SportsTalk: Downey Prepares Vance Charter For Basketball Season

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High school basketball season may not get underway until November, but you can be sure that many of our local players are on the court during the summer prepping for the upcoming season.  Vance Charter Men’s Basketball Coach Taron Downey certainly has his team in the gym now preparing for November. Downey, who was a guest on SportsTalk Thursday, describes the team’s workouts as good. With five or six seniors returning, Downey hopes to advance into the state playoffs this season. Vance Charter finished 15-11 last year, good enough to earn the team its first appearance in the playoffs, but with such a senior laden team, he expects they will go much deeper in the playoffs this season.

Downey, who played his high school ball at J.F. Webb before moving on to Wake Forest and some pro ball says it’s different than when he played. “Social media is the big difference,” Downey said Thursday. Players use social media to promote themselves and highlight what they can do on a basketball court, but Downey adds that nothing beats seeing a player in person. “Social media can just be a highlight reel,” Downey stated. Still, Downey contends its an excellent recruiting tool that was not available to him during his time at J.F. Webb.

Downey feels the area produces some very good basketball players that can go on to college and have successful careers, but being in a rural area can mean that some deserving players go overlooked and once again social media can help with that.  Downey thinks that he has a couple of players who would make good candidates to move up to the next level.

Right now, Downey has Vance Charter moving full speed ahead and praises his players for having great focus this summer. “They have bought into it,” he says of his players, and he says it is not easy to get players to do that. He says he hopes to “win’em all,” this season. He adds that may not be a realistic view, but he adds that there is nothing in the rule book that says you can’t do just that.

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SportsTalk: Hoyle Leaves Duke For Mississippi St.

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Wil Hoyle, son of Henderson’s Wilson Hoyle, has been a key player for Duke University’s baseball team but will be heading to Mississippi St. for his final year of college eligibility next season.  Hoyle entered the transfer portal. His change of schools is all about new challenges and, as Hoyle puts it, “experiencing something new at Mississippi State.”

Hoyle had nothing but wonderful things to say about his time with the Blue Devils lavishing praise on the staff, coaches and the relationships that he has formed at Duke. He also didn’t neglect his studies while there either garnering two degrees including a Masters in Management Studies.

On the field, Hoyle had 17 RBI and 4 home runs with a batting average of .207 and a .333 on base average for the 2022 season.  “I wasn’t ready to be a batter,” Hoyle said of starting at Duke a few years back. He was a diligent defensive player but putting on weight and getting stronger has helped him on the offensive side, and Hoyle excels at switch hitting which adds value to his team.

Hoyle received extra eligibility because of covid and its effects on sports scheduling during 2020. When the baseball season was shut down that year, Hoyle said there were heavy emotions in the locker room.  He had just had a break out game just prior to the shutdown, and Duke was ranked 8th in the country at the time. Duke and Hoyle survived covid and won the ACC Championship last season. “That’s something I will never forget,” Hoyle said.

Now, with one year left in his college career, Hoyle says he will play whatever role that is needed at Mississippi State.  While Duke is a major college power in basketball, Mississippi State is that type of school in baseball. Duke’s baseball stadium seats only 2,000 people but at Mississippi State he will play in front of 15,000 fans.  It’s a big step for the Durham native, but he is looking forward to family coming from Henderson and Durham to see him play at Mississippi State just as they have come to games at Duke.

For more on Hoyle at Mississippi St. baseball, visit a wonderful SI article we also turned up. https://www.si.com/college/mississippistate/baseball/mississippi-state-baseball-transfer-commitment-wil-hoyle-duke-blue-devils

AND CLICK PLAY FOR OUR WIZS INTERVIEW WITH WIL!

SportsTalk: Wilkerson Helps College Baseball Players Take The Next Step

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Daniel Wilkerson has traveled a long way since his days of playing baseball for his father, Todd Wilkerson, at Kerr-Vance Academy.  His baseball journey has taken him to Randolph Macon College and then to East Carolina University and now to the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League.

“I’m following in my father’s footsteps,” Wilkerson said on Thursday’s SportsTalk with George Hoyle. Wilkerson’s father spent many years coaching at KVA and the younger Wilkerson is doing much the same but at a different level and a different place.  After two years at East Carolina, Wilkerson has found himself an assistant coaching position with the Kettleers. He coaches 1st base during games and does much of the team’s field work keeping the playing surface in game day shape. In the evenings Wilkerson will scout teams to help prepare the Kettleers for the next game.

The Cape Cod League has 10 teams in two divisions and features some of college baseball’s top players, many of whom are on the verge of being drafted. That means players turn over frequently. Despite the geographical distance between Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Henderson, Wilkerson does see similarites in how all of the programs he has been involved in operate.  He also sees differences as well. “The game speeds up,” Wilkerson said.  He says there was a difference in the speed of play from KVA to Randolph Macon and again from there to ECU and even more in the Cape Cod league.

