Cedar Ridge High School

The momentum from starting 4-0 for the first time since 2010 didn’t carry over for Orange in its Big 8 Conference opener.

East Chapel Hill, under new head coach Rachel Kline, defeated the Lady Panthers 3-0 at Wildcat Gymnasium on Tuesday night. The Wildcats swept the Lady Panthers on scores of 25-19, 25-13 and 25-21 to improve to 4-0. Over the summer, Kline replaced longtime head coach Michelle Wood at East Chapel Hill.

Orange, who suffered its first loss of the season, had eight kills from junior Emma Clements. That pushed Clements to a team-leading 61 kills through the first five games of the season. Senior Libby Jones and Natalie Ruble each had five kills. Senior Liz LaNier finished with two aces. Junior Grace Ducharme had ten assists and senior Meg Gattis finished with 12 digs. Vale Serge led Orange with 15 digs.

Through the first five games, Jones has 42 kills, eleven blocks and 19 digs. LaNier has 38 kills, six aces, and a team-leading 22 blocks. Clements also leads the squad with 97 digs, while Gattis has 85 digs and Serge has 51. Junior Kaitlyn Werden has 80 assists, including a season-high 23 in last Thursday’s 3-1 win at South Granville in Creedmoor.

The Lady Panthers are now 4-1, 0-1 in the Big 8 Conference. They aim to bounce back with a home game on Thursday night against Hillside. After Thursday, Orange will play three consecutive games on the road, including a nonconference match against Person in Roxboro on Monday night. They also travel to Northwood next Thursday.

Also on Tuesday night, Cedar Ridge dropped its first Big 8 Conference game to Northwood 3-0 on scores of 25-11, 25-14 and 25-12. The Red Wolves were only credited with five kills. Senior Sarah McCuiston led the team with three kills. Rachel Tucker had eight digs. Macy Henry finished with all five of the Red Wolves assists.

On Wednesday, Cedar Ridge suffered a disappointing loss to Eastern Alamance 3-2 in Mebane. Last week, the Red Wolves defeated the Eagles 3-1 in Hillsborough.

It won’t get any easier for Cedar Ridge on Thursday night. They travel to Chapel Hill, the two-time defending 3A Eastern Regional Champions. The Tigers are 6-1 under head coach Ross Fields after losing to Marvin Ridge 2-0 last week during the Best of the Best Tournament at Davidson College. The Tigers won its conference opener over Hillside on Tuesday 3-0.

Through the first five games of the season, McCuiston and freshman Lydia Wood lead the Red Wolves with 20 kills each. Sophomore Haylee Cothran has three aces. McCuiston has a team-leading 15 blocks, while Henry has 14 blocks and Emma Downing had 13 blocks, along with 16 kills. Tucker has 50 digs. Marlee Rakouskas, an outside hitter and defensive specialist, has 27 digs.

After playing three road matches this week, Cedar Ridge will return home on Tuesday to host Orange.

Elsewhere around the Big 8 Conference, Northern Durham is 3-0 after winning its Big 8 opener against Southern Durham. The Knights also won at South Granville on Monday 3-1 and opened the season with a 3-0 sweep of the Durham School of the Arts at Poe Gymtorium. Northern will host East Chapel Hill on Thursday night. The Knights finished 17-7 in 2017 and finished in a three-way tie with Northwood and East Chapel Hill for 3rd place.

Kelly Young has played and coached volleyball in elementary school, middle school, high school, recreation and intramurals at N.C. State. She has never seen a 64-point set until last Thursday night. Fortunately for her, she was on the right side of it.

Orange won the 2nd set against South Granville 33-31, then captured the subsequent two sets to complete a season sweep of the Vikings 3-1 in Creedmoor. The Lady Panthers, who defeated the Vikings on Tuesday, are off to a 3-0 start for just the third time in nine years.

“I told my team I’ve never even play in, seen or coached a game into the 30s,” said Young, who just completed her first week as Orange’s volleyball coach. “I think the highest I’ve ever gotten was maybe 28, but never into the 30s”

Junior Emma Clements had a season-high 22 kills, 38 digs, five blocks and one ace. Senior Libby Jones had eleven kills and ten blocks. Junior Kaitlyn Werden finished with 23 assists. Senior Liz LaNier came away with 12 blocks, six kills, and two aces.

Beating South Granville in Hillsborough was one thing, but winning in the spirited confines of Viking Gymnasium was another level of achievement for Young’s team.

