Cedar Ridge High School

Plenty has happened to Torrean Hinton since football season ended in November.

Last month, his North Carolina Central Eagles won the HBCU National Championship in the Celebration Bowl over Jackson State in Atlanta. Hinton, who attended Central and Alabama A&M after graduating from Hillside High School in 1999, proudly wore various Eagles sweaters for three days afterward.

Beside that, his days have been filled with his standard job working as an accreditation manager with the Durham Police Department and taking his daughter for training twice a week to the North Carolina Football Club Academy in Apex.

In a nutshell, it’s life. And that’s why Hinton’s tenure as Cedar Ridge football coach has come to an end.

Hinton formally submitted his resignation as the Cedar Ridge football coach on January 6, three days before his 42nd birthday.

“Life just happened as far as my family,” Hinton said. “My wife got a promotion. I’m a full-time soccer dad. My daughter started playing soccer for the North Carolina Football Club. My wife can’t take her. She has two practices a week. It was just a family decision. I had to put football down for awhile. My wife has been supporting me for 14 years while I coached.”

A job vacancy was posted to the Orange County Schools website last week. Cedar Ridge Athletic Director Andy Simmons says he’s already received several resumes.

Choosing to resign was a tough pill to swallow for Hinton. In the days after the season ended, he looked as his day planner and realized there was only so much he could do with 24 hours in a day.

“I didn’t talk to anyone about it,” Hinton said. “I didn’t discuss it with anyone as far as Cedar Ridge is concerned. After the New Year, I thought I’d just rip the band-aid off and give Cedar Ridge a fresh start with somebody who will have enough time to do what they need to do.”

Hinton emphasized that his decision wasn’t centered on whether the Red Wolves would have enough players to field a team next season. Cedar Ridge didn’t field varsity teams in 2018 and 2021 because of a lack of participation.

“Absolutely not,” Hinton said when asked if participation was a factor in his decision. “I think that we had a lot of juniors on our team. Our senior class is going to be really, really big. The issue with Cedar Ridge is going to be finding rising juniors. We only had three sophomores on the team. That was the issue this year. Just trying to get more guys to come out from that class and get them to participate in spring ball. I don’t think they will have a junior varsity squad. If they do, it will be surprising. But definitely a varsity squad.”

Hinton just completed the second season of his second stint at Cedar Ridge’s head coach. His first stint started suddenly when Antonio King, a former Hillside coach who recently became the head coach at South Garner, gave notice on the first day of August training camp in 2019 in order to become a running backs coach at North Carolina Central.

In an interim role, Hinton coached Cedar Ridge to a 1-10 season in 2019 after they didn’t field a varsity team in 2018. Hinton’s first win as Cedar Ridge coach was memorable. For starters, it was Cedar Ridge’s first varsity win in 785 days. Isaiah McCambry, a freshman who would transfer to Walter Williams, scored two touchdowns, including a score in the fourth quarter that cut Chapel Hill’s lead to 19-18. K.J. Barnes took a handoff from Will Berger and scored on a handoff for a 2-point conversion that put the Red Wolves ahead 20-19 with 4:00 remaining.

Hinton left Cedar Ridge after Corey Lea was hired as head coach during the pandemic-shortened season in 2021. Cedar Ridge went 0-6 and Lea returned to Riverside in July 2021.

Hinton returned as head coach in 2021, but Cedar Ridge didn’t field a varsity team. They played only a junior varsity schedule. Last season upon its return to varsity, the Red Wolves went 1-9. They defeated East Chapel Hill 8-6 in August. James Este Wittinger scored Cedar Ridge’s only touchdown and made a tackle late in the game for the game-winning safety late in the fourth quarter.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore wrestler Pierce Prescod. This season, Prescod is 38-9 with 29 pins. On Saturday, he secured his first individual championship at Riverside High School at 120-pounds. Prescod pined Thomas Crowley of Riverside in 2:51 of the championship match. In November, Prescod finished third in the Red Wolf Invitational. As a sixth grader, Prescod was ready to quit wrestling after just his third day of practice. His coach managed to talk his way back into returning and Prescod has turned out better for it. Currently, he’s second on the Cedar Ridge team this season in victories. Prescod has competed in some of the biggest tournaments in the state over the past six weeks, including the Holy Angels Invitational in Asheboro earlier this month. He also competed in the WRAL Invitational in Knightdale on December 16 and 17, where he competed at 126-pounds. Prescod will join his fellow Red Wolves in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament this Saturday at Orange High School.

Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week: Pierce Prescod

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore wrestler Pierce Prescod. This season, Prescod is 38-9 with 29 pins. On Saturday, he secured his first individual championship at Riverside High School at 120-pounds. Prescod pined Thomas Crowley of Riverside in 2:51 of the championship match.

