Cedar Ridge High School

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior wrestler Kady Watkins. Last week, Watkins became the first female wrestler in Hillsborough history to reach the semifinals of a state championship. Watkins defeated Swansboro’s Madeline Copley 9-6 in the 120B-pound division. Watkins earned ten victories this season for Cedar Ridge. She got involved in wrestling when she realized that cheerleading wasn’t her taste. Even though she’s competed in track & field, wrestling is her top sport. In fact, her younger sister Emma is also a wrestler at Cedar Ridge and the Red Wolves wrestling team had four female grapplers on the squad this year. Now that Kady’s wrestling season has ended, she will focus on track & field this spring. Then it will be back to training for the start of wrestling season next fall, where Watkins aims to place in next February’s women’s state championships.

Cory Lea built a reputation by turning around football programs in Vance and Durham Counties.

Now, he’ll try to do it in Hillsborough.

Lea was formally named the new head coach of the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves on Thursday afternoon in a tweet from Athletic Director Andy Simmons. He was formally approved by the Orange County School Board, as first reported by Hillsboroughsports.com, on Monday night.

Lea replaces Torrian Hinton, who served as interim coach last season. Antonio King resigned as Cedar Ridge’s head coach after the first practice of summer training camp last July to become the running backs coach at North Carolina Central, his alma mater.

In 2019, Hinton coached Cedar Ridge to a 1-10 season in its first varsity campaign after the school didn’t field a team the year before. King coached a junior varsity squad in 2018 and continued spring workouts last May to help secure enough players to have a varsity team again.

Cedar Ridge’s victory over Chapel Hill on October 11 was its first varsity win on the gridiron in 465 days.

Lea departs Riverside after three seasons. He led the Pirates to a share of the 2018 Triangle 6 Championship, when they finished 4-1 and tied Jordan atop the league. It was only the second conference championship in school history and its first since 2002, when they won the PAC-6 Conference under former coach Linny Wrenn.

In 2006, Riverside reached the 4-AA State Championship game under Tommy Blalock. In the subsequent eleven years, the Pirates only had one winning season (in 2013).

Lea arrived from Northern Vance in 2017 and briefly took the Pirates to the top of Durham football. The Pirates defeated Hillside, Jordan, and Northern Durham during Lea’s stint.

After going 4-7 in 2017, they had consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 2001-02. Last fall, Riverside defeated crosstown rival Northern Durham for the first time since 2013 and only the second time in the 2010s.

When Lea took over at Northern Vance in 2015, the Vikings had gone a combined 9-57 from 2009-14. In Lea’s first year, they went 5-6, ending the year with a 26-17 upset win at Cedar Ridge. It was Northern Vance’s winningest season in seven years.

In 2016, Lea led the Vikings to another 5-6 campaign. They likely would have made the state playoffs, but were ineligible after three players were ejected from an August game against Warren County for fighting.

Lea was the next-to-last coach in Northern Vance history. Antwain Cook replaced Lea and Northern Vance consolidated with neighboring Southern Vance to form Vance County High in 2018.

Since the Red Wolves went 12-3 in 2010 and reached 2-AA Eastern Regional Championship game, they’ve had six head coaches in eight years (seven if you count Melvin Griffin, who served as interim coach for about three weeks after Scott Loosemore resigned in August 2018).

Last season was actually the second time in recent years that an assistant had to fill in as interim head coach for an entire season because of an August emergency. In 2015, former Cummings head coach Steve Johnson was hired as head coach, but suffered a thoracic aortic aneurysm just before practice was supposed to start. Loosemore served as interim coach in 2015, then became permanent coach the following year.

Lea also served as Riverside’s offensive coordinator in 2014. He previously was an assistant at Granville Central. His first job as a head coach was at Bartlett Yancey in 2011, where he remained for three seasons.

Cedar Ridge will open 2020 at Carrboro on August 21.

