Cedar Ridge Football

Appeals from Orange High Principal Jason Johnson and athletic director Jason Knapp apparently didn’t sway the North Carolina High School Athletic Association realignment committee.

On February 14, the committee released its third draft of conferences that will go into effect in August, based on the new, expanded eight classification model by the NCHSAA, which is shifting away from the traditional four classifications.

The latest draft keeps Cedar Ridge and Orange as 5A teams. They would be in a conference with Durham School of the Arts, Seaforth, South Granville, J.F. Webb and Carrboro.

The only change from the prior two drafts is the inclusion of Carrboro, which is currently classified as a 4A team. The other six teams would be 5A. It would make the new conference, which is yet to be finalized or named, a split 5A-4A league. In previous drafts, Carrboro was penciled in for a league with Southwestern Randolph, Jordan-Matthews, Uwharrie Charter, Eastern Randolph, North Moore and Northwood.

Since 2021, Cedar Ridge and Orange have competed in the Central Conference with teams primarily based in Alamance County. It started with Western Alamance, Eastern Alamance, Walter Williams, Person, Northwood and the two Hillsborough schools. In 2023, Southern Alamance replaced Northwood, which dropped down to 2A.

If Johnson and Knapp had their way, Orange would be in a league that maintains rivalries with Alamance and Person County schools. On February 4, Johnson and Knapp made their appeals heard in front of the realignment committee in Chapel Hill.

“In a nutshell, our students are going to have to be out of class longer,” Knapp said. “That schedule keeps our students in class longer and it’s more beneficial to us as an athletic department.”

Currently, the longest distance for a conference game for Orange High is the trek to Western Alamance. 28 miles separates Orange from Western Alamance. Cedar Ridge’s longest road trip is Person, which is 29 miles, or about 45-50 minutes via bus.

On top of that, Alamance County Schools have traditional media outlets. While the Burlington Times-News scaled back its sports division in 2019, they still have consistent sports coverage. Bob Sutton, the longtime Sports Editor of the Times-News, is now a writer for the weekly Alamance News.

The presence has helped Alamance County Schools retain a strong fan base amid a growing district. Over the weekend, there were solid turnouts at Orange High School as the Western Alamance women’s basketball team and the Eastern Alamance men’s basketball team competed during the Central Conference Tournament in Hillsborough.

“Alamance County schools travel well,” Knapp said. “The proximity isn’t very far. You have Eastern Alamance 20 minutes away. Southeast Alamance 20 minutes away. Southern (Alamance) and (Walter) Williams are probably 30 minutes.”

Under the proposed new conference, Orange would have a 47-mile trip for conference games at Webb High School in Oxboro. The Panthers would travel 36 miles for conference games against Seaforth in Chatham County.

Cedar Ridge would travel 48 miles to Oxford and 30 miles to Seaforth. Both the Cedar Ridge men’s and women’s basketball teams had road trips to Seaforth and DSA this season.

Among Knapp’s major concerns is not just varsity sports.

“All the schools over there (Alamance County) have very good JV and varsity programs,” Knapp said. “To go along with that, we’re not really sure if that would be available in the new conference if that’s going to be available as far as junior varsity programs.”

Durham School of the Arts is the current incarnation of Durham High School, which traces it roots all the way back to 1906. Once a rival to Orange High, Durham High became a magnet school in 1995 after winning a football title the old Crescent Conference. Since it was rebranded Durham School of the Arts, the institution has never fielded a football team.

As Orange and Cedar Ridge wait for the final decision from the realignment committee, football scheduling for 2025 has been delayed. With potentially only six teams fielding football teams in the new league, local athletic directors have been unclear about how many non-conference games will be required for next year.

“That concerns us, as well,” Knapp said. “We feel like we need to do what’s best for Orange High School. Our student-athletes are our biggest concern.”

I celebrated a birthday last week. The fact it pops up in the middle of high school football season only serves as a reminder of how long I’ve been covering local sports.