DURHAM—Immediately after he secured his second individual championship of the season, Kaden Tatro ran out of the gymnasium.

As several of his teammates followed him to the exit doors of Margratha Chambers Gymnasium, they found he didn’t sprint away out of jubilation. Or that he was having an emergency of some sort. He just needed to keep his cardio up.

“I don’t have much of a gas tank,” Tatro said.

Tatro was one of three individual champions for Cedar Ridge on Saturday at the Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High School. Cedar Ridge won the team championship in a 12-team field that included Riverside, a five-time 4A state champion. The Red Wolves finished with 163 points. Riverside came in second with 123 points. Apex had 115.5 points.

Red Wolf senior Fernando Martinez was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. In his final regular season individual tournament, Martinez won the 113-pound championship after beating Daniel Dickerson of Riverside 9-3. In the semifinals, Martinez pinned Brandon Mann of South Granville in 1:39.

The championship match was Martinez’s 135th career victory, placing him third all-time in school history. Last week, he surpassed Randy Greenough for third-place during the Pin Down Autism Super Duals at Uwharrie Charter Academy in Asheboro.

At 120 pounds, sophomore Pierce Prescod continued a strong season with a victory in the championship after top-seeded Thomas Crowley of Riverside. Prescod, who pinned Crowley, is 38-9 with 29 pins this season. It was the first tournament win of his varsity career.

The victory on Saturday provided Cedar Ridge with triumph after competing in some of the biggest tournaments in the state. Two weeks ago, they joined 114 other teams in the Holy Angels Invitational at the Greensboro Coliseum. In December, the Red Wolves finished 17th among 53 teams at the WRAL Invitational in Knightdale.

“Those tournaments helped us today,” said Cedar Ridge wrestling coach Scott Metcalf. “We had ten dual matches last week in Asheboro. That was a long day, but it helped us today.”

Tatro, a junior, had even more reason to celebrate. In the semifinals of the 182-pound tournament, he pinned Rocco Paolillo of Apex in 20 seconds for his 100th career win. He became the sixth Cedar Ridge wrestler to reach 100 wins. Tatro, who is 45-4 this season with 34 pins, is just seven wins shy of surpassing Ethan Knapp for fifth-place all-time in school history.

Facing Hillside’s Kellyn Stallings in the championship match, Tatro scored takedowns in the opening ten seconds in each of the first and second periods. Tatro contained Stallings face-down for most of the match. He scored an immediate escape in the third period and scored a major decision after Stallings was penalized a point for stalling in the final 30 seconds.

Prescod needed only 19 seconds to takedown Crowley. After Crowley escaped and notched a go-behind to take a 3-2 lead, Prescod notched a late reversal to take a 4-3 lead to finish the opening period. Prescod, starting on top in the second frame, got a cradle and notched the pin for the championship.

Martinez nearly scored a pin in the opening minute of his championship match against Dickerson. He led 5-0 after a takedown just 12 seconds into the first period and got three points for a near fall.

“I’m proud of Fernando,” Metcalf said. “Ive enjoyed working with him and I’m going to miss him after this year. He’s a good kid.”

In addition to the three champions, the Red Wolves had several runner-up finishes. Ryan Rakouskas came in second at 145-pounds. Rakouskas defeated Aaron Douglas of Hillside in the semifinals 12-8. Riverside’s Valerio Luftig captured the 145-pound title. Rakouskas is 28-16 with 21 pins this season.

At 160-pounds, Edwin Huerta of Cedar Ridge also finished second. Huerta defeated Gavin Pinfield of Apex via pinfall at 2:18 in the semifinals. In the championship match against Joshua McDonald of Leesville Road, Huerta gave up a late takedown. He tried to flip over and nearly scored a reversal in the waning seconds, but McDonald held on to preserve a 6-4 victory.

At 220 pounds, Cedar Ridge’s Louis Tedder finished third after he defeated Garner’s Ryan Baker in the consolation final 8-6. The match went to sudden victory, where Tedder scored the final takedown in the first overtime.

Favio Jaramillo Espar earned a third-place finish at 106 pounds. Espar defeated Connor Horton of South Granville 11-3 in the third place match.

At 132 pounds, Mikey O’Melia captured third place. O’Melia defeated Riverside’s Chris Rowell 7-1. It is O’Melia’s best-ever finish in a tournament.

The Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High School was the final regular season individual tournament in the storied career of Cedar Ridge wrestler Fernando Martinez. While it wasn’t his final tournament, he did earn Most Valuable Wrestler honors in winning the 113-pound championship at the Silver Fox. Martinez started the day pinning Brandon Mann of South Granville in 1:39. In the championship match, Martinez defeated Daniel Dickerson of Riverside 9-3. It was the 135th career win for Martinez, placing him third all-time in school history. He likely would have approached the school record of 166 wins if the pandemic hadn’t occurred, which roughly cut Martinez’s sophomore season in half. It was Martinez’s first individual tournament win this season. Martinez is the defending Mideast regional champion at 113-pounds. Cedar Ridge will host the regional championships starting January 26. Next Saturday, Martinez and the rest of the Cedar Ridge wrestling team will compete in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament at Orange High School.

