As with any special season, it’s easy for a coach to reflect.

Hope Heverly’s first season as Orange volleyball coach resulted in the second regional championship in team history. They faced Kings Mountain for the 3A State Championship inside Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh and were three points away from taking it all, dropping the fifth set 15-12.

It was a season beyond anyone’s expectations. Before last year, Orange hadn’t won a conference title since 2005. Along the way, the Lady Panthers defeated defending Eastern Regional champion J.H. Rose, then triumphed over Carrboro for the regional championship in a classic match on Halloween night in front of a raucous crowd at Orange Gymnasium that ended with the students rushing the floor after match point.

But Heverly wouldn’t be a competitor if she didn’t look back at Orange’s state title match with curiosity.

“I’ve thought about what if we changed this or that,” Heverly said with a chuckle. “But I’ve been really excited about this year.

Orange’s run to the state championship match brought the community together. Heverly wondered if that would be reflected with increased interest when tryouts started last week.

She got her answer when nearly 40 players showed up, including a large freshman class.

As Orange’s players ventured to their travel teams last winter, Heverly kept track of them.

“I’m really excited about where this program is moving forward,” Heverly said. “To be at the level where we want this program to be, it takes more effort than what we show from August-to-October. It’s takes work in the offseason and they’ve put in that work.”

Heverly’s second Orange team will have a Big 12 recruit in its ranks. Junior middle blocker Ava Wilkerson committed to UCF last week. Wilkerson, a 6-foot-4 junior, led the team with 79 blocks for an Orange team that went undefeated to the Central Conference regular season championship in 2023. Wilkerson has played varsity each of her first two seasons and was third on the team with 293 kills last year.

“She’s really grown in many ways,” Heverly said. “Not only has she grown in terms of skill level, but also her maturity level. Her leadership abilities have really sprouted. I’m excited to see how she will lead this team.”

Orange lost outside hitter Ella Wimsatt and libero Sadye Porter to graduation. Wimsatt led the team with 456 kills in 2023 and was the Central Conference Player of the Year. Porter was a defensive wonder, pacing the squad with 521 digs after missing her junior season.

“Ella was a one of a kind athlete,” Heverly said. “She brought an attitude where she would go all out. She didn’t have to tell the team that. She would show that on the court and the team would follow.”

However, Orange brings back most of its firepower. 6-foot-1 outside hitter Aubrey Jordan is back for her junior season after racking up 385 kills in 2023. Setter Katie Silcott, another rising junior, returns after setting the single-season school record with 1,037 assists. Sophomore Sawyer White, who was inserted into the starting lineup late last season, alternated with Silcott as setter for much of the postseason. White finished with 236 assists and 22 kills.

Regular rotation players Mariah Poole (middle blocker), Karleigh Johnson and Abby Silinski (who finished with 62 aces) also return from a squad that finished 27-5 overall. Junior Addison Guentensberger is expected to get time as libero to replace Porter.

It’s a team that has high expectations and Heverly has put together a schedule that reflects that. Following the season-opener against Roxboro Community School next Tuesday in Hillsborough, Orange will host perennial power D.H. Conley from Greenville on Wednesday.

“Last year, the team worked hard and earned a lot of things,” Heverly said. “They caught a lot of schools’ attention. We will come and we will be prepared as much as we can after a week-and-a-half of practice. I’m not shying from any tough competition. You only get better by playing the best.”

Heverly will schedule tough opponents and will gladly tell you how optimistic she is about her second Orange team. Just don’t expect her to make any predictions about a potential return to Raleigh for another state championship appearance this fall.

“We’re not comparing anything to last year,” Heverly said. “We’ve got to make this team our own team for the 2024 season. We know we had a great year last year. Now we’re going forward.”

Photo by Braeden Wilbourn 

Technically, summer doesn’t end until September 22.

Yet around Orange and Cedar Ridge High Schools, the term “summer” is already being spoken in past tense.

Practice for fall sports got underway on Thursday and there was something in the air late on Friday night at Cedar Ridge’s football practice field that hasn’t been felt in years.

Stability.