“(South Granville) was very solid,” said Young. “I think they played even better than they did here on Tuesday. They’re hitting was on. They’re blocking was on. Each set was point-for-point. We started off a little slow in the first set. But we did not stop hustling and we came back.”

Orange will host Eastern Alamance on Monday night before starting play in the Big 8 Conference. They travel to East Chapel Hill for its conference opener on Tuesday, followed by a home match against Hillside on Thursday.

On the other side of Hillsborough, the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves won its second game of the season by beating Eastern Alamance 3-1 on scores of 19-25, 25-19, 28-26 and 25-21. Junior Emma Downing had eight kills to lead the Red Wolves. Downing also had four blocks. Senior Cody Rabalais finished with seven kills. Freshman Lydia Wood, in just her third game, had six kills. Senior Rachel Tucker finished with 21 kills, while sophomore Marlee Rakouskas had 30 digs.

On Wednesday, Cedar Ridge dropped its first game under new head coach Anna Seethaler to Durham School of the Arts.

After playing three consecutive home games to open the season, Cedar Ridge has three straight road games this week. That includes the conference opener on Tuesday night against Northwood in Pittsboro. On Wednesday, the Red Wolves will face Eastern Alamance in Mebane in a rematch. Then on Thursday, they travel to power Chapel Hill. The Tigers, under head coach Ross Fields, are the two-time defending 3A Eastern Regional Champions. Last season, the Tigers defeated Person 3-1 to win the Eastern Regional title. They fell to North Iredell in five sets in the 3A State Championship match at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. In 2016, Chapel Hill fell to Cox Mill 3-0 in the 3A State Championship match.

Cedar Ridge’s next home match is set for August 28th against Orange.

After losing 12 seniors for 2017, it figured to be a rebuilding season for the Orange boys soccer team.

After making the 2nd round of the 3A state playoffs for the first time since 2009, the Panthers lost leading scorer Jamar Davis, All-State wingback Omar Landeros, goalkeeper Noah Miller and midfielder Luke Wirzba.

In the opening week of the 2018 season, Orange dropped both of its opening matches. On Monday night, Orange fell to Carrboro 2-1 in Hillsborough. The Jaguars, who went undefeated in the 2-A Mid-State Conference last season and finished 20-3-2 overall, scored the game-winning goal midway through the 2nd half. Levi Anderson notched Orange’s first goal of the season off a corner kick from Cameron Michalski.

On Wednesday night, Walter Williams defeated the Panthers 4-2. Michalski and Drew Jagentenfl each scored goals for Orange. Williams’ Jorge Alfaro notched two goals, while Chris Gutierrez and Dallin Vandre also scored for the Bulldogs. Junior Romeo Vera tallied three assists. Matthew Morrison made six saves as Williams captured its season-opener. In 2017, the Bulldogs captured a share of the 3A Mid Piedmont Conference and finished 19-3-1.

Orange will make back-to-back road trips next week, starting Tuesday at Eastern Alamance. On Wednesday, the Panthers face Person in Roxboro.

Cedar Ridge started its season on Monday night with a 6-2 loss to Eastern Alamance in Mebane. Sophomore Gustavo Salas scored a hat trick for the Eagles. Cedar Ridge received goals from Reese Weaver on an assist from Dean Allen. Frank Orellana notched an unassisted goal for the Red Wolves. Cedar Ridge will play at Durham School of the Arts on Thursday night, then travel to Carrboro on Monday night. Cedar Ridge opens its home schedule on Wednesday against Graham.

Elsewhere in girls tennis, both Orange and Cedar Ridge opened the season with young teams. Going into the season, Cedar Ridge Coach Lennie Corbett figured to have the services of Ivy Garner, a rising sophomore who finished runner-up in the 3A Mideast Regionals last season. However, Garner transferred to Eno River Academy last week to focus on her main sport, soccer.

Cedar Ridge was also shorthanded when they fell to Bartlett Yancey 8-1 in Monday’s opener as two starters were on vacation. Olivia Ward, who started during the Red Wolves 2016 Big 8 Championship run, won in #1 singles. On Tuesday, Eastern Alamance defeated the Red Wolves 7-2.

The Orange girls tennis team started the season with a 9-0 loss to Eastern Alamance on Monday. On Wednesday, the Lady Panthers fell to Person 5-4.