When Landon Dalehite, Nathan Sorrells, D.J. Norman, Sincere Hanner, Crawford Farmer and Hayden Kirk started playing together as sixth graders at Gravelly Hill Middle School boys basketball team in 2018, they aimed to eventually do something that no other Grizzlies team had done before.

Win the Orange Person Athletic Conference Championship.

It wasn’t just something that no boys basketball team had ever done at Gravelly. With several different sports had won Northern Division championships, no team in any sport at Gravelly had captured an OPAC Championship since 2010.

Together, the boys basketball team won two Northern Division titles at the junior varsity level. This season, they were finally together on the varsity, but their season started with a loss to Culbreth on December 3.

From that point forward, Coach Eric Jeffries created a team motto.

Be homeless and be like homeless people.

“In other words, play like its our last game,” Jeffries said. “Play like we gotta eat that night. If we don’t eat that night, we might freeze. I was trying to get these guys to understand that when you get an opportunity, take advantage of it because they might not be a tomorrow.”

Gravelly didn’t lose again in 2019-2020, winning 12 in a row.

The Grizzlies won the first OPAC boys basketball championship in school history on Tuesday night when they defeated Phillips 45-37 at Grizzlies Gymnasium in Efland. While the eighth graders were the emotional leaders in Gravelly’s suffocating full-court press, it was seventh grader Kai Wade who stole the show.

Wade scored 13 points in a span of ten minutes bridging the second and third quarters to shake the Grizzlies out of an early offensive funk. Wade finished with 20 points to lead all scorers. Dalehite had nine.

Part of the sluggish start from both teams was because of a 75-minute delay when none of the referees showed up at the scheduled game time of 5:15. Gravelly Athletic Director David Hall had to scramble at the 11th hour and 59th minute to talk an official from Roxboro and another from Chapel Hill to work the game on the fly.

Phillips, whose only losses this season came against Gravelly, were led by Janiyus Sharpe with 17 points. Travion Cobb added 14. Trailing 17-12 at the half, Sharpe personally erased the deficit with five unanswered points within 47 seconds of the second half.

Minutes later, Sharpe picked up his fourth foul dueling Dalehite for a loose ball, and the Falcons offense couldn’t get out of second gear without him.

Gravelly built a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter behind field goals by Kirk and Sorrells. When Dalehite hit Kirk with a no-look pass for a lay-in with 2:49 remaining, the celebration started in the bleachers for many Efland and Cedar Grove residents who had looked afar in recent years at high school state championships teams from Hillsborough and Mebane, but didn’t have a champion to call its own.

Until now.

Before the trophies were handed out and Jeffries cut down the net to hang around Hall’s neck, the eighth graders gathered at the midcourt logo for their last moment together on this floor. When they started playing organized basketball together three years ago, an OPAC Championship at Gravelly Hill was a distant goal.

Now, it was reality and they would savor it.

“Those eighth graders have done something that have never been done here before,” said Jeffries.

GRAVELLY HILL 45, PHILLIPS 37

GRAVELLY HILL: Kai Wade 20, Nathan Sorrells 5, Landon Dalehite 9, Crawford Farmer 3, Hayden Kirk 8.

PHILLIPS: Janiyus Sharpe 17, Travion Cobb 14, Sebastian Borsuk 4, Gavin Southwell 2.

Last year, Kady Watkins made history. This year, she wanted something more.

In 2019, Watkins became the first woman from Hillsborough to compete for a high school wrestling state championship in the 1st annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association Women’s Wrestling Invitational in Winston-Salem. Competing at 126 pounds, Watkins lost her first round match, but rebounded to pin Haley Shipes of West Mecklenburg in the consolation round. Sarah McLaurin of the N.C. School of Science and Math eliminated Watkins in the next round via a 9-2 decision.

On Saturday in the 2nd annual women’s invitational in Concord, Watkins wanted to place in the 120 pound championships–if not win it.