His work for the Cotuit Kettleers must be paying off as the team leads there division in the league with a 14-4 record.

 

SportsTalk: Remembering Cotton Clayton

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SPORTSTALK WIZS

If you know where the Cotton Clayton Country Club was located, chances are you’re from “around here,” as folks like to say. And it’s just as likely that you were saddened to learn of the passing of Lawrence Howard “Cotton” Clayton, who died Wednesday evening at the age of 82.

Clayton, a native of Vance County, was an outstanding athlete who excelled at the high school, college and professional levels. His North Carolina high school basketball scoring record stood for more than four decades and he played both basketball and baseball at East Carolina University in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

“He was one of Vance County’s greatest athletes,” said George Hoyle, who remembered Clayton and his family on Thursday’s SportsTalk. “He was a great athlete, but an even better person.”

He was named an All America in both basketball and baseball between 1959 and 1961; he led the ’61 Pirates baseball team in the NAIA national championship in hitting and played third base and outfielder. That same year on the basketball court, he averaged 14.9 points per game, 9.9 rebounds and shot 61 percent from the field. In 1984, he was inducted into the ECU Sports Hall of Fame.

Clayton spent seven years playing pro baseball in the Baltimore Orioles organization.

Anyone who spent time at his tire shops on Chestnut Street or in Bearpond at the “country club” no doubt heard about sports.

“Those were great times spent with Cotton and Alton, his brother, and the whole Bearpond “crew,” Hoyle said. “Cotton was a wealth of knowledge about sports…if you wanted to know (something), he knew.”

When a high school junior named JamesOn Curry was closing in on Clayton’s long-standing scoring record, Clayton was at the Southern Vance High School gym to witness it.

Not to take anything away from the young man who did break the previous points record, but Hoyle did note that Clayton managed his feat playing in a shorter season and without benefit of a 3-point line.

Wilson Hoyle shared his memories of visiting the Chestnut Street shop when he was home during college breaks. “One of the very first things I did,” he said, was head down to that shop where a group of regulars gathered in the mornings, “smoking cigarettes, hanging out and talking junk,” he said.

Clayton had a huge impact, Wilson said. “The first one that gave me belief that I could do just about anything was Cotton,” he said.

“When you think about community, you think about people and places,” he continued. “Cotton was always there.”

Hoyle said he loved to be able to add to the timeless argument about which player was the best in North Carolina. “I loved when I’d hear a Jordan-David Thompson argument break out,” he recalled. “I’d say, well, who’s the all-time leading scorer in North Carolina high school basketball history, and they’d throw out Jordan and Thompson…Sleepy Floyd and James Worthy. And the answer was ‘no, no, no – it’s Cotton Clayton.”

ACC Announces Football Schedule Model for 2023-26

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— courtesy theACC.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Tuesday a new football scheduling model that will go into effect beginning with the 2023 season.

The new model is based on a 3-5-5 structure whereby each team will play three primary opponents annually and face the other 10 league teams twice during the four-year cycle, once at home and once on the road. The schedule allows for each team to face all 13 conference opponents home and away at least once during the four-year cycle. The structure was adopted by the league’s athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives earlier today.

The new schedule will eliminate the Atlantic and Coastal divisions with all 14 schools competing in one division beginning in 2023. The top two teams based on conference winning percentage will compete in the Subway ACC Football Championship Game on the first Saturday in December at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. In May, the NCAA Division I Council approved the deregulation of the current rule that had limited an individual conference’s autonomy to determine their football championship game participants.

“The future ACC football scheduling model provides significant enhancements for our schools and conference, with the most important being our student-athletes having the opportunity to play every school both home and away over a four-year period,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “We appreciate the thoughtful discussions within our membership, including the head football coaches and athletic directors. In the end, it was clear this model is in the best interest of our student-athletes, programs and fans, at this time.”

The three primary partners for each ACC team are as follows:

Boston College: Miami, Pitt, Syracuse
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
Duke: North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Miami, Syracuse
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Louisville, Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia
Miami: Boston College, Florida State, Louisville
North Carolina: Duke, NC State, Virginia
NC State: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina
Pitt: Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
Syracuse: Boston College, Florida State, Pitt
Virginia: Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Pitt, Virginia, Wake Forest
Wake Forest: Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech

SportsTalk: Vance Charter Cheerleaders Heading to Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

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From a sealed envelope after a recent cheerleading practice, the 21 girls who make up the Vance Charter Cheerleading team discovered that they had been selected to participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Stacey Long, the girls’ coach, said there was excitement followed by disbelief. “Is this really happening,” Long quoted the girls as asking on Thursday’s edition of SportsTalk.

