Cedar Ridge High School

It may not be the majority in Orange County, but there have been a lot of people waiting for tonight in Hillsborough, White Cross, Efland and even Mebane.

It’s’ been 735 days since the Cedar Ridge varsity football team has won a game. It came against Carrboro at Red Wolves Stadium.

Whether that’s an omen for tonight is up for the reader to decide, but Carrboro will visit Hillsborough again tonight with a 30% chance of rain in the forecast.

But what’s transpired between the Red Wolves’ last triumphant moment on the gridiron and tonight has tested the Cedar Ridge community, led to the departures of two head coaches, and incurred the wrath of Cedar Ridge parents toward the Orange County School System, including recently departed Superintendent Todd Wirt.

The sport of football, still the most valuable fuel that keeps the engine of high school sports pumping, had a existential crisis locally last August. The Friday nights in Red Wolves Stadium were never as solemn as they were in 2008, when Cedar Ridge didn’t field a varsity team.

When the Orange County School System made the announcement in June 2018, it caught many by surprise, not the least of which head coach Scott Loosemore, who departed for an assistant’s job with Scotland County soon afterwards.

After the district’s announcement, submitted in a Tweet, tensions boiled over the following Monday. School officials curiously scheduled a town hall meeting at Cedar Ridge cafeteria to discuss the future of football at 6:30 PM. It just so happened that the Orange County School Board met at Gravelly Hill Middle School at 7PM that same night, making it impossible for parents who wanted to sound off to both then-Principal Heather Blackmon and Superintendent Wirt (who was at the board meeting). The timing of the two meetings was no coincidence, and it only served to deepen the divide when several parents drove to Efland to give school board members (none of whom had any role in canceling the varsity season) a piece of their minds just as the meeting was finishing.

Several school board members stayed well after the session ended to listen to concerns, but some of the exchanges were hardly civil.

All of that is now in the past, but it wouldn’t be a Cedar Ridge football training camp without some adversity. On July 29, moments before the Red Wolves were ready to start its first practice, head coach Antonio King informed Athletic Director Andy Simmons he was leaving to become a running backs coach at North Carolina Central University.

The following morning, Torrean Hinton was barely awake when he received a phone call inquiring if he would be interested in become varsity coach. He accepted.

For seniors like wide receiver K.J. Barnes, Braedon Thompson, Braxton Mergenthal, Jaikel Gibbs and Zachary Holmes, tonight’s game isn’t just about trying to win.

Just as Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote that “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive,” this Cedar Ridge team can achieve something without winning.

They can start a healing process for an athletic program that’s been overwhelmed with coach and player defections for the past year. None of that can be solved in one night.

But the bottom line is Friday nights are back at Cedar Ridge.

The Red Wolves will travel hopefully tonight.

And not a moment too soon.

Kayla Hodges: In her season-debut for the Elon women’s soccer team on Thursday night, the 2018 Orange High graduate started as the Phoenix defeated Canisus 1-0 in overtime at Rudd Field in Elon. Freshman Bethany Harford scored the game’s only goal. In 2018, Hodges appeared in seven matches. She made her college debut on August 19, 2018 against UNC Wilmington, playing 18 minutes. Hodges was named to the Colonial Athletic Association Academic Honor Roll at the end of the season. Elon returns to action with a home game against High Point on Sunday. Earlier this week, Hodges cousin continued to make his presence felt on the baseball diamond…

Bryse Wilson: After returning to the Gwinnett Stripers of the AAA International League on Monday from Atlanta, Wilson collected his fifth straight win with a 6-2 decision over the Norfolk Tides at Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA. Wilson threw six innings and surrendered four hits, one earned run and three strikeouts. He now leads the International League in wins (5) and ERA (0.55) in his last five starts. Since July 21, teams are hitting only .190 against Wilson. The Stripers currently lead the Charlotte Knights by one-and-a-half games for first place in the International League’s Southern Division. The Stripers are looking for its 2nd division championship since leaving Richmond, VA for Georgia in 2009. Gwinnett will journey to Durham for a weekend series against the Bulls starting Friday, but Wilson isn’t expected to see action.

Jonathan Hall: A 2016 Cedar Ridge graduate, Hall is now with the Wofford men’s track and field team. Last season during the Terrier’s indoor season, Hall competed in four meets. He set personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles at the VMI Winter Relays and added a personal best in the 400 meters at the East Tennessee State Track & Field Invitational. In the 2018 outdoor season, Hall ran six meets. At the Southern Conference Championships, Hall was 10th in the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles with a personal best of 15.25 seconds. He added a personal best in the 400 meter hurdles at the ETSU Tri Star Classic. In 2017, Hall was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team in the 400 meters. Hall was a three-year letterman for the Cedar Ridge football team as a wide receiver under Coach Scott Loosemore.

