Cedar Ridge High School

it would have been very easy for the Cedar Ridge women’s basketball team to simply stay home on Wednesday. They had only five players, three of whom were freshmen, available for its game against Orange. But the Red Wolves wanted to compete against their crosstown rivals, even if it meant playing its second game in as many days. For that, Cameron Copeland, Bryan Booker, Phoenix Smith, Angelica Carbajal and Cierra Copeland deserve nothing but respect. For the second night in a row, they played all 32 minutes without any substitutions. Cedar Ridge Principal Carlos Ramirez applauded the team as the final buzzer sounded and the players went to the bench.

It’s hard to say Cedar Ridge volleyball’s season is over when it barely felt like it started.

Usually, a volleyball season is around 24 matches that starts the first week of the academic year. Good teams will play until the end of October. The best last until early November, when they wind up going for a state championship at Reynolds Coliseum or Crown Coliseum.

In the aftershock of the train wreck that was 2020, everything still feels irregular. Cedar Ridge’s regular season was supposed to be 14 games, but is over after just ten.

Along the way, the Red Wolves defeated the defending 3A State Champions, won the Big 8 Conference championship and captured its first state playoff win since 2015 behind a fleet of sophomores who make the Red Wolves’ future blindingly blight.

Unfortunately, Cedar Ridge’s fleet ran into a barrage of cannons from D.H. Conley on Thursday night.

Conley, the champions of the 4A/3A Eastern Carolina Conference, defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 on Thursday night at Viking Gymnasium on scores of 23-25, 25-15, 25-21 and 25-18.

Conley (13-1) will host Chapel Hill on Saturday.

For the first time in Cedar Ridge’s brief season, they ran into an opponent that could not only match its finishing firepower, but overwhelm it. The Vkings’ front court of 6’0 freshman Ashlyn Philpot, 5’10 junior Maddy May and 5’11 junior Ella Philpot supplied plenty of killing power, which only grew more formidable when sophomore outside hitter Kylah Silver came off the bench.

“They have size, but we were prepared for it,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Fiona Cunningham. “They played phenomenal. They had great offense, but when it came down to blocking we got touches. We slowed down the ball exactly how we wanted to.”

After a two-and-a-half hour bus trip to Greenville, the Red Wolves didn’t lack for confidence early. They rolled out to a 6-1 lead behind two kills from sophomore Cameron Lloyd, along with finishes from Layne Foster and Justice Wilborune.

The Vikings evened the opening set after a series of powerful spikes from Silver and an ace from senior Sarah Dees. With the set tied at 23, Lloyd gave Cedar Ridge the lead when she tipped the ball over the hands of May, who sent the volley off the antenna. Senior Layne Foster, in her final match, earned the kill on set point off an assist from Julie Altieri.

“We slowed down the ball exactly how we wanted to in the first set,” Cunningham said. “We stuck to the game plan. Conley responded. They adjusted to what our game plan was and we just didn’t match that adjustment quite as quickly.”

With the second set even 8-8, the Vikings started to impose its dominance. They went on a 9-1 run behind finishes from Dees and Ashely Thomas. Philpot, the freshman, blocked set point to even the match.

Though Conley never trailed in the fourth set, the frame was tight throughout. Lloyd had six kills in the 4th, all assisted by Altieri. Lloyd also had an ace to tie the set at 18 when Conley immediately reeled off four straight points, starting with a spike by Silver off an assist by Olivia Lefever. An errant serve by Cedar Ridge gave the Vikings the third set 25-21.

Conley took control of the final frame with a 13-0 run to go ahead 19-8. Cedar Ridge fought back to narrow the gap to 20-13 behind kills from Lloyd and Wilbourne, but Ashlyn Philpot spiked home match point to send the Vikings on to the state quarterfinals.

In her final match at Cedar Ridge, senior libero Marlee Rakouskas had 29 digs.

As Cedar Ridge prepares for what will hopefully be a more traditional season starting in August, they can take solace over the fact the team won the first Big 8 Conference championship at the school since the softball team in May 2019.

It’s Still a Bloated Mess

Just a few weeks ago, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its plans for the 2021-2025 Realignment to including schematics, initial drafts, and conferences.

When the NCHSAA tried to expand to a fifth classification and to make Realignment occur more frequently, Realignment was to be delayed by one academic year. When these votesfailed along with COVID-19 concerns, Realignment went back to its original course. Realignment will now go into effect on August 1, 2021.

As opposed to recent versions when Realignment primarily involved only one component, this version of the “Ole Switcheroo” includes two more. 

