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It was Midnight Madness for Cedar Ridge football last week. The Red Wolves practiced in pads for the first time this season under head coach Brent Bailey, attracting fans for a Midnight Madness event at the Cedar Ridge football field last Friday night. The entire Red Wolf volleyball team came out as the players practiced under cooler conditions. Among the players warming up was junior Thomas McDermott, who is slated to start at quarterback for the season opener against East Chapel Hill on August 22 at Red Wolves Stadium. Tight end Mason Hughes, who will be a junior this year, will be among the targets that McDermott will look for. Juniors Carlos Baldwin and Luis Donjuan will be among the offensive linemen, while Jayden Harvey will line up as a pass rusher. Throughout the summer, Coach Bailey has beefed up Cedar Ridge’s coaching staff. Among the new additions are defensive coordinator Ryan Johnston, previously the head coach at Jordan-Matthews. There’s also Phil Credle, previously the quarterbacks coach at Cleveland High School in Clayton. Coach Bailey has more players out for the team as the Red Wolves look to build stability in football. You can hear Cedar Ridge’s season opener against East Chapel Hill on Hillsboroughsports.com on August 22 live from Red Wolves Stadium. Kickoff will be at 7PM.
Cedar Ridge football players discuss Midnight Madness practice to kick off season
It was Midnight Madness for Cedar Ridge football last week. The Red Wolves practiced in pads for the first time this season under head coach Brent Bailey, attracting fans for a Midnight Madness event at the Cedar Ridge football field last Friday night.
Photo by Braeden Wilbourn
Technically, summer doesn’t end until September 22.
Yet around Orange and Cedar Ridge High Schools, the term “summer” is already being spoken in past tense.
Practice for fall sports got underway on Thursday and there was something in the air late on Friday night at Cedar Ridge’s football practice field that hasn’t been felt in years.
Stability.
Every year since 2018, Cedar Ridge has had to deal either with the loss of a head coach (on two separate occasions, the departures came during the first week of August practice) or word that there would be no varsity team due to a lack of players (which happened in 2018 and 2021).
Not only will the Friday Night Lights shine brightly at Red Wolves Stadium this fall, but the practice field lights were on for the first Friday in August.
Head coach Brent Bailey went back to his Clayton roots and held a practice with his newest team at 10PM on Friday night. The Midnight Madness event continued at 12:30, with humidity at 93%, though the temperature will still comfortable and players expressed interest in doing it again next year.
It was actually an offshoot of a concept that the original Cedar Ridge football coach, Lou Geary, did in the mid-2000s.
“It gets the kids excited and it allows the parents to come out and watch,” Bailey said. “It gets the community excited so that’s what I’m trying to build.”
The entire Cedar Ridge volleyball team, along with various fans, carried along lawn chairs to watch the workouts and enjoyed pizza and other refreshments when it all ended. So did several former players, including former running back Tyler Fields, who graduated in June.
This could have been another summer of uncertainty for Cedar Ridge football. Bailey still lives in Clayton and endures a 75-90 daily drive to Hillsborough. The job at Corinth-Holders in Wendell opened last spring and he could have easily applied for it. To the surprise of many locally, Person head coach Carl Smith opted to depart Roxboro to become the next leader of the Pirates.
“That’s how much I love being here,” Bailey said. “I think we’re going to see a much improved season this year. We had a good year in the weight room. Before I got here, we weren’t in the weight room at all. That’s going to help us in our conditioning.”
Rather than leaving, Bailey bolstered his staff. He added Ryan Johnson, a former head coach at Jordan-Matthews High and defensive coordinator at East Chapel Hill and Burlington Cummings. He will be the new defensive coordinator. The new quarterbacks coach, Phil Credle, previously was an assistant at Cleveland High in Clayton.
There’s also Verdis Brown, a native of Chicago who was an interior lineman at the University of Illinois before transferring to Campbell University. He’s played for head coaches Lovie Smith, Bret Bielema and Mike Minter.
The new secondary coach, Rahim Mateen, played college football at Division III Averett University before he transferred to Tiffin University.
“Our coaching staff, I would put them against any staff in the state of North Carolina,” Bailey said. “I tell them all the time that I’m the placeholder. I tell them to just coach because they’re not going to get micromanaged by me. They’re all really good and I’m blessed to have those guys with us.”
The best news of all is that Bailey expects 44 players to be in uniform once everyone returns from various summer commitments. It’s the best turnout for Cedar Ridge since Scott Loosemoore was the head coach from 2016-2018.