Against the Rockets, freshman Jera Hargrove won at #1 singles. Junior Sydney Allison earned her first win of the season at #5 singles.  In doubles action, the team of Lindsey Jouannet and Morgan Gwynn won at #2, while Allison teamed with junior Gaylaw Eh for a victory at #3.

Next week, Orange will host Eastern Alamance on Monday. Then comes the Big 8 opener against defending conference champion East Chapel Hill on Wednesday.

As for Cedar Ridge, they travel to Eastern Alamance on Monday, then head north to face Bartlett Yancey on Wednesday. They host Roxboro Community School on Thursday, its only home match of the week.

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team’s first win under new head coach Anna Seethaler was a dramatic one. The Red Wolves trailed 2-0 against the Buccaneers. But Cedar Ridge rallied to take the final three sets and take a 3-2 win on Monday night on scores of 21-25, 16-25, 25-20, 25-22 and 15-12. Senior co-Captain Rachel Tucker had 19 digs and five assists. The Red Wolves will try to go to 2-0 on Wednesday night when they host Durham School of the Arts at 6:30.

Cedar Ridge Senior Rachel Tucker Discusses Win Over Bartlett Yancey

No Description

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team opens a new era on Monday night. They face Bartlett Yancey at 6:45, the first of three home games during the opening week of the season. It’s also the first game for new head coach Anna Seethaler, a native of Utah. It’s also the start of the season season for Sarah McCuiston, who led Cedar Ridge with 123 kills last season. Cedar Ridge will also face Durham School of the Arts on Wednesday, then faces Eastern Alamance on Thursday in a busy opening week of the season. 

Cedar Ridge Senior Volleyball Outside Hitter Sarah McCuiston Discusses Season Opener vs. Bartlett Y

No Description

Scott Loosemore finally has a full-time teaching job. It just won’t be in Hillsborough.

Loosemore, who has coached the Cedar Ridge varsity football team since 2014, told his team on Tuesday night he is leaving to become a running backs/tight ends coach at Scotland County.

Loosemore, who accepted the job last Tuesday, held off the announcement until the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s dead period ended on Sunday.

“This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” said Loosemore. “It was very hard to do. The kids were fine. I’ve got a lot of emails from parents and the majority of them understand what I did.”

The announcement came exactly three weeks after the Orange County School System announced that Cedar Ridge wouldn’t field a varsity football team this fall due to a lack of players and concerns about player safety.

It is expected that former Carrboro head coach Melvin Griffin, who served as Loosemore’s defensive coordinator last season, will be the head coach for Cedar Ridge’s junior varsity squad, which will begin play next month.

Loosemore will move to Laurinburg to teach social studies in two weeks with his wife, Karen. As far as football participation goes, Loosemore will go from one extreme to another. Last season, Scotland County went 12-2 and played for the 4A State Championship, where they lost to Charlotte Harding 30-22 at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem. The Fighting Scots captured the Eastern Regional Championship by beating Wilmington Hoggard 47-46 in overtime.

The move ends an emotional roller coaster ride for Loosemore, who has worked to attract players to the Cedar Ridge program while he hoped to get a full-time job, dealt with the system’s decision to not field a varsity team, and worked to overcome the death of his father last spring.

“I would consider this one of the top five jobs in the state, if not one of the top two jobs,” said Loosemore about Scotland County. “I’ve been down there a couple of times in the last two weeks. To be honest, it’s kind of like going to Friday Night Lights. The town down there eats and breaths football. For me, it’s a great opportunity to rejuvenate myself and rebuild my resume.”

Loosemore will find plenty of talent waiting for him as a running backs coach. Scotland lost Zamir White, who committed to Georgia after rushing for 2,086 yards and 34 touchdowns in 2017. His expected replacement, rising senior Syheim McQueen, already has college offers from South Carolina and N.C. State.

Loosemore told Principal Heather Blackmon and Athletic Director Andy Simmons that he was leaving last week. He has been commuting from Holly Springs while serving as an teaching assistant to Pam Schism. Loosemore had been looking for a permanent teaching position for several years. It became a hot topic among many Cedar Ridge parents, who wanted to keep Loosemore in Hillsborough.

Loosemore learned about the Scotland County position from N.C. State Director of High School Relations Henry Trevathan, who was an assistant with Loosemore at Elon University. Two weeks ago, Trevathan told Scotland head coach Richard Bailey that Loosemore was looking for a full-time job while they were at a camp in Raleigh. Bailey, from the practice field, called Loosemore to inquire. By the end of June, Bailey extended a job offer.