Cedar Ridge’s Fernando Martinez discusses being Silver Fox Invitational Most Valuable Wrestler

The Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High School was the final regular season individual tournament in the storied career of Cedar Ridge wrestler Fernando Martinez. While it wasn’t his final tournament, he did earn Most Valuable Wrestler honors in winning the 113-pound championship at the Silver Fox.

After competing in numerous tournaments throughout the course of this year, Cedar Ridge junior Kaden Tatro has several reasons to celebrate on Saturday. He won the Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High School in Durham at 182 pounds. To start the day, Tatro defeated Rocco Prolillo of Apex in 20 seconds via pinfall. It was Tatro’s 100th career win, becoming the sixth Cedar Ridge wrestler to reach that milestone. Tatro is now 45-4 this season with 34 pins. It was a gratifying way to end the regular season for Tatro, who also won the Red Wolf Invitational in November. Tatro finished third at the WRAL Invitational on December 17 in Knightdale. Now, Tatro will focus on the postseason, which will begin next Saturday. The Central Carolina Conference Championships will be held at Orange High School. Tatro will likely be the favorite at 182 pounds. In addition, earlier this week it was announced that Cedar Ridge will host the 3A Mideast Regional Championships next month. The top four placers in each division will qualify for the 3A State Championships at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Cedar Ridge’s Kaden Tatro discusses winning Silver Fox Invitational

After competing in numerous tournaments throughout the course of this year, Cedar Ridge junior Kaden Tatro has several reasons to celebrate on Saturday. He won the Silver Fox Invitational at Riverside High School in Durham at 182 pounds. To start the day, Tatro defeated Rocco Prolillo of Apex in 20 seconds via pinfall.

Trenton Gill: The first Cedar Ridge player to ever play in the National Football League had his rookie season come to an end on Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Chicago Bears 29-13 at Solider Field. In his final game of the season, Gill had three punts for an average of 37 yards. Two of them were downed inside the 20-yard line. His longest punt was 44 yards. To end his rookie season, Gill had 66 punts for an average of 46 yards, which was tied for 23rd in the NFL. His longest punt was 63 yards. 20 of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line, which was tied for 24th in the NFL. The Bears will have the #1 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft after they finished 3-14. On Saturday night, Gill came home and spun the siren for the Carolina Hurricanes for the third period of its game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PNC Arena in Raleigh. The Hurricanes held on to win 2-1.

Bryse Wilson: After being designated for assignment, Wilson was traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Milwaukee Brewers last week. He was traded for cash considerations. It will be Wilson’s third Major League Baseball organization. Last season, Wilson went 3-9 with an 5.52 ERA with Pittsburgh. He had 79 strikeouts and 32 walks. Wilson’s son, Levi, was born last month. Wilson will report to spring training next month looking to take a spot in the Brewers’ starting rotation.

Connor Crabtree: On January 4, the Richmond Spiders men’s basketball team held off George Washington 73-63 at the Robins Center. Crabtree played one minutes. He has not played in Richmond’s subsequent three games: a 75-73 win over Duquesne; a 61-57 win at Davidson and  71-63 loss against St. Bonaventure.

Joey McMullin: The Sandhills Community College men’s basketball team has won three in a row. On Saturday, the Flyers defeated New Hope Collegiate 122-87. McMullin came off the bench to lead Sandhills with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field. He sank both of his 3-point attempts. McMullin also had five rebounds. On Wednesday, Sandhills defeated Johnston Community College 98-77 at Harrison Gymnasium in Smithfield. McMullin scored 16 points in 18 minutes. He finished 7-of-12 from the field and knocked down his only shot from downfield. McMullin also had four rebounds. On January 5, Sandhills rolled past Brunswick Community College 101-87. McMullin scored 14 points and grabbed four rebounds. Sandhills is 15-3 overall, 1-1 in Region 10 of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Aaliyah Harris: The Division III Randolph-Macon women’s basketball team rolled by Lynchburg 56-30 on January 11 at Crenshaw Gymnasium in Lynchburg, VA. Harris played 15 minutes and shot 1-of-6 from the field. She scored three points and grabbed one rebound. On January 5, Randolph-Macon defeated Eastern Mennonite 65-30 in Ashland, VA. Harris scored three points off 1-of-6 shooting from the field. She had three rebounds. The Yellow Jackets are 10-5 overall, 7-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