No cheerleading team from the area has ever been selected to participate in the parade. Vance Charter will be the first. The hard work and practice has paid off. The team practices a couple of times a week and it was only last school year that Vance Charter participated in its first competition. In February, they went to their second competition and took first place resulting in an invitation to submit a video, FAQ sheet, GPA’s and titles to the parade organization. Two days after submission came the reply that Vance Charter’s Cheerleading squad would be included in this year’s parade.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Long said of the invitation. Long also said that it will be expensive, around $3,000 per girl, to make the trip to the Big Apple for the parade. To that end, fundraising efforts have begun with a goal of $70,000 for the trip which will last for six nights and include various sightseeing opportunities in addition to the participation in the parade. To help with fundraising efforts, the team is going to businesses seeking sponsorships and will have a calendar fundraiser along with conducting a cheerleader camp. The cheerleader camp will cost participants $150 per person with all of the money from the camp and other fund raising projects going to send the Vance Charter Cheerleaders to New York City.

Bronze level sponsorships are $500, Silver is $1,000, Gold $1,500 and Platinum level is $2,500. All donations of any monetary value are welcomed. For more information on how to donate see their Facebook page at facebook.com/Vance-Charter-High-School-Cheerleading-105276945550598 or call Stacey Long at 919-691-3279.

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SportsTalk: 7 On 7 Football Makes Positive Impact On Local Youth

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In 2007 both Marcus Henderson and Theo Perry graduated from Southern Vance High School and Perry was a part of the Southern Vance Football team that went to the state championship game. While the Raiders were unable to cap off that season with a state title, both Henderson and Perry have continued to work in football and with youth. With the help of fellow Southern Vance alumni and others such as former Vance County High School Athletic Director Joe Sharrow, Henderson and Perry started the Vance County Venom. The Venom are a 7-on-7 football team that plays in a five-team league during the summer to help keep youth from not only Vance County, but Franklin and Warren as well, off the street and involved with something positive in the way of athletics.

Theo Perry serves as head coach and director of the Venom and Marcus Henderson is an organizer. The Venom are a 501c3 non-profit organization and they hope to provide mentorship to young people and to provide them with guidance as they grow as young men and athletes. As coaches, they try to be positive role models, Perry said. “We want to teach them how to be great human beings and to stay out of the streets,” he said.

“The street loves nobody,” Perry said on Tuesday’s SportsTalk. Henderson says “there are too many distraction for kids” out of school during the summer and the Venom provides kids with an opportunity to do something else to positively impact their lives.

The idea for the Venom came from coaching the Tri-City Seahawks at the Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks Dept. The Seahawks participate in the East Wake League and kids start playing at four years of age. From the Seahawks the idea of the Venom emerged. Sharrow and Vance County High School Principal Rey Horner agreed to let them use the practice field at the high school and parents helped contribute equipment and fund to buy equipment. And Perry and Henderson chipped in money from their own pockets to field the team, too.

Richard Terry of Eastside Barber in Henderson donated a quarterback tee, which Perry said has proven quite useful. In 7-on-7 football, the QB has five seconds to throw the ball. The tee is equipped with a timer, which has helped the quarterbacks improve their ball release.

Turnout from kids has been excellent and they have played games throughout the month of May in Franklinton; they’ll travel to Fuquay-Varina for a make-up tournament this weekend. Additionally, the kids involved with the Venom have had the opportunity to attend football camps with NFL players. Perry said he tells his guys to wear their jerseys to the camps – it’s just one more way to get their name out there. “We’ve gotten so much exposure,” he said. “Exposure is the key – when it’s time for these kids to go to college…you never know who’s out there watching them at an early age.”

“It’s bigger than football,” says Henderson. These young athletes also participate in volunteer work and reach out to the community. Perry says they want to teach how to become correct young men. They both praise the parents who have taken time to bring their kids to practice and games and have supported the Venom in general.

If you would like to help support the Venom, donations can be made to Vance Co. Venom Inc. The mailing address is 1025 Pinkston St., Henderson NC 27537 or via cashapp at $flySantana.

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SportsTalk: Murray Plans For Championships At Henderson Collegiate

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“The energy is great and I’m ready to get going,” says Paul Murray. Murray is the new men’s basketball coach at Henderson Collegiate and he is preparing for his first season after spending three years as an assistant at The Burlington School which has a reputation for being “a basketball powerhouse,” as Murray put it on Thursday’s SportsTalk with George Hoyle and John Charles Rose.

When asked about his goals as the head man at Henderson Collegiate, Murray stated his plans were “to take it to the next level.”  From Murray’s point of view, the next level is a state championship. “A State championship or nothing,” said Murray. He also feels that winning a state title is more do-able than most people seem to think.