The announcement of Cedar Ridge not fielding a varsity team on June 19th led to a town hall meeting the following Monday, which included Blackmon, Loosemore, Simmons and Orange County School District Athletic Director Bob Hill. To quell concerns, Blackmon immediately announced at the beginning of the session that Loosemore would be the team’s football coach for next academic year, which received the most positive reaction of the night. When pressed by parents about Loosemore getting a full-time teaching job, Blackmon was non-committal.

A half-hour after the town hall started at Cedar Ridge, the Orange County School Board began a meeting at Gravelly Hills Middle School in Efland, which kept Cedar Ridge boosters from formally speaking to the board. Nonetheless, several parents drove over to the meeting, waited until it ended and confronted several members about the state of the football program and Loosemore’s employment status. There were several animated discussions.

“The parents have been a tremendous support system,” said Loosemore. “There’s a couple of things that I really feel bad about that made this decision as hard as it was was the parents’ support. The parents have been very supportive. The kids, even the few that we have, have really worked hard. They’ve really brought into what I’ve tried to coach them to do. Leaving the kids and those parents who have had my back is going to be extremely hard.”

Loosemore leaves a job he was never supposed to have to begin with. He came over to Cedar Ridge in 2014 as the offensive coordinator. Former Burlington Cummings head coach Steve Johnson was supposed to be the new head coach to replace Clay Jones, but Johnson suffered a thoracic aortic aneurysm just days before training camp was supposed to start. Loosemore inherited the interim head coach role while many players spent half the season wondering if Johnson would ever be back.

He never did come back. Loosemore became head coach permanently in 2015 and spent the next three years having more ups-and-downs than an Empire State Building elevator. He led Cedar Ridge to a 6-5 record in 2016, its first winning season in six years, but it was bittersweet. The Red Wolves were barred from going to the state playoffs after a sideline fight on the final play of a game against Riverside in September. Loosemore appealed the decision by the NCHSAA, but the school cameraman shut down the camera before the fight erupted. All Loosemore had as evidence was a still photo. The appeal was denied.

Competing against crosstown rival Orange, Loosemore worked hard to recruit players from nearby middle schools. He held two signing ceremonies inside the Cedar Ridge cafeteria, the most recent in April. There were Saturday workouts with potential Red Wolves. Loosemore was also a mainstay at most Cedar Ridge athletic events, where he tried to encourage players to try out for football, and it worked to a degree. Numerous Red Wolves baseball players made the varsity team last season, even allowing Cedar Ridge to field a junior varsity squad for the first time in Loosemore’s tenure.

Since Tuesday’s announcement from the offices of the Orange County School System that Cedar Ridge won’t field a varsity football team this fall, there’s been plenty of questions and speculation. There’s also been confusion, which has led to the wrong people being blamed for things they had no control over. To help clarify the situation, here are some answers to the most basic questions surrounding what has happened and what’s ahead.

Who made the final decision to not field a varsity team?

Superintendent Dr. Todd Wirt after consulting with Cedar Ridge Principal Heather Blackmon, Orange County District Athletic Director Bob Hill and Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons. Cedar Ridge Football Coach Scott Loosemore met with Blackmon, Simmons and Hill last Friday.

Did the Orange County School Board have anything to do with the decision? 

No. The School Board hasn’t met since June 11th and the issue has never been formally discussed.

According to the statement released by the Orange County Schools on Tuesday, Cedar Ridge has 51 players in the program (five rising seniors, nine rising juniors, 15 rising sophomores and 22 freshman). Isn’t that enough to field a varsity team?

The issue here isn’t just quantity, but experience, proximity and safety. The press release said there were 51 players, but some of those players have opted not to play citing potential injury. Cedar Ridge’s enrollment last November, based on North Carolina High School Athletic Association figures, was 1,145. That’s the lowest in the Big 8 Conference by nearly 200 students. On top of that, several Cedar Ridge sources say enrollment has decreased to around 1,050 since January. That’s still roughly the size of 3A power Havelock.

However, an increasing amount of Cedar Ridge’s enrollment is Hispanic, and American football isn’t something that many Hispanics grow up with as a priority in their homes. This isn’t exclusive only to Cedar Ridge. Burlington Cummings also has been forced to deal with changing demographics. The Cavaliers won the 2006 2A State Championship and won the Eastern Regional Championship again the following year. In 2016, they went 0-11.