“Last year, when we started in the summer, we were only at about 20,” Bailey said. “We’re nearly double that starting out this year. We have a lot of young talent. Our junior class is loaded right now. It makes up about 18 of us. We have some seniors coming back from last year that have some experience.”
Bailey understood the obstacles he was facing when he accepted the Cedar Ridge job in 2023. The Red Wolves went 0-10 last season with just 42 points scored against the Bermuda Triangle that is Alamance County football, which comprises two-thirds of the Central Conference. His top two quarterbacks from 2023, Mason Cates and Tom Crawford, both graduated. Junior Thomas McDermott, who also had playing time behind center last year, is penciled in as the starter for this year.
“He’s been looking really sharp in practice,” Bailey said. “He’s taking ownership of being the leader in the huddle. Right now, it’s his spot to lose.”
Center Aaron Oliveras will move to Averett University later this month.
“You can’t replace a Mason Cates,” Bailey said. “He give everything for Cedar Ridge football. So it’s hard to replace him. We’re asking multiple people to come out and give the type of effort he gave and provide the impact he had in the locker room. I think we have some seniors who have picked up that slack.”
Luis Donjuan is expected to be the new center.
As the midnight hour came and went early Saturday morning, Bailey and his players started to pick up the equipment. Players were excited, as they usually are at the start of practice. Whether that paves the way for wins remains to be seen, starting with the August 23 season opener against East Chapel Hill at Red Wolves Stadium.
Though it’s a young Cedar Ridge team in a tough league, there was an area of something that has been missing around Red Wolves football for a long time.
Optimism.
This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior quarterback Mason Cates. Mason is known for several sports at Cedar Ridge, namely for baseball. This season, he was the quarterback and linebacker for the Red Wolves under first-year head coach Brent Bailey. He was one of many players who helped keep the Friday night lights on at Cedar Ridge after the Red Wolves didn’t field a football team in 2018 and 2021, helping the students receive the full high school experience with Homecoming, Senior Nights and rivalry games. Last month, Mason signed to play baseball with Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory. Cates was an All-Central Conference selection for the Red Wolves last season. He was a pitcher. 1st baseman and outfielder for a Cedar Ridge team that reached the state playoffs for the second straight year. Among the highlights of Cates season came against Walter Williams on March 7, when he had a two-run single in the second inning to help the Red Wolves beat the Bulldogs 6-2. In February, Cates will start his fourth season on the varsity baseball team under head coach Bryson Massey. He will be one of several experienced pitchers back for Cedar Ridge, who will look to challenge for the Central Conference championship.
Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Mason Cates
This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior quarterback Mason Cates. Mason is known for several sports at Cedar Ridge, namely for baseball. This season, he was the quarterback and linebacker for the Red Wolves under first-year head coach Brent Bailey.
Since the formation of the Central Carolina Conference in 2021, it’s no secret that the Alamance County schools have formed the nucleus of football power.
It’s only gotten stronger this year with the addition of Southern Alamance, who dropped down from 4A to 3A over the summer. It’s like having Georgia (Eastern Alamance), Ole Miss (Southern Alamance), Tennessee (Walter Williams) and Western Alamance (Missouri) in your league with dozens of players who grew up playing football in Alamance County’s Pop Warner leagues.
That would make it easier for Cedar Ridge High School not to field a football team.
But they haven’t quit. Every weekday morning, head coach Brent Bailey holds practice for the Red Wolves behind the softball field and tennis courts. When they’re done at 8AM, the teams walks uphill to class, which could be a metaphor for Cedar Ridge football.
Each week in conference play, and most games overall, the Red Wolves know their opponent will outnumber them. They will have more skill because they grew up with football, starting to play while they’re in 6th grade, if not earlier.
Cedar Ridge is winless. But that’s not the worst thing that can happen to a program.
The most desolate, dispiriting and emotionless thing is having the lights off at Red Wolves Stadium on Friday nights because there isn’t a varsity team at all. And Red Wolves fans and parents should know. It happened in 2018 and 2021.
So if you see a Cedar Ridge football player around class, around Hillsborough or anyplace else for the rest of this year, be sure to thank them. They’re keeping Friday Night Lights alive at Cedar Ridge, the way it should be. Any future success that the Red Wolves program enjoys will be because of them.
With that said, time for the Magnificent 7. The seven best performances during the week of September 18-22, in no particular order.