 “She is an absolutely wonderful kid, she is not only a role model for the other girls on the team but the guys as well,” said Cedar Ridge wrestling coach Scott Metcalf of Watkins, who frequently leads the team in stretching exercises to conclude daily workouts. “She has the respect of her teammates, she works hard, has a great attitude and most importantly is extremely coachable, which not all kids our nowadays.”

In the end, Watkins fell short of her goal, but she did make some history along the way.

She became the first female wrestler from Hillsborough to reach the semifinals of a state championship when she defeated Swansboro’s Madeline Coplen via a 9-6 decision in the quarterfinals.

On top of that, Watkins lost to the eventual state champion. Abby Phillips of South Caldwell defeated Watkins by technical fall. Phillips, who ended the year 25-16, pinned Makalya Wright in 2:29 to win the championship.

“She was really hoping to place this year. But I know she’ll use it as motivation for next year,” said Metcalf. ” Sometimes matchups play a role in some of these tournaments on whether a wrestler will place or not. I think that may have been the case here. She has been an absolute joy to coach and I was really heartbroken today when she came up a little short because she deserved it.”

Watkins, a junior, finished 10-19 this year. She still has her senior season to meet her goals. But if the middle school scene in Hillsborough is any indication, she can take solace in knowing she is very much a trendsetter.

This year, there were four female wrestlers at Cedar Ridge. Freshmen Sun Tha (106 pounds), Raelyn Broucksou (113), and Emma Watkins (Kady’s sister at 126 pounds) all joined Watkins in the state women’s championships.

Plus, the middle school scene at Stanback Middle School has active female wrestlers who helped the Bulldogs to a 2nd place finish in the Orange Person Athletic Conference this year.

Tha pinned Desta Daniels of Jacksonville in the opening round of the 106B pound division. Laila Sa of Hoke County pinned Tha in 41 seconds. Sophia Forquer of Corinth Holders eliminated Tha in the consolation round.

Broucksou lost her opening match, but rebounded to pin Eastern Alamance’s Alaina Kunder in 4:20 of the 113B pound division. Broucksou defeated Hertiage’s Bryanna Luihn 4-0 to reach the consolation semis, but was pinned by Jacksonville’s Teah Chunn, who wound up finishing third.

Emma Watkins, a freshman, won three matches in the consolation round. After dropping her opening bout to Marissa Connelly of West Henderson, Watkins pinned Northern Nash’s Elizabeth Daniels in 1:52. She pinned Alliana Garcia of Albermarle in 2:54. Watkins pinned Dekira Baker of Fairmont in just 14 seconds. Lillian Sealey of High Point Central pinned Watkins in the consolation semifinals.

Two Orange High swimmers competed in their respective individual championship meets during the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 3A State Swimming Championships.

In addition, Cedar Ridge’s Devin Bunner, who was named the Big 8 Male Swimmer of the Year last month at the Big 8 Conference Championships, finished eighth in the 100 yard breaststroke on Saturday afternoon at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary.

Orange junior Matthew Geib competed in the championship final individually and in a relay race. Geib finished 7th in the 100 yard butterfly at 53.11 seconds. Boyd Poelke of Marvin Ridge captured the championship at 49.26 seconds.

Geib joined senior Noah Jimison, Cross Roman and Owen Rasinske to come in 8th in the state in the 200 yard medley relay at 1:41.55. Earlier in the day, Geib, Jimison, Roman, and Rasinske qualified for the championship race with an eighth place finish in the preliminaries.

It was the last time that Jimison and Roman, both seniors, would race alongside junior teammates Geib and Rasinske.

“In my mind, I was just trying to do my best today,” Jimison said. “We were looking forward to the relays. My goal is this meet was to make the (championship) finals. So I just wanted to make everyone proud.”

In addition, Jimison qualified for the state championships in two individual events. He finished 12th in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:01.21. In the 100 yard backstroke, Jimison came in 14th at 55.65 seconds.

The previous week in the 3A Central Regionals in Greensboro , Jimison, Geib, Roman and Rasinske won the regional championship and broke the school record in the 200 medley with a time of 1:40.44.