Every year since 2018, Cedar Ridge has had to deal either with the loss of a head coach (on two separate occasions, the departures came during the first week of August practice) or word that there would be no varsity team due to a lack of players (which happened in 2018 and 2021).

Not only will the Friday Night Lights shine brightly at Red Wolves Stadium this fall, but the practice field lights were on for the first Friday in August.

Head coach Brent Bailey went back to his Clayton roots and held a practice with his newest team at 10PM on Friday night. The Midnight Madness event continued at 12:30, with humidity at 93%, though the temperature will still comfortable and players expressed interest in doing it again next year.

It was actually an offshoot of a concept that the original Cedar Ridge football coach, Lou Geary, did in the mid-2000s.

“It gets the kids excited and it allows the parents to come out and watch,” Bailey said. “It gets the community excited so that’s what I’m trying to build.”

The entire Cedar Ridge volleyball team, along with various fans,  carried along lawn chairs to watch the workouts and enjoyed pizza and other refreshments when it all ended. So did several former players, including former running back Tyler Fields, who graduated in June.

This could have been another summer of uncertainty for Cedar Ridge football. Bailey still lives in Clayton and endures a 75-90 daily drive to Hillsborough. The job at Corinth-Holders in Wendell opened last spring and he could have easily applied for it. To the surprise of many locally, Person head coach Carl Smith opted to depart Roxboro to become the next leader of the Pirates.

“That’s how much I love being here,” Bailey said. “I think we’re going to see a much improved season this year. We had a good year in the weight room. Before I got here, we weren’t in the weight room at all. That’s going to help us in our conditioning.”

Rather than leaving, Bailey bolstered his staff. He added Ryan Johnson, a former head coach at Jordan-Matthews High and defensive coordinator at East Chapel Hill and Burlington Cummings. He will be the new defensive coordinator. The new quarterbacks coach, Phil Credle, previously was an assistant at Cleveland High in Clayton.

There’s also Verdis Brown, a native of Chicago who was an interior lineman at the University of Illinois before transferring to Campbell University. He’s played for head coaches Lovie Smith, Bret Bielema and Mike Minter.

The new secondary coach, Rahim Mateen, played college football at Division III Averett University before he transferred to Tiffin University.

“Our coaching staff, I would put them against any staff in the state of North Carolina,” Bailey said. “I tell them all the time that I’m the placeholder. I tell them to just coach because they’re not going to get micromanaged by me. They’re all really good and I’m blessed to have those guys with us.”

The best news of all is that Bailey expects 44 players to be in uniform once everyone returns from various summer commitments. It’s the best turnout for Cedar Ridge since Scott Loosemoore was the head coach from 2016-2018.

“Last year, when we started in the summer, we were only at about 20,” Bailey said. “We’re nearly double that starting out this year. We have a lot of young talent. Our junior class is loaded right now. It makes up about 18 of us. We have some seniors coming back from last year that have some experience.”

Bailey understood the obstacles he was facing when he accepted the Cedar Ridge job in 2023. The Red Wolves went 0-10 last season with just 42 points scored against the Bermuda Triangle that is Alamance County football, which comprises two-thirds of the Central Conference. His top two quarterbacks from 2023, Mason Cates and Tom Crawford, both graduated. Junior Thomas McDermott, who also had playing time behind center last year, is penciled in as the starter for this year.

“He’s been looking really sharp in practice,” Bailey said. “He’s taking ownership of being the leader in the huddle. Right now, it’s his spot to lose.”

Center Aaron Oliveras will move to Averett University later this month.

“You can’t replace a Mason Cates,” Bailey said. “He give everything for Cedar Ridge football. So it’s hard to replace him. We’re asking multiple people to come out and give the type of effort he gave and provide the impact he had in the locker room. I think we have some seniors who have picked up that slack.”

Luis Donjuan is expected to be the new center.

As the midnight hour came and went early Saturday morning, Bailey and his players started to pick up the equipment. Players were excited, as they usually are at the start of practice. Whether that paves the way for wins remains to be seen, starting with the August 23 season opener against East Chapel Hill at Red Wolves Stadium.