Braden Homsey: The Division III Ferrum College wrestling team split a pair of dual matches at the Budd Whitehill Duals at Lycoming Wrestling Center in Williamsport, PA on Saturday. The Panthers defeated Pennsylvania Tech 27-21. Wilkes defeated Ferrum 28-17. Homsey won both of his matches by technical fall at 197 pounds. Against Wilkes, Homsey defeated Hunter Lowe 16-1. Against Penn Tech, Homsey rolled past Gabriel Kennedy-Citeroni 17-2. On Friday, Ferrum dropped three matches at Lycoming College. #21 Ithaca defeated the Panthers 30-12. Chibueze Chukwuezi defeated Homsey by technical fall 18-2 at 197 pounds. Williams defeated Ferrum 20-13. Homsey earned a major decision over Thomas Goodwin 14-1. York College of Pennsylvania edged Ferrum 25-17. 25-17. Homsey won another technical fall over Devon O’Dell 16-0. Ferrum is 3-7 overall on the season, 1-1 in the ODAC. They will return to action against Averett in a dual match on Thursday in Ferrum. On January 27, Ferrum will compete in the Pete Wilson Invitational.

On a night where points were at a premium, the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves turned to its most steady hand for its first conference win in nearly one year.

Colton Taylor took a pass from Jonovan Wingate, drove past a defender set up for a charge along the right block for a lay-in with 44 seconds remaining to put Cedar Ridge into the lead against Western Alamance 40-39. Sophomore Harrison Perel added two late free throws and the Red Wolves (5-8, 1-4 in the Central Carolina Conference) emerged with a 42-39 win on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Arena.

The victory ended Cedar Ridge’s nine-game Central Carolina Conference losing streak. The Red Wolves’ last CCC win also came against Western Alamance on February 4, 2022 in Hillsborough.

Brooks Allred led the Warriors (1-14, 0-4) with ten points.

Western Alamance led 22-11 in the second quarter after a jumper by Kris Barnwell. The Red Wolves didn’t score in the opening 5:03 of the second quarter. Taylor ended the drought with a lay-in while being fouled by Wyatt Lee. Taylor scored seven straight points for Cedar Ridge during the first half before Sophomore Harrison Perel sank a 3-pointer to reduce the Warriors’ lead to 24-19.

“We were lacking energy in the first half,” said Cedar Ridge coach Mike Jones, who earned his first conference win as the head coach of the Red Wolves. “I think we looked at this team’s record and took them softly. Once we started playing like ourselves, we looked a lot better.”

In the second half, Western Alamance only scored four field goals. Trailing 26-20 at halftime, Cedar Ridge center Hayden Kirk tied the game at 32-32 with two free throws with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter.

Taylor put Cedar Ridge in the lead at 37-36 with a coast-to-coast lay-in with 5:14 remaining. John Long, a backup guard who played nearly the entire second half, put the Warriors ahead with two free throws. Long finished with eight points.

“We defended well in the second half,” Jones said. “We’re playing really hard right now. I’m proud of my guys. We’re getting better.”

Taylor, who had a career-high 31 points against Eastern Alamance on Friday night, tied the game with a free throw. Tied 38-38, Kris Barnwell drew an offensive foul on Taylor. which led to Allred getting fouled by Perel. Allred split two free throws to give the Warriors a 39-38 lead.

After Taylor’s go-ahead lay-in, Joey Peterson missed a baseline jumper and the rebound was knocked out of bounds by the Warriors. Perel was fouled and sank two pressure free throws to expand the Red Wolves’ lead. Barnwell missed an attempt to tie the game late.

Western Alamance’s Elijah Wade scored nine points in the first quarter, but curiously didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

“It didn’t even look like Colton had 24 points,” Jones said. “I’m telling you, Colton plays so hard. It’s definitely a confidence boost to win this game. Our goal right now is to make the state playoffs. That’s our goal. That was a big step in that direction tonight.”

The Red Wolves will return home to face Walter Williams on Friday night in Hillsborough.

Women’s Basketball: Western Alamance 61, Cedar Ridge 34

The surprising start of the Western Alamance women’s basketball team continued on Tuesday night. The Warriors, who finished 8-12 last year, defeated Cedar Ridge to improve to 13-2, 3-1 in the CCC.

Tina Bowers led the Warriors with 19 points. Amiyah Ware, the Cedar Ridge junior who set the school record with 37 points against Eastern Alamance on Friday night, scored 20 against the Warriors.

The Red Wolves trailed by only two points late in the first half, but things quickly crumbled after Ware picked up her third foul late in the second quarter. The Warriors, ranked #2 in the 3A East Region by MaxPreps, got 18 points from Emma Johnson and 13 points from Cayden White.

Cedar Ridge (2-11, 1-4) will host Williams on Friday night at 6PM in Hillsborough.