Hunter March: Last spring, March completed his freshman season for the Division III UNC Pembroke track and field team. March competed the decathlon, where he amassed 3,720 points. That included a personal best of 11.54 seconds in the 100 meter dash; 56.70 seconds in the 200 meter dash; and 18.38 seconds in the 110 meter hurdles. March also had a leap of 5.50 meters in the long jump and 1.51 meters in the high jump. At Cedar Ridge, March qualified for the 3A Mideast Regionals in the 110 meter hurdles, pole vault, the 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams. He also played for the Cedar Ridge men’s soccer team under head coach Chris Walker and football for three years under Loosemore. As of his autumns at Cedar Ridge weren’t busy enough, March also participated in the marching band. He now majors at Computer Science at Pembroke. He starts his sophomore year next week.

At the beginning of this decade, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball program was on the verge of playing for a state championship. 

Coached by Jim Pappas, the Red Wolves was 23-2 after finishing 16-0 in Carolina 9 Conference, including two wins over archrival Northwood. The Chargers joined Cedar Ridge in the 2A Eastern Regional semifinals at Minges Coliseum in Greenville. Clinton, rallied by a rowdy contingent of fans who chanted “I believe that we will win” years before it became the unofficial motto of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team, upset the Red Wolves 57-48.

Now at decade’s end, Cedar Ridge is starting over again after going through its most difficult season.

After laboring through a 1-23 season in 2018-19, the Red Wolves have named Jaison Brooks as its new head coach.

Brooks spent last season as a personal finance teacher at Cedar Ridge. He replaces Clay Jones, who has left Cedar Ridge after six seasons. Jones, who previously planned to return to Cedar Ridge and continue as women’s golf coach, started a new job earlier this month and has left the school.

Brooks also worked at Orange in 2018 and nearly wound up on the staff of current Panthers coach Derryl Britt before moving over to the opposite end of Hillsborough to work in the AVID (Avid Via Individual Determination) program. In fact, Britt spent time in Philadelphia this summer for an AVID conference.

Brooks played high school basketball in three different states, ending up with Valley High in West Des Moines, Iowa. He also lived in Missouri and North Carolina.

“When opportunities arise, you have to take them,” Brooks said. “That’s a lesson I learned from my mother and it’s why we moved around a lot.”

Brooks, whose mother worked as a corporate lawyer before venturing into human resources, graduated from North Carolina Central, where he forged a relationship with Eagles men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton.

He started teaching at Southern Vance High School in Henderson. He served as an assistant for Raiders’ men’s basketball coach Mike Rotolo, who is now at Vance Granville Community College. Brooks taught Technical Education courses at Southern Vance.

“He gave me an opportunity,” Brooks said. “I wasn’t really looking for it. It just kind of happened. I’ve always loved the game.”

As he looks forward to his first head coaching job, Brooks watched a few Cedar Ridge games from the stands last season. The Red Wolves’ only win came against Rockingham County on December 7.

After the transfer of Mekai Collins to Orange, Cedar Ridge entered last season painfully young. Freshmen Derek Smith and Cameron Harper played regularly.

The tri-captains from last season’s team, Andrew Altieri, K.J. Barnes and Chris Tinnen, will all be seniors when the season starts in November.

“The biggest focus is what we can do together as a team,” Brooks said. “I believe that I can do a good job. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to win every game. That’s not necessarily the focus. But I believe I can have the students that are there grow as individuals and as people. I have a lot of kids that are excited for the upcoming season.”

Five days after his tenure at Cedar Ridge High School ended after one season, the names just roll off of Mitchell Frazier’s tongue.

There’s Phillip Berger, who became the first pitcher in school history to win 20 career games last spring. Jackson Strowd, who scored the game-winning run in a 3-2 win at Chapel Hill on March 19. And also Cooper Lamb, who scored twice in Cedar Ridge’s 10-0 win over Oxford Preparatory.

That will always be Frazier’s first win as a varsity head coach, a profession that’s in his blood and runs through his family.

It’s also why he’s leaving Hillsborough.

Frazier formally resigned as Cedar Ridge baseball coach last Thursday. He will become the new coach at Eastern Randolph.