Component #1 remains the Average Daily Membership, or ADM. This remains the average enrolment of a school from 9^th through 12^th grades factoring admissions and departures throughout the academic year. The ADM score is originated by utilizing the school’s 2019-2020 ADM number, as published by the NCHSAA prior to the 2019 football playoffs, and multiplying it by 50 percent.

(Example – 2019-2020 ADM x .50 = ADM score)

Component #2 is a schematic known as the State Cup Score. The Wells Fargo Cup or “State Cup” is a yearly NCHSAA award that recognizes the high schools that achieve the best overall athletic performance within each of the Association’s four classifications. The State Cup is based on overall performance, primarily scored by season finish and postseason play.When teams participate in their respective sports, they are given a score at the end of that season that is scored into the overall standings of the Wells Fargo Cup.

Calculating the State Cup score will consist of multiple steps. First is finding the State Cupaverage of the last three years. 

[Example – (2018 score + 2019 score + 2020 score) / 3 = Three-year State Cup average]. 

After tabulating the three-year average, it is then multiplied it by 25 percent for the official score.

(Example – Three-year State Cup average x .25 = State Cup Score)

Component #3 is the Identified Student Percentage, or ISP. The ISP is the number of students in a school who receives some form of government assistance via guidelines fromthe U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The ISP score will be the most complicated score to compile. First, the Association will find the three-year ISP average for each school, just like with the State Cup Score. Although, the Association voted to eliminate the highest of the three scores as certain discrepancies in numbers from incidents such as natural disasters or other Acts of God could impact a school’s overall realignment score.

[Example – (2018 ISP + 2019 ISP + 2020 ISP) / 3 = Three-year ISP average]

Second, the Association will determine a school’s ISP multiplier by placing each school using a comparative & precise distribution range from .25 to 1.75. Schools that have related ISP averages will be found among similar spots on the distribution range. The higher a school’s ISP average, the lower the multiplier will be. This means that the more students at a school receiving government assistance, the lower the multiplier the school will have, thereby reducing its realignment score. Once the ISP multiplier is identified, the Association will multiply the school’s 2019-2020 ADM number by the ISP multiplier to reveal the ISP factor.(Example – 2019-2020 ADM x ISP multiplier = ISP factor)

Third, when the ISP factor is determined, it is multiplied by 25 percent to get the ISP score for the school. (Example – ISP factor x .25 = ISP score).

The organized calculation of all three components equals a school’s Realignment Score.

Did anyone understand all of that? Neither did I. 

The blueprint for classification reminds me of the obscure Adjusted MaxPreps Ranking, themonolithic Bowl Championship Series formula, and the mysterious trade secret for Colonel Sanders’ Original Recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Despite the openness to do one’s own homework, realignment has again resulted in a cluster of clutter factored by a tedious set of schematics.

Last year, I filed an article wishing for the NCHSAA to designate schools per region, as such designations would allow schools to budget funds set aside for away sporting events and make playoff seeding more easily. The Association has adopted this measure, as the East / West boundary will be set west of the counties of Caswell, Alamance, Chatham, Moore, and Richmond. This will also take effect at Realignment in August.

Despite its overall framework, the Association seemed to return Orange and Cedar Ridge to historical roots. I spoke with our fearless leader, Jeff Hamlin, who passionately recalled of some classic games of the Panthers & Red Wolves against Carrboro, Eastern Alamance, Northwood, Walter Williams, and Western Alamance. While I look forwards to these games, I’m also looking forwards to some shorter drives, especially avoiding the near 60-mile trek to Vance County.

Another Christmas gift the Association has given to all of us through Realignment will be the elimination of split classifications for the football playoffs, which will go into effect in the 2021-2022 season. In previous editions, I cited examples of snafus, favored positions despite producing abysmal season results, and an excessive number of inferior playoff teams with sub-500 records. Hopefully, the playoffs can return to some normalcy with a plain’ol, 16-team tournament on both sides of the state. 

One can also hope that playoffs in other events can be reduced from the engorged 64-team brackets, to a smaller 48-team tourney that rewards the best teams with a bye in the first round. In essence, it’s quality over quantity.

My overall take on the current events from the NCHSAA is that it’s still swollen. Despite some good changes, it’s not enough. We will never see any truly reformed efforts until the principals and athletic directors vote to change the NCHSAA by-laws by expanding the Associationbeyond four classes. 

As I’ve said before, the Association has needed to expand since 2006 with the statewideboom in population and high school construction. Playing within the confines of a four classification system is like trying to fit into your favorite pair of blue jeans that haven’t fit since high school.

There’s only so much that can be done to produce a sensible athletic program in North Carolina. It cannot be accomplished unless those with the power, changes the rules.

If Cedar Ridge’s victory over Union Pines was any more decisive, it would have been labeled a College Football Playoff national championship game.