“I just wanted to leave it all in the water,” Roman said. “I wanted to give it everything I had and make it the best meet I’ve ever had in my four years at Orange. That’s what I’ll remember about my time at Orange. Breaking the records with my boys right here and just really enjoying the entire four years.”

Bunner ended his Cedar Ridge career with a 10th place finish in the 200 yard individual medley. He touched the wall at 2:00.46.

Cedar Ridge’s 400 yard freestyle relay team of Bunner, Gabriel Castaneda, John Garcia and Grant Fox finished 17th in the preliminaries, ending up with a time of 3:35.39.

In the women’s ranks, Orange’s 200 yard medley team of Abby Dease, Ashley Behringer, Brooke Walker and Calla Walker finished 16th in the 200 yard relay at 1:59.14.

Dease, Calla Walker, Behringer and Melissa Campbell finished 16th in the 400 yard freestyle relay. They ended up with a time of 3:54.62. Campbell is a sophomore, while Walker, Dease and Behringer are all juniors.

Behringer also qualified for the state championships in two individual events. She finished 18th in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:21.45. In the 100 yard butterfly, Behringer came in 17th at 1:01.74.

Calla Walker, a junior, came in 18th in the 50 yard freestyle at 25.83 seconds.

Orange’s Brooke Walker came in 16th in the 100 yard backstroke at 1:13.28.

Chapel Hill won the men’s team state championship at 266 points. Marvin Ridge had 254. Orange finished 13th in the men’s standings with 75 points.

Charlotte Catholic won the women’s state championship.

By Jon Franklin

Two Cents from The Franklin Mint

Following the distribution of ballots to each member school, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced last week that the proposed amendments to the Association’s by-laws were defeated.

To recap, Proposal #1 would have allowed the NCHSAA Board of Directors to change the number of classifications from four to any number of classifications. The ballot mentioned five or six classifications, with the possibility of dropping back to three or four classifications in subsequent years if the board felt it was necessary.

Proposal #2 would have required the NCHSAA to realign schools and conferences on an annual basis for the state playoffs. This could have resulted in schools having teams in different classifications in each sport, each year. It also meant that conferences and the regular season could be less dependent on school classification.

Principals were designated voters on behalf of each member school and each school received a singular vote. Any school who failed to submit a ballot was be counted as a “no” vote. In order to pass these amendments, each issue required a three-fourths vote in the affirmative of the full membership to pass, or 314 of the 418 member schools. 

The exact figures of the votes were not released, but would be discussed at the NCHSAA Annual Meeting at the Dean E. Smith Center on April 30. The new realignment cycle is still slated to begin at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, realignment is back at square one.

I’m not surprised to see these amendments fail. I personally believe that they were written TO fail. Whether this is true or not, remains to be seen. 

Think about it. With the mass expansion that the NCHSAA has experienced since the year 2000 has allowed football playoffs to grow from four state champions to eight state champions. Sports such as baseball, basketball, softball, and volleyball have expanded their playoffs from 48 teams to 64 teams. Despite being a non-profit organization, they seem to have “profited” from this expansion. Yet again, more teams produces more games, and more games equals more money. If all of this is true, why would you change something that brings in much needed revenue, and why would you take away these games that adds to the revenue?

The truth remains in that the Association is bloated beyond belief, and its playoff selection and qualification criteria is more likened to parks and recreation leagues handing out participation awards. The more this organization continues to swell and the playoffs continue to become diluted with inferior teams, the more irrelevant the championships will become.

And yes, until change comes with the expansion to 5A, and more sensible playoff qualification and selection rules are adopted – I’ll keep repeating all of this. 

So with the failure of this vote, what becomes next of realignment?

The truth is, realignment is still slated to begin at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year. While mandated by the Association’s by-laws to realign every four years, the extra year in this current cycle is designed to give the NCHSAA extra time to figure how they will expand. But if the expansion proposal was defeated how will the Association expand?