If Cedar Ridge went through with the sesaon, they would have about 25 sophomores and juniors going against opponents like Eastern Guilford (which had 64 varsity players last season), Cardinal Gibbons (79), Hillside (82), Southern Durham (86), and Southern Alamance (81). In football, your quantity often determines your quality.

Orange has the second-lowest enrollment in the Big 8 with 1,324. Why aren’t they having the same problems?

Orange basically has the entire northern end of the county to themselves. Cedar Ridge is fighting with Chapel Hill, Carrboro and East Chapel Hill for the rest of the area. This week, Orange held an intersquad scrimmage and Coach Van Smith says participation is slightly up from last sesaon. Counting JV and varsity, Smith says he has around 110 players, a number that can fluctuate based on whether students want to keep playing. As for why Orange’s numbers are better, see the above answer regarding proximity.

What happens to Cedar Ridge’s five rising seniors?

There’s no clear answer to that right now,  but it is why Monday is shaping up to be an interesting day.

Cedar Ridge will field a junior varsity squad in August, but seniors can’t play on that team. Last season, East Chapel Hill didn’t field a varsity football team, but East seniors were allowed to play at neighboring Chapel Hill High without transferring to CHHS. The decision was made by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board.

Who will decide if a similar arrangement can be made between Cedar Ridge and Orange? 

The Orange County School Board, which dictates all student policy. The next school board meeting is Monday night at 7. That meeting was scheduled months ago. Coincidentally, a group of Cedar Ridge football parents have scheduled a town hall at the school gymnasium, which will also take place on Monday night at 6:30. This town hall was called shortly after Tuesday’s announcement.

CORRECTION: The Town Hall wasn’t scheduled by parents. It was scheduled by the Orange’s County School System.

As fate would have it, Monday’s meeting is the final scheduled meeting for school board members Tom Carr, Donna Coffey, and Michael Hood. If the Cedar Ridge seniors want to play at Orange, they can approach the school board. The next scheduled board meeting is July 7th, but an emergency meeting can be requested.

A long conversation with a longtime local coach was winding to a close recently when he exposed a theory that made my blood run cold.

“I can see a day in 20 years when there are no high school sports.”

No high school sports? Some people would rather go without oxygen.

The coach’s thesis is there will come a time when high school sports would no longer become financially sustainable. Athletes would focus on one sport only, whether its baseball, softball, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse or anything else where they could attain that elusive college scholarship. The days of two-or-three sports atheltes would steadily wither away, as would the purpose of the athlete serving the school.

Instead, the athlete could simply develop their skills with travel teams in the spring, summer and fall. To a lesser extinct, it’s already happpened with Showcase Baseball, which is one-stop shopping for college coaches where top-tier high school talent spend their summers traveling to colleges across the region to play in front of college recruiting coordinators. It’s also happened in boys and girls basketball for decades at the AAU level.

Shifting uncomfortably as I envisioned this plausible scenario, I asked this coach “How would the schools lose money?”

“Because of the loss of football,” he said.

And he we are.

Cedar Ridge was once so gung-ho about football under former coach Lou Geary, it became a tradition to hold Midnight Madness workouts on August 1st, the very second it became legal under NCHSAA bylaws to practice.

Now, the Red Wolves won’t have enough players to field a varsity team this fall. The official announcement came from the school system on Tuesday afternoon, catching even some of the people closest to the program by surprise.

What happened? There are many answers, ranging from the top of the sport to its most basic levels.

Acccording to the Aspen Institute, participation in youth football has declined 19 percent from 2011 to 2016 for kids aged 6 to 17. For the NFL, those numbers are a long-term problem. For high school, it’s a crisis right now.

”There has been a decline in our area,” said Chris Casey, a former Cedar Ridge Head Coach. “Since the NFL came out with its concussion report, it killed the Pop Warner programs and the Orange County Youth Football program. In turn, the numbers at middle school have dropped off and now you are seeing it at the high schools.”

The future of football has been increasingly in question for years now. The truth is, no one knows where the game will be in 30 years at the professional, college or high school level.

As far as Cedar Ridge’s situation is concerned, there are some things we do know.

The first one is there are no winners in this situation.

The players lose, namely the seniors, because they miss out on playing the sport they love. Last season, when East Chapel Hill didn’t field a varsity team, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools allowed Wildcat players to play at neighboring Chapel Hill High while remaining students at East. Whether Orange County Schools will allow Cedar Ridge players the same luxury at Orange remains to be seen. (Cedar Ridge will field a JV team this season, but seniors aren’t allowed on that squad).