Murray says he expects Henderson Collegiate to be a fast paced team. “Up-tempo, up-tempo, up-tempo,” Murray stressed. “We want to be the fastest paced team in the country,” he added.  He’s only had one practice so far and that was for an hour this past Saturday but the team did play three games this week winning two by 2o points and losing one in a hard fought game with Franklinton. These off season games will give Murray an idea of what he has to work with throughout next season. It’s a new staff and a new system but one that will hopefully be successful for Murray. Murray got used to success at The Burlington School where, in his three years there, the school sent 13 players to play college ball.  He hopes to repeat that with Henderson Collegiate.

Murray said he always wanted to be a head coach and Henderson Collegiate seemed like the right choice for him. “It was time to do something I wasn’t comfortable with,” Murray said. He felt a little too comfortable and feels like this new position will keep him challenged. In the end, Murray says that the team has one goal at Henderson Collegiate: “Have a lot of fun and win a lot of games.”

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SportsTalk: Elliott Prepares For First Season As VCHS Football Coach

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Aaron Elliott, the new head football coach for Vance County High School, has had a few days to watch his players during workouts this week. And he’s pretty impressed with what he sees so far, he said on Thursday’s Sports Talk.

Elliott joined Bill Harris, Doc Ayscue and George Hoyle and said he liked the level of leadership the players have shown so far. And he hopes that as the summer continues, the numbers of young people interested in wearing the Vipers uniform will grow.

“My biggest challenge so far has been numbers,” Elliott said. And in between workouts, watching last season’s film and meeting with his coaching staff, Elliott has been spending a lot of time fielding calls from student athletes about possibly returning to the team. He also said he’d heard from almost 20 rising 9th graders who are thinking about playing.

Whether he’s talking to players, prospective players, their parents or his staff, Elliott has spoken consistently about, well, consistency.

“I’m trying to incorporate and bring a philosophy of being consistent,” he said, “gaining trust of players and (others)…that I’m here to stay.”

This is Elliott’s first head coaching job, but he previously had been an assistant with Nash Central High School, and at Louisburg High before that.

He draws from his experience as a line coach to work with others on his staff, some of whom are returning for the upcoming season. “I will be the offensive coordinator and calling the plays,” Elliott said, but added that he would offer additional help wherever it was needed.

The offensive line will be a little young because of several seniors graduating, but the defensive line only lost one player to graduation, and there are several athletes that are at the ready to fill that position. “We should be fairly good defensively,” he said.Without giving away too much from the playbook, Elliott said he plans to run a spread offense with some run-pass options. It’ll be senior QB Nazir Garrett’s responsibility to make good reads, he noted, and to make good decisions about what to do with the football.

And he plans to incorporate special teams into every practice. “To me, special teams is important – you can get turnovers, you can change the momentum of the game” with special teams.

The team will continue with morning workouts Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and participate in a couple of camps over the summer, starting with a camp at N.C. State next Thursday. The first official week is the first week of August, and that’s when the team moves to afternoon practices.

“All in all, these guys are in pretty good shape,” Elliott said. Several players said they’d been working during the off-season, he added. “I wouldn’t say they’re ready to play a football game tomorrow night, but I feel comfortable come August.”

 

SportsTalk: Ray Noel Prepares For AD Position At VCHS

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Ray Noel said he’s looking forward to his new job as athletic director at Vance County High School, but right now, he’s focused on his closing out the school year at Granville Central High School, where he will still be athletic director until the end of June.

July 1 marks his first day in Vance County, and Noel said he’s excited about the new opportunity.

When his teams faced Vance County High School’s teams, Noel said he noticed how close and tight-knit the community seemed to be.

He told David “Doc” Harris, Bill Harris and John C. Rose on Monday’s Sports Talk that really made a lasting impression on him.

“I’d see the turnouts for sports in Vance County,” he said, adding that he looks forward to being part of an athletic program that receives such positive support.

But Noel said he values his 15 years at Granville Central High School – he took a job there upon graduation from Averett University – and will miss the relationships that he has developed with staff during his time there.

Noel takes over the AD position from Joe Sharrow, who announced in April that he would be leaving VCS, took the AD position at Jordan High School in Durham.

“I hope to continue the success that Mr. Sharrow had and take it to the next level if we can,” Noel said.

It’s important for student athletes to be recognized for their efforts, Noel said, and there are a number of athletes at VCHS who will get a lot of attention on social media and elsewhere for their accomplishments in sports.

But, he acknowledged, not everybody who plays high school sports makes it to the next level of sports. Quality, stable athletic programs are important to help students be successful after high school, he said. “We want them to be good men and women out in the job force,” Noel said.

 

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