The simple answer might be to create a “Class 4AA”. This would allow the NCHSAA to expand without amending its by-laws as the by-laws only permits classifications of 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A. This is reminiscent of the “Big 16” division in South Carolina, which is a super-conference of the 16 largest high schools in the Palmetto State. 

Conventional wisdom would also suggest that each of the classes would be aligned by an across-the-board, twenty percent split. Currently, schools are aligned by a 20-30-30-20 format as the highest and lowest twenty percentiles are the 4A and 1A classes, respectively, while the middle thirty percentiles are 2A and 3A. 

With 418 schools in the NCHSAA membership, an even twenty percent split would give each classification approximately 84 teams. At this rate, the idea of subdividing the football playoffs and 64-team state playoffs in other sports could finally be buried. In addition, there are dozens of schools caught in gray areas. This means is that currently, there are a number of schools that could be one classification or another. An even split would place each team in its’ rightful classification.

While the measure of yearly realignment was defeated, it could be brought up in the future that realignment could be suggested to take place every two years. The data utilizing Average Daily Membership (or ADM) becomes very ancient as the Association begins to compile the data two years prior to implementing the realignment. By the time the data reaches the end of the realignment cycle, the data is six years old. 

A city, town, county, or school district can drastically change in that period of time. With the rapid pace of school construction, a four-year realignment cycle could be inaccurate. An every two-year approach could be more accurate and sensible.

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If you didn’t come out to last Friday’s rivalry showdown between Orange and Cedar Ridge, you certainly missed out on some excellent games. All three games were tightly contested and all three games were tied going into the fourth quarter.

The highlight came in the Varsity Boys game as Cedar Ridge Arena was filled to capacity. The game was very much in favor of the Red Wolves as they were firing on all cylinders as senior captain Chris Tinnen (21 pts) and senior reserve Jai’kel Gibbs were laser-focused. Gibbs sent the Red Wolf faithful to a frenzy in the first quarter as he came off the bench to hit a trio of three-pointers in the last ninety seconds of the period. Tinnen was on point all game long with accurate mid-range shooting, and was all over the place defensively. Gibbs would also wind up hitting two more trifectas in the game, tallying 15 pts. Senior Mekai Collins (16 pts) also contributed with another solid performance. 

Let’s not take anything away from the Panthers’ double-double duo of Jason Franklin (no relation; 26 pts, 11 rebs) and Joey McMullin (18 pts, 12 rebs), who were instrumental in keeping Orange within striking distance. But with leads of up to 18 points in the game, the Red Wolves were not going to be denied of their first sweep of their crosstown rivals since 2015. 

And finally, last Friday’s games were the first Hillsborough Heat games for new Cedar Ridge principal, Dr. Carlos Ramirez and new Orange principal, Mr. Matthew J. Hunt. I was fortunate to meet Dr. Ramirez, who was immensely encouraged on what he witnessed inside Cedar Ridge Arena. Both principals (and fans) are in for a treat with this hotly contested rivalry.

While it wasn’t as dramatic as the UNC-Duke finish on Saturday night, the Stanford and Stanback Middle School wrestling teams had one more tight competition before wrestling season ended.

This time it was at the OPAC Tournament in Roxboro.

At Southern Middle School on Saturday, the Chargers finished first in the OPAC Tournament team standings with 155 points. The Bulldogs had 145 points.

Stanford won its 20th consecutive regular season championship last week after they defeated the Bulldogs 51-45 in Hillsborough. Last month, the Chargers edged the Bulldogs 47-46 at Bulldog Gymnasium.

Both the Chargers and the Bulldogs crowned four individual champions.

Gravelly Hill, who finished with 42 points, had Lucas Calvin win the 198 pound championship. Calvin defeated Stanback’s Carlos Vera De Lara in the championship match. He was one of two Grizzles to win individual championships.

Stanford’s Mateo Albright came in 3rd at 198.

After finishing 2nd last season at 76 pounds, Stanford’s Wyatt Hedrick won the 86 pound championship to complete a perfect season. Hedrick defeated Culbreth’s Jake Kent in the semifinals.