Though it’s a young Cedar Ridge team in a tough league, there was an area of something that has been missing around Red Wolves football for a long time.

Optimism.

From the time she was born, Kimber Shambley has been raised to be an athlete.

And to play in the mountains.

Her father, Kevin, was the centerfielder for the Orange baseball team in 1992, which won Dean Dease’s first PAC-6 Conference championship. In the 2nd round of the 4A State Playoffs against Anson County, Kevin trotted down the 3rd base line with his right arm in the air as he scored the game-winning run off a walkoff single by Jonathan Hoffman in the eighth inning of a dramatic 8-7 win. Shambley led off the inning by reaching on a drag bunt.  It was the deepest playoff run (aside from another team in 1995) that Orange would ever make at the 4A level under Dease.

Absorbing the intense atmosphere in the stands that late May evening (the Panthers home dugout was on the third base line in those days) was Orange cheerleader Missy Osgood, Kevin’s girlfriend who logged plenty of innings in the bleachers in the early 1990s. In addition to Orange games, she was right there during his junior Babe Ruth games in the summer when the games would stretch on well into the night.

Years later, Kevin and Missy’s daughter has made a name for herself in a related sport on the western end of Hillsborough.

Kimber Shambley, the starting first baseman for the Cedar Ridge softball team, has committed to play at Western Carolina. She is the latest Division I recruit from a program that sent Takia Nichols to North Carolina Central, Tori Dalehite to UNC Greensboro and Rivers Andrews to UNC Wilmington.

“I’ve wanted to go there since I was in seventh grade,” Shambley said. “My first visit there was very nice. It was my number one choice. I love it in Cullowhee. I love the family aspect of this team. They’re very family oriented and very close together. Their players are very welcoming and so is their coaching staff.”

Shambley has gone to camps in Cullowhee since she was in eighth grade and makes Haywood’s Smokehouse restaurant in Dillsboro appointment dining on each visit.

In 2024, Shambley led Cedar Ridge in four offensive categories, including eight home runs and 34 RBIs. She delivered her biggest blast in the most dramatic moment of the season for the Red Wolves against defending 3A Eastern Regional champion Western Alamance in Hillsborough in April. After the Warriors erased a 6-0 deficit with six runs in the top of the seventh, Shambley hit the first walk-off home run of her career to deliver a victory on Senior night.

Against Orange on April 4, Shambley blasted a solo home run off Caden Robinson that sailed over the centerfield fence down to the Panthers’ football/lacrosse practice field.

Kimber started her career playing tee ball in the Hillsborough Youth Athletic Association, one of only two girls in the entire league playing against boys. A year later, she started travel baseball with the Hillsbrough Hawks, then switched to softball with the Royals out of Burlington.

Barry Lowry, a longtime Cedar Ridge assistant coach whose daughters Ava and Charlotte played with the Red Wolves and advanced to the college level, started a softball team in Burlington. Shambley joined the Carolina Extreme in its first year and remained with them under its rebranded moniker of Starz Gold. Her current team is the Nationals under head coach Greg Kennedy.

“He (Kennedy) has been a huge help in the recruiting process.” Shambley said.

Since she was 12, Shambley has taken hitting lessons at Southern Baseball Academy with Robert Hege, an assistant with the Cedar Ridge baseball team.

Her coach at Cedar Ridge, Allen Byrd, was front and center in helping Shambley develop, as well.

“He helped me get a lot of extra reps,” Shambley said. “He helped me become the player I am today.”

Last season, Shambley helped Cedar Ridge reach the state playoffs for the third straight year. In her sophomore season, she hit .346 with 16 RBIs.

“I try to keep myself humble,” Shambley said. “I try to work to get to a better position. I’ve always worked to be a better player but I never thought in my head that I was a college player. I worked to get to that level.”