The opponents of football, some of whom build their names and incomes off of the game while also desiring its demise, may learn about this situation and think the players are benefitting because they’re “staying safe” by not playing. If that’s true, then the seniors are just surviving life, not living it.

Cedar Ridge students lose because they miss out on the classic atmosphere of a Friday night home game. Granted, Cedar Ridge has struggled since reaching the 2-AA Eastern Regional Championship game in 2010. But where else in Hilllsborough do thousands of people, regardless of color, creed or political affiliation, gather to cheer together? To sing together? To celebrate together? To console together?

Most of all, the coaches lose. The circumstances that head coach Scott Loosemore has dealt with in his career have been nothing short of incredible. He joined the staff in 2015 as an offensive coordinator under former Burlington Cummings head coach Steve Johnson—who never even led one practice.

Johnson suffered a thoracic aortic aneurysm the week before training camp was ready to start. Loosemore stepped in as interim coach while Johnson spent the season recovering.

Loosemore was named the permanent coach in 2016 as crosstown rival Orange rose to prominence under Pat Moser. But adverse situations were nothing new for Loosemore, who led Eastern Guilford for eight seasons, including the 2006 campaign where the school literally burned to the ground.

Knowing Orange would have a numbers advantage because they have an entire side of the county to itself, Loosemore has worked tirelessly at middle schools across Hillsborough to attract students to Cedar Ridge football. He’s held private workouts on Saturdays when he could have sat home and watched the SEC. He’s held signing ceremonies for rising freshman that brought into his sincere message. He’s stayed late after school to attend lacrosse, baseball and basketball games in hopes of selling football to players.

In short, Loosemore has done a lot of work for free, all while being a newlywed and as his father was dying. He did all that not just to win football games, but to simply have the chance.

Unfortunately, the decision to quit was taken out of his hands and made by someone else. And, ultimately, everyone loses.

Eight years ago, the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves were one win away from playing for the 2-AA State Football Championship.

This fall, they won’t field a varsity team.

In a statement released by the Orange County Schools on Tuesday night, the system announced that Cedar Ridge will not field a varsity football team for the 2018 season. The statement cited safety and lack of players as the reason.

“Currently, the Cedar Ridge High School football program has five rising seniors, nine rushing juniors, 15 rising sophomores and 22 freshman who have committed to play football in the fall,” the statement reads. “We have had some of our student athletes in recent weeks choose not to play football for a variety of reasons.”

“After considering the injury data and the number of student athletes committed to play football in the fall, we have decided to not field a varsity football team in the fall of 2018.”

The statement confirmed that the school will field a junior varsity football team and play a full schedule of games.

“This will give our freshman, sophomores and juniors the opportunity to play against peers of similar size and strength,” according to the statement.

Cedar Ridge becomes the second Big 8 Conference school in as many years to not field a varsity football team. In 2017, East Chapel Hill only had a junior varsity squad. Last month, East Athletic Director Randy Trumbower hired Brian Nunn as its new head coach and plans to return to varsity competition in August.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a program that was one win away from playing in the 2-AA state championship game in 2010. Since losing to Elizabeth City Northeastern 21-7 on December 3, 2010, Cedar Ridge has gone 21-56 through five head coaches. It’s only winning season in that span was in 2015.

Last spring, Cedar Ridge Football Coach Scott Loosemore said he knew numbers could possibly be a problem for 2018. In 2017, Loosemore attracted enough players from other sports to play varsity, and even had enough for a junior varsity team for the first time in four years. Nonetheless, Cedar Ridge went 1-10.

In the offseason, several Cedar Ridge players told Loosemore they would not be returning for 2018, including starting quarterback Phillip Berger, an all-Big 8 Conference pitcher.

In an attempt to improve participation numbers, Loosemore voluntarily stayed after school to attend basketball, lacrosse, wrestling and baseball games to encourage players to go out for football. He worked with students in the weight room that weren’t football players. His main purpose was to get them to play football.

It was something he did when he was the head coach at Eastern Guilford, a school that is now a 3A power. When Loosemore took over the reigns of the Wildcats in 2004, there were roughly 35 players in the program. Three years later, there were 110, despite the school burning down in November 2006.

While Orange gets the vast majority of players from the northern end of the county, Cedar Ridge has been left to compete with Carrboro, Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill for the students in the western and southern end.

Cedar Ridge has scheduled a town hall meeting on Monday night at 6:30 inside the school gymnasium.