Stanback’s Pierce Prescod won the 101 pound championship, defeating Southern Roxboro’s Christian Lemaire in the final. Prescod had two individual wins over Stanford during the regular season. Stanford’s Aidan Cain finished 4th.

At 109 pounds, Stanford’s Jared Hutchins defeated Smith’s Siena Palmisiano in the final. Hutchins also finished the season undefeated and claimed his 2nd OPEC championship. Last year, he won the 86 pound title. Gavin Stone of Stanback finished 4th.

Josh Cowan won the 116 pound title for Stanford. Cowan defeated Stanback’s Leo Oguntiyinbo in an All-Hillsborough final to end the season undefeated. Cowan finished 2nd last year at 106 pounds.

Stanford’s Jace Womble also completed a perfect season by winning the 135-pound championship. Womble, who was the runner-up at 120 pounds in 2019, defeated Stanback’s Edwin Hernandez Huerta in the championship.

Stanback’s Kaden Tatro was the Bulldogs’ second individual champion. Tatro defeated Stanford’s Andre Hill to win the 141 pound title and ended the year with an unblemished record.

At 163 pounds, Stanback’s Marcos Esparza defeated Stanford’s Joshua Merrill in the title match. Esparza finished the year 11-0.

Stanback’s Joe O’Meila won the 173 pound championship over Northern Roxboro’s Daniel Moreno. O’Meila finished the year 11-1 for the Bulldogs. Stanford’s Vincent Jobert-Stenzel came in third.

Gravelly Hill’s other champion came at 155 pounds, where Mason Cates captured the crown. Cates defeated Stanford’s Sascha Van Praag in the final.

At 185 pounds, Stanback’s Marcos MacNeil came in 2nd. Gravelly Hill’s Victor Mendoza came in third.

Stanford’s Laurencio Grimaldo, competing at 148 pounds, finished 2nd. Angus Pritchard of Gravelly Hill came in 3rd in that weight class.

Stanford’s Kale Womble finished 2nd at 93 pounds after going undefeated in the regular season. Stanback’s Tommy Heckler came in 3rd.

Stanford’s Luke Stitz finished second at 76 pounds, falling in the championship match to Northern Roxboro’s Taveon Moss. Mason Pierce of Stanback finished 3rd.

At 123 pounds, Stanford’s Luke Nevius finished 2nd, falling to Culbreth’s Cameron Perry in the final. Nevius lost only two matches this season. Stanback’s Ryan Rakouskas came in fourth.

At heavyweight, Stanback’s Aaron Olivares Mojica came in second, falling in the final to McDougle’s John Reyez Cruz.

Stanback’s Kellen McMullen finished 2nd at 223 pounds.

Girl’s Basketball:

Last week, Stanford defeated Southern Roxboro 32-17. The Chargers were led by Shannon Murphy with eleven points. Katie Wolter added six. Evelyn George had five. Olivia Jones scored four, as did Dyreshia Farrish. Caden Robinson scored two for the Lady Chargers.

(Editor’s note: this award is retroactive December 7).

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore pole vaulter Caroline Fowlkes. On Saturday, Fowlkes won her fourth indoor track & field meet of the year at the Apex Last Chance meet at Apex High School. Fowlkes cleared nine feet for the victory. Earlier this year, Fowlkes set her new personal best at the Eastern Alamance Polar Bear #2 in Mebane, when she vaulted nine feet, six inches. With that, Fowlkes qualified for the 3A State Indoor Track & Field Championships, which takes place next Saturday at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. This is the second year in a row that Fowlkes has qualified for the state indoor championships. Last year as a freshman, she finished 14th in the state when she finished at 8 feet, six inches. Last May, Fowlkes also qualified for the outdoor state championships in the pole vault at North Carolina A&T. She finished 9th in the state championships with a vault of ten feet. Fowlkes comes from a family of pole vaulters. Her father, who competed at the University of South Alabama, is her coach. Her mother competed at the University of Florida.