For the second straight August, Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons will be searching for a new baseball coach. In 2018, Jamie Athas left to become the head baseball coach at Burlington Williams.

Midway through Cedar Ridge’s 8-12 season, Frazier learned that he would become a father. Frazier, who accepted the job at Cedar Ridge at the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year, made daily drives (one hour each way) from Davidson County while his wife continue to teach and coach women’s basketball at North Davidson High School.

Now, Frazier’s drive will be cut in half, unless he gets behind the occasional tractor-trailer.

“It was a family decision,” said Frazier from his home on Tuesday night. “The driving was never an issue. I just felt that it would be best to get on a schedule that’s similar to what my wife is on. That way, I can support her in the way that she needs support. It was a very difficult decision.”

Frazier arrived at Cedar Ridge after serving as an assistant at Southwest Guilford. An assistant principal at Cedar Ridge, Kevin Bowman, went to Guilford College with Jeff Joyce, who also coached at SGHS.

“The community at Cedar Ridge was close knit with its baseball,” Frazier said. “It was a pleasure to be around. They gave me my first opportunity to be a head coach and I’ll forever be grateful for that. You’re around a lot of great people at Cedar Ridge. That’s the whole school, not just baseball.”

During an up-and-down season, Frazier’s most memorable moment came in his final game. On Berger’s senior night, he threw a complete game to beat Northern Durham 4-3 for his 22nd, and final, career victory.

“Holy cow,” Frazier says when recalling that memory. “That’s a night I’ll never forget, for sure. Everybody on that team really rallied around those seniors. It was a really special night all the way around. It was a well-played game.”

Like many people of his generation raised in the south, Frazier is a diehard Atlanta Braves fan. After learning that his wife will give birth to a son in January, there’s already a pool open at Eastern Randolph as to which former Atlanta player Frazier will name his son after (Maddux is the current betting line favorite).

But coaching will always be part of the Frazier family. Even though his wife is due in November, she’s still planning to coach basketball starting in November. Her husband will get adjusted to his 2nd varsity team in Ramseur.

“At the end of the day, family comes first,” Frazier said. “This was one of those family decisions that we needed to make. I’ll definitely remember the community support I had at Cedar Ridge.”

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team is 2-0 after beating the Durham School of the Arts 3-1 on Tuesday night in Hillsborough. The Red Wolves dropped the first set, but Layne Foster helped spark a rally with 13 kills. Cameron Lloyd had 15 kills as Cedar Ridge finished with a flourish. Foster transferred from East Chapel Hill during the summer. In Monday night’s season-opening win over Eastern Alamance, Foster had five kills. Cedar Ridge will take the rest of the week off before resuming action next Tuesday at the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham. The Red Wolves next four games are on the road. 

It’s been a long time coming for Cedar Ridge football, but finally on Friday night they will play its first varsity football game since 2017 against Carrboro. Interestingly, the last time Cedar Ridge won a varsity football game, it was against Carrboro to start the 2017 season. The game was shortened by lightning and ended early in the third quarter. Phillip Berger was the quarterback of the Red Wolves that night. On Friday, he younger brother William will start behind center. Among Berger’s main targets will be wide receiver Brandon Poteat, who will be able the top playmakers for Cedar Ridge this season. Hillsboroughsports.com will air Friday’s game starting with the pregame show at 7:15. 

Bryse Wilson: After four consecutive wins with the Gwinnett Stripers of the AAA International League, Wilson was recalled by the Atlanta Braves on Friday. Then on Monday afternoon, the Braves claimed outfielder Billy Hamilton off waivers from Kansas City. Wilson was optioned back to Gwinnett. He didn’t make a game appearance for Atlanta during his latest stint. This season, Wilson has had four stints in Atlanta. His return to Gwinnett could lead to another appearance at Durham Bulls Athletic Park this weekend. On May 5, Wilson threw four innings against the Bulls in a 6-2 Durham win. As of Monday night, Gwinnett is two-and-a-half games ahead of Charlotte for 1st place in the International League’s Southern Division. Durham is three-and-a-half games behind Gwinnett. In 19 starts this season with Gwinnett, Wilson is 8-7 with a 3.58 ERA. He has 106 strikeouts and 25 walks

Adam Chnupa: The former Cedar Ridge Red Wolf is set to start play for Elon University later this month. Last year, Chnupa redshirted. On Monday, the first Football Championship Subdivision top 25 poll was released. Elon, which has made the FCS playoffs the past two years, is ranked #21. Chnupa was All-Big 8 Conference in football and baseball with the Red Wolves.