Ivy Garner: The North Carolina Courage’s U-23 team won the USL W League championship at the WRAL Soccer Complex in Cary last month. Garner, who played soccer and tennis at Cedar Ridge her freshman year in 2018-2019 before she transferred to Eno River Academy, assisted on the game-winning goal in the championship game against the Colorado Storm on July 20. Garner sent a crossing pass to Macey Bader in the 66th minute. Garner, who is entering her junior year at Liberty University, scored seven goals in 15 games with the Courage this season. North Carolina went undefeated in 12 matches, finishing with an 11-0-1 record to win the Southeast Division championship The Courage U-23 squad reached the USL W League championship game in 2023, as well, falling to Indy XI in the final. Garner will return to action when Liberty travels to High Point on August 15.

Mia Davidson: A summer that started in Japan, continued to Italy will end in Rosemont, Illinois for Davidson. Davidson earned the silver medal for the United States softball team in the World Baseball Softball Coalition Women’s Softball World Cup in Castions di Strada Italy. The American romped through group play, winning its first six games by a combined margin of 32-4. In the Gold Medal game, Japan defeated the U.S. 6-1, scoring six unanswered runs. Earlier in the tournament, the Americans blanked Japan 2-0. Davidson played in two games during the World Cup. Last weekend, Davidson started her third season with Athletes Unlimited. She suited up for Team Alexander for three games at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, IL. For the week, Davidson finished with 28 points in Athletes Unlimited unique system where players earned individual points based on their performance. Team Alexander dropped all three of its games. Davidson went 2-for-8 and set a new league record for career hit by pitches. This weekend, Davidson will play for Team Skylar Wallace after being selected in the eighth round of this week’s draft.

Bryse Wilson: Going into Friday, the Milwaukee Brewers lead the St. Louis Cardinals by five-and-a-half games in the National League Central. Wilson continues to work middle relief. On Tuesday, Wilson threw two innings and allowed four hits with one walk and three strikeouts in a 5-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves at American Family Field. Wilson didn’t allow any runs. On Monday, Wilson threw the ninth inning in a 8-3 win over Atlanta. He allowed one solo home run from Sean Murphy.

Ryan Hench: The Burlington Sock Puppets of the Appalachian League ended its season in the Eastern Division Championship game on Thursday night. The Danville Otterbots defeated the Sock Puppets with a walkoff double to win 3-2 at American Legion Field. Hench, who redshirted for North Carolina as a freshman last spring, went 2-3 with a 5.71 ERA for Burlington this summer. In eight games, Hench struck out 41 and walked 21. In his final appearance of the regular season, Hench struck out eight over four innings in a start against the Johnson City Doughboys. He allowed four runs off seven hits in a no-decision. Burlington reached the Appalachian League playoffs for the second straight year after finishing 26-22, good enough for second place in the Eastern Division, five games behind Danville.

Payton Wilson: After being selected in the third round of April’s NFL Draft, Wilson will make his unofficial debut with the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Houston Texans next Friday at Acrisure Stadium. It will be Pittsburgh’s preseason opener.

Trenton Gill: After being released by the Chicago Bears last spring, Gill will make his debut for the Denver Broncos on August 11 against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Gill will try to win the starting job from veteran Riley Dixon, who was signed by the Broncos in 2023 after a season with the Los Angeles Rams. Gill is the first Cedar Ridge Red Wolf to play in the NFL.

After being a mainstay in the Orange baseball pitching rotation for three years, Cross Clayton earned an accolade attained only for the elite hurlers in school history.

A Conference Pitcher of the Year award.

Like Bryse Wilson and Ryan Hench before him, Clayton was named the Central Conference Pitcher of the Year following a vote of the league’s coaches. Clayton, who graduated last month, led the Panthers to its fourth consecutive conference title this season after Orange tied Southern Alamance with a 9-3 record. In the 3A State Playoffs, the Panthers would have the deepest run of any Central team, reaching the third round after an incredible comeback win over Cedar Ridge and a rout of Eastern Alamance.

Clayton became the first pitcher since Bryse Wilson to win 20 career games. He reached the milestone against Eastern Alamance on April 30 in Hillsborough. Clayton is only the third pitcher from Hillsborough in the past decade to reach 20 career wins. Cedar Ridge’s Phillip Berger, who graduated in 2019, holds the school record with 21 games. Berger went on to pitch four years at Division III William Peace University.