In its first home playoff game since 2015, the Red Wolves volleyball team cruised past the Vikings on scores of 25-13, 25-17, and 25-13 in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

Cedar Ridge will travel to face D.H. Conley, the champions of the 4A/3A Eastern Carolina Conference, on Thursday night for the second round. Conley defeated Terry Sanford 3-0 on Tuesday.

Union Pines (9-3, 9-1), champions of the Tri-County Conference who opened with eight consecutive wins, was swept for only the second time this year.

Like a modern day Jordan and Pippen, Cedar Ridge’s deadly combination of sophomores Cameron Lloyd and Julie Altieri proved to be too much. Lloyd finished with 16 kills, all of them set up by Altieri, who ended the night with 29 assists, seven digs and four aces. Lloyd also had eleven digs.

Cedar Ridge improved to 9-0 in its first game against a non conference opponent this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a start-and-stop pattern to the season that has made establishing a rhythm almost impossible.

Last week, Cedar Ridge defeated Orange to win the Big 8 Conference Championship. It was the Red Wolves first match in 25 days. Cedar Ridge was forced into quarantine after a player from Northwood tested positive for coronavirus shortly after the Red Wolves traveled to Pittsboro on December 10.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a start-and-stop pattern to the season that has made establishing a rhythm impossible for first-year coach Fiona Cunningham. While Cedar Ridge has nine wins, they’ve really played only eight because Southern Durham forfeited a match last month.

“We’re looking at ten weeks into a season and have only played nine games,” said first-year Cedar Ridge coach Fiona Cunningham. “Momentum isn’t really a factor this year because nobody really has it. We have natural forces limiting every team’s momentum. So we’ve talked to the girls about practices needing to be like games.”

Despite playing in front of empty bleachers, the Red Wolves were exuberant from the beginning as they bounced out to a 6-1 lead, including Lloyd laying down two aces and a kill. Union Pines narrowed the deficit to 7-6 before the Red Wolves went on a 8-3 run, featuring two more kills from Lloyd set up by Altieri and an ace from senior Grace Young. The Red Wolves closed the set with three straight points, two of which were kills by Lloyd from Altieri.

Union Pines opened the second set with a point from a Cedar Ridge error. It was the only Vikings lead in the entire match. The Red Wolves reeled off six consecutive points to push its advantage to 12-5, which included kills by sophomore Cameron Lanier and senior Layne Foster. Lanier ended the night with seven kills, while Foster had three kills and two blocks. The Red Wolves closed the frame with four straight points, ending with a Lanier block to send the Cedar Ridge bench into a frenzy.

The Red Wolves jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the third set and were never seriously challenged. At one point, Altieri set up Lloyd for kills on three consecutive points, leading to a Union Pines time out. Justice Wilbourne stuffed a Union Pines kill attempt on match point to end the match after barely an hour.

The last time Cedar Ridge hosted a playoff game, it was the 2015 3A Eastern Regional Final when Asheboro ended the Red Wolves dream of a state championship. As young as the core of Cedar Ridge is, they have lofty plans going into Thursday’s trip to Greenville.

“There was a different kind of pressure tonight, which was a good thing,” Cunningham said. “It was kind of similar to the pressure I remember as a player that no matter who is on the other side of the net, no matter what round it is, you know it’s important. The playoffs this year are particularly competitive since its only 16 teams in the east. We’ll be ready on Thursday.”

For the first time since 2015, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team has won a state playoff game. The Red Wolves defeated Union Pines 25-13, 25-17 and 25-13 to advance to the round of 16 in the 3A State Playoffs on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Sophomore Cameron Lloyd led Cedar Ridge with 16 kills. She also compiled four aces and eleven digs. Through nine games, Lloyd leads the team with 88 kills. She is second on the squad with 76 digs. Over the past four years, Lloyd has built a bond with her classmate Julie Altieri, which started on their summer travel team. Altieri had 29 assists against Union Pines. Cedar Ridge will face D.H. Conley in Greenville on Thursday night with a trip to the state quarterfinals on the line.

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team easily defeated Union Pines in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs at Red Wolves Gymnasium on Tuesday night. Sophomore Cameron Lanier finished with seven kills, two aces, five blocks and two digs. Cedar Ridge improved to 9-0 after winning its first nonconference game of the season. In an abbreviated season, Lanier has compiled an impressive stat line of 60 kills, a team-high 19 blocks and ten aces. Lanier is one of three sophomore starters, along with Cameron Lloyd and Julie Altieri, who have helped Cedar Ridge win the Big 8 Championship for the first time since 2015. On Thursday night, Cedar Ridge will travel to Greenville to face D.H. Conley in the round of 16 in the 3A State Playoffs.