The fall sports season gets underway this week. There are many names from Orange and Cedar Ridge High Schools participating in soccer and volleyball once again this year.

Chandler Compton: Now a redshirt unior on the Wofford men’s soccer team, Compton played basketball and baseball at Orange until his graduation in 2016. He appeared in two games in his freshman season with the Terriers. In 2018, Compton appeared in 12 games, including five starts. He scored his first college goal against VMI on October 23. Compton played over 90 minutes in five games.

Taylin Jean: The 2018 Cedar Ridge graduate and former Big 8 Goalkeeper of the Year is now a sophomore at Division II Limestone, which has won the Carolinas Conference four consecutive years. The Saints are picked to win the league again. Jean, who played in the East/West All-Star Game in 2018, didn’t play last season.

Brittany Daley: A sophomore for the Greensboro College women’s soccer team, Daley was a regular starter as the Pride compiled an 17-1 record in 2018. Daley played all 18 games last season, starting 15. She assisted on one goal. Daley, who was a center back for Cedar Ridge before graduating in 2018, helped Greensboro win 17 consecutive games before losing to Piedmont College in the USA South Atlantic Conference tournament on November 2.

Jordan Rogers: A sophomore for William Peace University, Rogers played 13 games for the Pacers last year. She scored one goal and two assists. Rogers graduated from Orange in 2018.

Lionel Reid-Shaw: Now at Division III Dickinson College, Reid-Shaw enters his senior year in Carlisle, PA. Reid-Shaw played in 19 games for the Red Devils in 2018 as a center back. Dickinson went 11-6-2 overall in 2018, 5-3-1 in the Centennial Conference.

Lili Henry: Now a junior at Division III Methodist College volleyball team, Henry played in all 27 matches last season, starting 25. She tied for the team lead with 98 sets played and led the team with 843 assists. She was third on the team with 253 digs. Methodist finished 17-10 in 2018, 9-7 in the USA South Athletic Conference.

Jordan Lloyd: A rising junior for the Division III Brevard College volleyball team, Lloyd started all 25 matches for the Tornadoes last season. She was third on the team with 152 kills. Lloyd, whose younger sister Cameron played her first varsity match at Cedar Ridge on Monday night, had three double-digit kill games.

Bailey Lucas: A 2018 Orange graduate, Lucas enters her sophomore season with the Division III Meredith volleyball team in Raleigh. Lucas played 14 matches in her freshman season and recorded 68 assists and 42 digs.

Lauren Brooks: A junior at Western Carolina, Brooks is entering her third season as a cheerleader with the Catamounts.

Special thanks to Jon Franklin for shooting this video and conducting this interview with Cedar Ridge head volleyball coach Anna Seethaler, Shili Quade and Cameron Lanier.

The first game of the new academic year in Hillsborough prep sports was a successful one for the Cedar Ridge volleyball team. The Red Wolves defeated Eastern Alamance 3-0 on Monday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium on scores of 25-8, 25-14 and 25-14. The Red Wolves received strong performances from junior Shili Quade and freshman Cameron Lanier. The Red Wolves have won three straight season openers. On Tuesday night, the Red Wolves will try to go 2-0 when they face Durham School of the Arts at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The game will start at 6:15. 

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team plays two games in two days to start its season. On Monday, they host Eastern Alamance. Then on Tuesday, the Red Wolves host the Durham School of the Arts. On Saturday, Cedar Ridge had a strong start to the season. They won all four of its scrimmage matches at Fairchild Community Center in Burlington, beating Southern Alamance, Greensboro Page, Riverside and the Alamance Acers. Freshman Cameron Lloyd, the younger sister of former All- is 8 Conference player Jordan Lloyd, looks to start her varsity career strong. Marlee Rakouskas is one of the top returning players for 2nd-year head coach Anna Seethaler.

The Cedar Ridge football team will go into next week’s season opener against Carrboro with only one scrimmage under its belt. The Red Wolves were supposed to face Sanderson this week, but it got rained out twice. Red Wolves senior Braxton Mergenthal got plenty of snaps last Saturday in Cedar Ridge’s scrimmage at South Garner. He played on the offensive and defensive line against Apex and South Garner. Mergenthal will be one of the leaders for a Cedar Ridge team making its return to varsity football after not fielding a varsity team in 2018. Mergenthal was among the top performers last season on Cedar Ridge’s JV squad. Hillsboroughsports.com will air Carrboro at Cedar Ridge next Friday starting at 6:45.