In his senior season, Clayton finished 6-2 with a 1.49 ERA. He led the team with 79 strikeouts with just nine walks. Through his career, getting ahead in the count became Clayton’s trademark. In a 4-1 win over Person on April 16, 80% of Clayton’s first pitches went for strikes. He finished with eleven strikeouts in a 4-1 win.

Clayton’s best performance of the year came against Walter Williams on April 9, when he threw a three-hit shoutout with seven strikeouts on just 78 pitches. In that game. his first pitch strike percentage was 69%.

For his career, Clayton had 173 strikeouts with 22 walks. He could have easily reached 20 wins earlier in his career, but he battled injuries throughout his junior season which became the theme for the entire Orange team for the 2023 season. He was limited to 29 innings but still had 43 strikeout in six pitching appearances. He finished with a 5-0 record and a 1.19 ERA. That included a compete game win over Lee County on April 12, 2023, where he struck out eight in a 4-1 win. Clayton needed only 88 pitches to earn the win. Clayton threw six shutout innings against Person on April 25, 2023, striking out a career-best 13 batters. He allowed just three hits in a 3-0 Orange win.

After spending his freshman year on the junior varsity team, Clayton earned a spot in the rotation on the varsity squad his sophomore year in Wilson during a 13-0 loss to Perquimans, a game that Orange coaches now look back on and laugh because it represented a turning point for the 2022 squad. Perquimans went on to win the 1A State Championship. A month after that loss, Clayton threw a five-inning perfect game against Cedar Ridge, a 16-0 Orange win that ensured the Central Conference championship. Clayton struck out four Red Wolves and got a Gatorade bath afterwards.

Clayton was also a reliable bat when he wasn’t pitching. In his final at-bat at Orange High Field, Clayton hit a three-run homer in a 19-1 win over Eastern Alamance in the second round of the state playoffs. In his last game in Hillsborough, Clayton went 3-for-3 with four RBIs with a double.

In his final game against Cedar Ridge, Clayton came to back with Orange down 4-0 in the seventh inning with two out. He lined an RBI double to the left field gap to score Wyatt Hedrick to score the first of seven runs in a 7-4 win.

Clayton hit .267 with six doubles and eleven runs scored. When he wasn’t on the mound, Clayton played second base with a few starts at shortstop.

Clayton will attend Gaston Community College to play baseball this fall. He will join his former teammate Jackson Berini, who just finished his freshman year.

The long nights where Connor Kruse fired shots into an empty net long after practice ended have long since paid off for him.

Now, in the dearth of summer, comes the gravy.

Kruse, the all-time leading scorer in Orange lacrosse history, was named  an All-American by USA Lacrosse for the third time in his career. Last week, Kruse also was named the HighSchoolOT.com winner for Best Offensive Lacrosse Player. Kruse became the first Orange lacrosse player to win a HighSchoolOT.com award, which is determined by online voting.

Kruse’s extraordinary final chapter at Orange, the greatest individual season in school lacrosse history, predictably led to a slew of postseason honors from coaches in the Mid-Carolina Conference. Kruse was named to the All-Conference team, one of seven players who earned a spot on the squad. He was also named to the All-State team for the third time by the North Carolina Coaches Lacrosse Association. He is the first player in the history of Hillsborough to make the All-State team three times. He also made the All-Region team for the third time. He was second-team All-Region as a freshman.

Kruse became the first Orange player to score over 200 points in a season. He registered 72 goals, which is five short of his own single-season record of 77, set in 2022.

On March 25, Kruse tied the national record for most assists in a game when he racked up 16 in a 18-5 win over Southern Alamance in Graham. He set the school record for most assists in a season with 130.

Kruse was the spark plug behind an Orange team that had the greatest season in school history. The Panthers won the 3A/2A/1A Eastern Regional championship for the first time ever, beating Croatan 14-9 at Auman Stadium on May 13. They advanced to the State Championship match, where Lake Norman Charter claimed its third consecutive crown at Durham County Memorial Stadium.

