey got into high school, I became a manager for the Orange junior varsity basketball team, where I was the video operator. When the Panthers, coached by Mark Holbrook at the time, hit the road, Janice and her husband, Russell, would take me home in their burgundy van. Gwen, who finished among the top of the class at Orange en route to graduating from Duke University, played three years for the Orange women’s basketball team.

The road trips to Chapel Hill, Person, Northern Durham, and Jordan were new for a sheltered young man like me.

I was once a church league softball catcher, which is funny in several ways, for Walnut Grove in 1989. All I did was kneel behind the plate. During one game as I got it position in front of the umpire, I could hear Janice asking Peggy Carden “Can’t they give Jeff a mask? Don’t they have any shin guards.”

Walnut Grove may not have been successful, but we had fun at the Schley Softball Field. One day, we played Abundant Life Church. I noticed that Abundant Life’s right centerfielder (teams could have four outfielders) had an odd defensive stance. Every other player sort of squatted as the pitch went to the plate. This guy in the outfielder had his arms thrust out like he was a professional wrestler ready to strangle unsuspecting prey.

“Jamey, who’s that guy?” I asked.

“That’s Coach Shriner, man,” Jamey said. “He just joined the school.”

“He sure looks mean,” I said.

Coach Shriner was Bobby Shriner, and he would go on to win over 500 matches as Orange’s wresting coach, as well as five state championships.

When Janice asked how you were, she truly meant it. She did that as a teacher at Hillsborough Elementary and the school formerly known as Cameron Park.

And most of all, she was a mother.

Janice and Jamey’s back-and-forth always made for a good chuckle. In 1994, the New York Knicks were about to imbound against the Houston Rockets in game 6 of the NBA Finals, with the entire WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP on the line. Janice, who wasn’t watching the game and largely oblivious to the NBA, walked through and said “Oh, is this an important game?”Jamey replied: “Naw, Mama. It’s preseason.”

This world could always use more care, more warmth, and more ways to make us laugh. And that’s what we have lost now.

As Jim Valvano once said, “If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day.”

I’ve done that a lot since Tuesday. After covering Cedar Ridge vs. Orange volleyball on Tuesday night, I drove to Boone for a brief getaway. As I got into Wilkesboro, word came that Janice had succumbed to cancer.

It led to a lot of mourning as I walked around my old college campus at Appalachian State Wednesday afternoon. There were a trip to a mountain, a quiet area that feels your own personal spot atop the world when you don’t feel like coming down.

I also walked inside Varsity Gymnasium, where Janice watched me graduate from Appalachian State in December 1998.

She was always in my corner.

And you better believe that when Appalachian State’s kicker, Chandler Staton, lined up for that 27-yard field goal to beat Coastal Carolina on Wednesday night at Kidd Brewer Stadium, I was thinking “Chandler, Remember the Alamo.”

I love you, Janice. Thanks for always believing in me.