Around 2004, I vowed that if I didn’t get a college play-by-play job in football, I would stop doing high school sports and do something else.

My favorite cliche isn’t “The more things change, the more they stay the same” for nothing.

In the 1990s, there was a school mired in a three-year winless streak that was easily the 98-pound weakling of Durham County.

That was Jordan High School. After having winless seasons in 1995 and 1996, they had a conference championship team by 2000.

Now, the Falcons may be the best team in the city under Antonio King, who was the Cedar Ridge head coach in 2019.

For three decades, the shining beacon of high school football was Northern Durham. Not just in Durham, but the entire state.

They won 17 consecutive conference championships, went 24 years without losing to another team from the city of Durham and went 21 years without losing consecutive games. In the fall of 1990, Northern lost to Person at home.

They didn’t lose another conference game the rest of the decade.

Fast forward to September 2024 when Vance County stormed out to a 22-0 lead against Northern Durham. The Knights lost their starting quarterback due to injury and the game was stopped before regulation ended.

If you would have told me back in 1999 that in 25 years, there would even be a remote possibility of Northern not having enough football participation, I would have told you there was a better chance of opera being the most popular music taste among teenagers in 2024.

The point is nothing lasts forever in high school football.

Cedar Ridge football lost to Orange 54-0 on Friday night. Most likely, the Red Wolves will finish with a second straight winless season.

But they aren’t winless because of the players who are on the field. They’re winless because of the players who are not on the field, but could be.

At a time when football, as a whole, has never been more safe to play, it’s harder to find players willing to try the sport because of safety concerns. Last year, for the first time in school history, Orange didn’t field a junior varsity team.

Fortunately, the Stanback Middle School Bulldogs have fielded more players this year which will hopefully lead to healthier participation numbers in the future for the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge coach Brent Bailey remains dedicated to the cause. Even down late in the fourth quarter against Orange, Bailey gave defensive back Matthew Asay a chest bump after picking off a pass thrown by Orange quarterback Kyse Devore.

Bailey drives in 90 minutes from Clayton each morning to start practice at 7AM because he wants to make Cedar Ridge football great. He has organized midnight practices in July and set up media day at Radius Pizza, which included Orange, in August because he wants to see football flourish in Hillsborough.

And so do I. No sport bands as many people together during successful times than football.

I saw Devon Moore rush for over 6,000 yards and 42 touchdowns at Cedar Ridge from 2002-2005 at Cedar Ridge. Then he graduated and won two FCS National Championships at Appalachian State. For a long time, the Red Wolves dominated Hillsborough under the direction of head coaches Lou Geary and Joe Kilby.

What does triumph look like once it emerges from a deep abyss?

It looks like FirstBank Stadium in Nashville on Saturday night.

The Vanderbilt Commodores, the only private school in the SEC, beat #1 Alabama for the first time since 1984. Clark Lea, the Commdores head coach, knew when he accepted the job in 2001 of the challenges he faced. He played at Vanderbilt.

But he persisted and beat the #1 team in the country.

Afterwards, he told sportswriter Matt Fortuna “There’s an inevitability to success when you stay in the fight.”

Cedar Ridge football can have a Vanderbilt moment.

They just have to stay in the fight.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior running back Isaiah Craig. The offensive lineman of the week is junior Luis Donjuan. Craig opened the season with back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. In the season-opener against East Chapel Hill, Craig rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown. The following week against Northwest Halifax, Craig ran for 155 yards and a touchdown. It was the most yards rushing by a Cedar Ridge running back since Isaiah McCambrey rushed for 190 yards against Chapel Hill on October 11, 2019. Craig played at Stanback Middle School and has helped the Red Wolf offense to an improved showing so far in 2024. In all of 2023, Cedar Ridge scored 42 points. In its opening two games of 2024, they have scored 24. This is Craig’s third year playing varsity football. Craig is also a middle linebacker on defense. Donjuan was one of the players who stepped up in Cedar Ridge’s early practices. Another player who originated from Stanback, Donjuan is the anchor of Cedar Ridge’s offensive line that helped the Red Wolves rush for 168 yards against East Chapel Hill and 164 yards against Northwest Halifax. Craig and Donjuan are two of the contributors that are helping Cedar Ridge coach Bret Bailey resurrect football in Red Wolves country. Cedar Ridge will play its final nonconference game of the season against Sanderson in Raleigh on Friday night.

Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Isaiah Craig; Offensive Lineman of the Week: Luis Donjuan

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior running back Isaiah Craig. The offensive lineman of the week is junior Luis Donjuan. Craig opened the season with back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. In the season-opener against East Chapel Hill, Craig rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown.

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Play-by-play for Orange and Cedar Ridge high school for football, basketball, baseball, softball and lacrosse heard live!

It would have been easy for Cedar Ridge football to just relax leading into Labor Day weekend.

Originally, Cedar Ridge was supposed to face Granville Central in Stem. But just days before the season-opener, Granville Central canceled its season due to a lack of players.

It’s something that’s happened before at Cedar Ridge and head coach Brent Bailey has worked extremely hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This year, the Red Wolves have 40 players on its roster.

Instead of taking it easy, Cedar Ridge managed to secure a game at Northwest Halifax, a 1A team out of Littleton. The Vikings came away with a 38-12 win, but it wasn’t a lost night for the Red Wolves.

Junior running back Isaiah Craig rushed for 155 yards. It was his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game. In the season opener against East Chapel Hill, Craig rushed for 101 yards It was the first 100-yard rushing effort in a varsity game by a Cedar Ridge running back since 2015, when Shemar Miles racked up 126 yards in a 24-6 victory over J.F. Webb. Miles scored a touchdown.

The last time a Cedar Ridge players rushed for over 150 yards in a game, it was also Miles. Back on August 21, 2015, he piled up 161 yards in Cedar Ridge’s 56-15 win over Carrboro at Jaguars Stadium.

Against the Vikings, it was another strong game for wide receiver Mason Hughes, who came away with 102 yards receiving. He also scored a touchdown on a pass thrown by junior Thomas McDermott.

Cedar Ridge started the season with a loss to East Chapel Hill at Red Wolves Stadium, but Hughes made his own wrinkle in school history. Hughes had a 93-yard pass reception for a touchdown, the longest play from scrimmage in Cedar Ridge football history. It was McDermott’s first touchdown pass at the varsity level.

Bailey has raised the enthusiasm level at Cedar Ridge so much, there’s one player who is a senior that decided to play football this season for the first time in his life. Bryan Judd is a first-year defensive lineman who was front and center during Cedar Ridge’s media day at Radius Pizza in Hillsborough last month.

“I’ve been watching football all my life,” Judd said. “I decided to come out my senior year. I’ve had enough experience watching football, playing it on Madden to want to try it.”

Cedar Ridge offensive lineman Luis Donjuan, who is a center this season, encouraged Judd to try to sport. Judd was among the Cedar Ridge players who were out during their midnight practice a month ago, just before a scrimmage at Riverside High in Durham.

“It was a different experience to actually be out there and doing it,” Judd said. “Getting the reps and the experience has been fun. My coaching staff can get me experienced to play some more in my life. I do want to play in college.”

Judd also became addicted to football when he joined some Cedar Ridge players at several North Carolina games at Kenan Stadium last year.

Learning the techniques of the game has become common for Judd as Bailey tries to revive football culture at Cedar Ridge.

“Learning hand moments and trying to fire off the ball has been fun,” Judd said. “It’s different when you talk about it. When you actually do it, it takes a different mentality. I wanted to play so I’m going to go out there and play.”

McDermott, in his first varsity start against the Wildcats, threw for 184 yards.

Cedar Ridge will face the American Leadership Academy of Johnston County on Friday night in Hillsborough. It will be the first-ever matchup between the two teams.