Kruse paced Orange to its fourth consecutive league championship, outscoring opposition 298-54 in the Mid-Carolina Conference. Orange had a school-record 24 wins with its only regular season loss coming against Holly Springs, a 4A team.

A starter since his freshman year, Kruse actually made history before he even put on an Orange uniform. He started for Stanford Middle School in a game against Roxboro Community School in Person County in March 2000, scoring the opening goal seconds after winning the face-off in an easy Charger victory. It was the final game before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which shut down middle school athletics across Orange County for 18 months. It was also the final game in the storied history of Stanford athletics before the Orange County School Board mandated the school be rebranded to Orange Middle.

Once high school sports emerged from the slog of the pandemic, Orange coach Chandler Zirkle immediately stuck Kruse, as a freshman, on the front unit with veterans Ryan Merrill, Caleb Davis and Cy Horner. The Panthers won its first-ever conference title and reached the state quarterfinals, upsetting Northwood along the way. From that point forward, the balance of power in local lacrosse shifted away from the Chapel Hill-based schools and directly to Hillsborough.

After Merrill, Horner and Davis graduated, Kruse took control of the offense his sophomore season. He set a school-record of 77 goals and 139 points as the Panthers finished 11-0 in league play.

In 2022 and 2023, Orange hosted the Eastern Regional Championship games. In his junior year, Kruse scored 69 goals and 150 points, leading Orange to an undefeated conference regular season.

Last December, Kruse signed with Lenoir-Rhyne University, which reached the Division II National Championship game in May. In 2023, Lenoir-Rhyne won its first national championship game.

Kruse and his cousin, swimmer Katie Belle Sikes, formed a tandem that led to unprecedented success in their respective sports at Orange. In February, Sikes was named the Most Outstanding Swimmer of the 3A State Championships for the second time in her career. Sikes, who will swim at the University of Georgia, claimed five individual state championships and three relay state titles, the first Orange female swimmer to win a state championship.

Mia Davidson: This week, Davidson will suit up for Team USA in the World Baseball Softball Confederation Softball World Cup Finals in Castions di Strada, Italy. The Americans will open against Canada on Monday at noon. Davidson continues to play for Denso Bright Pegasus in Japan’s Diamond League, where she starts regularly as catcher. She is hitting .189 with four home runs and 12 RBIs. The second half of the Japanese season starts September 7. The Bright Pegasus went 8-10 in the opening half of its season. After Davidson returns from Italy, she will resume play in Athletes Unlimited to round out the summer. It will be Davidson’s third season with Athletes Unlimited.

Ivy Garner: The North Carolina Courage U-23 women’s soccer team will host the championship game of the United Soccer W League next week at the WRAL Soccer Complex in Cary. On Saturday, the Courage defeated the Tennessee United Soccer Club 2-1 in added extra time during the W League’s semifinals. Garner, who spent her freshman season at Cedar Ridge High School before she transferred to Eno River Academy for her final three years, scored a goal in the quarterfinals against the Long Island Roughridgers, which the Courage won 3-0 on July 7. In the opening game of the W League Playoffs, Garner added another goal as the Courage whitewashed the North Carolina Fusion 7-nil. Garner helped Liberty University win the Conference USA Tournament championship last season, finishing with six goals and four assists in 20 games.

Bryse Wilson: The Milwaukee Brewers continue to lead the National League Central Division with a 54-42 record going into Saturday. They’re four games ahead of St. Louis. After starting games in May and June, Wilson has returned to the bullpen thus far in July. This season, he has a 5-3 record with a 4.12 ERA and 66 strikeouts. On Friday, Wilson threw one shutout inning with one strikeouts in a 5-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. Wilson had a no-decision. On June 25, Wilson earned the win in a game against the defending World Champion Texas Rangers 3-1 at American Family Ballpark. Wilson threw six shutout innings, allowing only three hits and striking out seven. On June 15, Wilson earned a 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. In five-plus innings, Wilson allowed three hits with zero runs, six strikeouts and two walks.

Ryan Hench: After redshirting this spring for the University of North Carolina baseball team, Hench is spending this summer playing for the Burlington Sock Puppets of the Appalachian League. Over six games, Hench is 1-3 with a 5.47 ERA with 27 strikeouts and 20 walks. Through July 13, Hench has thrown a team-high 24.2 innings. Hench earned his first win against the Sri-City Coal Cats 2-1 on June 22. He there five innings, striking out eight. He allowed four hits and just one run.

Joey Berini: Last month, Berin’s career with East Carolina came to a heartbreaking end when Evansville defeated the Pirates 6-5 at Clarke-LeClair Stadium in game seven of the Greenville Regional. In his final game with the Pirates, Berini started at shortstop. East Carolina, the #16 national seed, finished the year as the American Athletic Conference regular season champions with a 46-17 record. Berini, whose senior year at Orange was abbreviated to four games because of the COVID-19 pandemic, finished his final season starting all 63 games, one of only five Pirates to play in every game. He hit .225 with four home runs and 36 RBIs. In his ECU career, Berini won four AAC regular season titles.

Dante DeFranco: In its first season in the AAC, the Charlotte 49ers baseball team finished 27-37. They were eliminated by Florida Atlantic in the AAC Tournament in Clearwater Florida in May. DeFranco, who played there years at Cedar Ridge before transferring to Orange for his senior year, hit .259 in 55 games this season. He had one home run and 18 RBIs.

Following a season where the Cedar Ridge baseball team made the state playoffs for the third straight year, four Red Wolves were named to the All-Central Conference team.

Senior pitcher/utility man Mason Cates, junior Quinn Finnegan, sophomores Nick Aitkin and Ian McGuffey were honored after a vote of Central Conference coaches.

Cates, who committed to Catawba Valley Community College last winter, opened the Central Conference season by earning a win over Walter Williams in Burlington on March 12. Cates threw five innings with five strikeouts as the Red Wolves defeated the Bulldogs 7-6. In addition, Cates had an RBI single in the fourth inning. In the first inning, he had an RBI triple that reached the right field gap as Cedar Ridge stormed out to a 2-0 lead.

Cates also earned the save in a win at Chapel hill on April 24.

Against Orange in the state playoffs on May 7, Cates slammed a two-run homer over the centerfield fence that gave the Red Wolves a lead that would carry through for almost the entire night. Cates final game as a Red Wolf was one of his very best. he went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and two stolen bases. In addition, Cates had a two-run double in the opening inning of a 15-5 win over Jordan-Matthews on March 13.

Cedar Ridge was one of only two teams from the Central Conference to beat Williams in Burlington this season.

Finnegan, in his third year as a starter, earned the save against Williams. He threw four shutout innings in a win over Chapel Hill at Tiger Field in April. Finnegan, who often started in right field when he wasn’t pitching, laced an RBI double. Later, John Grove would drive Finnegan in for a 3-2 win. It was a victory that paved the way to a six-game winning streak to conclude the regular season.

Against Eastern Alamance on April 19, Finnegan had a season-high five RBIs  in a 12-6 win in Mebane.

Ian McGuffey hit a walkoff single to help Cedar Ridge defeat Person March 19 in Hillsborough. The Red Wolves trailed 4-1 going into the seventh inning, but Cedar Ridge rallied to hand Person what was its first loss of the season. McGuffey wound up earning the win on the mound, striking out four over two shutout innings.

On Senior night against Western Alamance on April 26, McGuffey earned another win on the mound, allowing only two hits across six-plus innings as the Red Wolves defeated the Warriors 3-1. McGuffey also drove in Cedar Ridge’s opening run with an RBI line drive single down the left field line. In a 13-5 win over Carrboro on May 1, McGuffey had two RBIs.

Aitkin, the younger brother of former Cedar Ridge three-sport athlete Olivia Aitkin, threw three-and-one-thirds innings of shutout baseball in a 2-1 win over Western Alamance in nine innings at Elon. Aitkin, who played regularly as a freshman, often started at shortstop. Aitkin also scored the first run in the state playoff win over Orange during the Cates home run. Aitkin filled many roles for a Cedar Ridge team that made the state playoffs in a deep league. All seven teams from the Central Conference made the state playoffs.

After a disappointing start to April, Cedar Ridge rebounded and played its best baseball of the season during May. The Red Wolves started to turn the tide with its victory over Eastern Alamance on April 19, its third straight win over the Eagles in Mebane. From there, Cedar Ridge swept a two-game series against Western Alamance, including a marathon win in Elon that went ten innings. In the final week of the regular season, they defeated Carrboro, who claimed the #12 seed in the state playoffs, and Knightdale.

After playing 26 games in the past three months, seniors on the Orange lacrosse team have logged plenty of minutes together.

Later today, they will take their final bow in the most famed lacrosse stadium in North Carolina.

Connor Kruse, Alden Cathey, Sascha Van Praag and Josh Crabtree will suit up in the Tony Cullen Classic All-Star game at Koskinen Stadium at Duke University in Durham tonight.

In addition, Katie Wolter will become the first player from Hillsborough to play in the women’s game, which starts at 3PM. After serving as Orange’s goalkeeper playing against men her entire career, Wolter will play in the women’s game for the Blue team.

The game includes lacrosse seniors from throughout the state and includes ten players who competed in men’s state championship games two weeks ago at Durham County Stadium.

In addition, Orange head coach Chandler Zirkle will serve as a head coach for the first time. Zirkle will coach the White team, which includes Kruse and Cathey. Zirkle, who typically serves in a behind the scenes role for the All-Star game, just led the Panthers to its most successful season in school history with a 24-2 record, capturing the 3A/2A/1A Eastern Regional championship for the first time.

The game is named in honor of Tony Cullen, a former Duke player and head coach who still holds the school record with eight assists in one game. He scored 220 career points and went on to serve as a head coach at Duke from 1982-1990. Afterwards, he served as a college official for 12 years.

Kruse, who will attend Lenoir-Rhyne next fall, is finishing the most accomplished career in Orange lacrosse history and will be the standard that future players will be compared with. He set the single-season school record 75 goals and 213 points as Orange won its fourth consecutive Mid-Carolina Conference championship. On March 25, Kruse tied the national record with 16 assists in a 18-5 win over Southern Alamance in Graham.

Cathey was a part of two regional championship team in men’s cross country in 2021 and 2023. He has been a member of the varsity since the pandemic-shortened season in 2021. This year, he led Orange with 58 turnovers created and 136 ground balls. In his final regular season game against Northwood, Cathey had 13 ground balls, a season-high, as the Panthers won 14-3 in Pittsboro to complete an undefeated regular season.

Van Praag, a native of the Netherlands, joined Cathey, Kale & Jace Womble and Drew Jouannet on a fierce defensive front the past three years. Van Praag was in elementary school with Wolter, Kruse, Josh Cowan and Josh Merill, all of whom are seniors who will graduate next month. This season, Van Praag had 75 ground balls and 49 turnovers created. He was named to the All-Conference team and will join Kruse at Lenoir-Rhyne next sesaon.

Crabtree finished with 38 goals this season and scored the opening goal for Orange against Lake Norman Charter, the Panthers’ first-ever goal in a state championship game. He had five hat tricks this season, including three goals against Carrboro in the state quarterfinals on May 7 at Auman Stadium. Crabtree’s season-high was four goals in a win over Western Alamance on April 23. He will play at Methodist University in Fayetteville next year.

Cathey will join Kruse on the White team, while Van Praag and Crabtree are on the Blue team.

Wolter has been Orange’s main goalkeeper for the past three years. Each season, Orange hosted the Eastern Regional championship game. Katie earned her own fan section for Orange home games. Each time she made a save, her family would raise a banner that reads “Play Like a Girl.” Wolter made over 300 saves in her Orange career, but this afternoon’s game will be the first time she has played against other women. Wolter will play women’s lacrosse at Elon University next February.

The game is a benefit for the Duke Cancer Institute. Donations can be made by going to the bullcityallstarlax.com All-Star game website .