SportsTalk: Louisburg College Hopes To Make It To The World Series

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The list of legendary college coaches in North Carolina includes the likes of Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, Mack Brown, Mike Krzyzewski, Kay Yow and many more.  One legendary coach that might get overlooked is Russell Frazier. For 40 years, from 1959 to 1999, he led the Louisburg College Hurricanes and instilled a winning tradition that the school has had since. While his school never won a national title, his teams went to the National Junior College Athletic Association’s World Series on many occasions.  Louisburg’s last trip was in 2002 but now, 20 years later, the Hurricanes have their sights set on a return to Colorado for the series.

Louisburg College Head Baseball Coach Blake Herring told our Trey Snide on SportsTalk that his players are starting to buy into the idea that the Hurricanes are strong enough this season to make a run.   “If we can get out of our league, we have a good chance to get back to the World Series,” Herring said. While he is excited at the chances the Hurricanes have he cautions, “we can’t want it more than the players.”

His team is young. All but one pitcher are freshmen. He has a new outfield and says that the left side of the infield could be the strongest part of the team. This week rain has hampered practice but it’s nowhere as bad as last season when the school had 17 games rained out.  When inclement weather keeps them off the field, he takes his players to a parking lot at the school to practice throwing and hitting. “The most stressful thing to me is playing a meteorologist,” Herring says of his job as head coach.

At 33, Herring is young and has been with the school for seven years, first as an assistant for three years before taking the head coach position four years ago. Currently the Hurricanes are 6-1 having won there last six games.

Keep up with the Hurricanes at lchurricanes.com or on You Tube at Louisburg College Official.

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SportsTalk: Lance Stallings And Vance Charter Prepare For Busy Spring

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Between National Letter of Intent signings, basketball playoffs and preparing for spring sports Lance Stallings, Athletic Director at Vance Charter, is a busy man.  Stallings says that in the last week both Logan Privett and Charlie Cooper, two stars of Vance Charter’s softball team, have had letter of intent signings and once the dust settles, about half a dozen softball players will have signed their letters of intent.

Stallings is excited that those young women will be continuing on to play college level softball but he is also excited about the school’s basketball program.  Both men’s and women’s teams are in the state playoffs.  The men’s team has never been in the state playoffs before but after a third place conference finish they qualified. “I could not be more excited,” Stallings said of Vance Charter’s mens team. They will have to take on crosstown conference rival Henderson Collegiate tonight in the first round. The women’s team will take on Eno River. Even the middle school teams are playing for conference championships

While basketball is certainly foremost on Stallings’ mind at the moment, there is more happening at the school. Baseball gets underway on Monday with Ty Breedlove in his first year as head coach. Softball and Lacrosse will get underway later next week not to mention that the golf and tennis teams will be starting their seasons very soon.

Stallings is happy but doesn’t take all the credit. “It’s a family atmosphere. Everybody pitches in and is willing to help,” he says.

 

SportsTalk: Hunt Is Getting The Feel Of The Warren Co. Eagles’ AD Position

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It was only a week ago Victor Hunt, head football coach at Warren Co. High School, was named as athletic director at the school. He characterizes his first few days as a time to grow and learn.

This past football season Hunt took the Eagles to the state playoffs, something that hasn’t happened in quite a few seasons for Warren County.  The team made it to the second round before falling. He feels that injuries and Covid hampered the Eagles’ effort last season and they would have been better had those problems not been a part of the season. Despite the Eagles improvement on the grid iron Hunt was not happy. “When you don’t win a championship, you don’t feel like you’ve accomplished enough,” Hunt said.

However, Hunt is very pleased with the showing of the Eagles Women’s basketball team.  With only seven to eight players, the Eagles are in the state playoffs. “They have to play a lot of minutes,” Hunt said of the girls. “They never complain,” he added.  According to Hunt, the program is taking steps in the right direction.

It’s been harder for the men’s team which finished the season at 2-21. “It was tough,” Hunt said of the Eagles season.  He said half of the team had never played organized basketball before. Despite the losing record Hunt remains optimistic, “I don’t look at losses as losses but as lessons.”

The Eagles are now gearing up for spring sports with, what he describes, as a good group of kids on the baseball team and the highest participation in quite some time for softball. Track and field will get underway next week.

 

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SportsTalk: Coach’s Corner: WIZS Players Of The Week – Championship Recap

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Conference championships are hard to come by but Thursday night Vance County had two schools do just that.  Vance Charter’s women’s team took the Triangle North Athletic Conference Tournament Championship with a 58-47 win over Oxford Prep and Henderson Collegiate took the men’s championship with a 59-46 victory over Durham’s Voyager Academy.  Vance Charter relied on Allie Bliss’ 15 points to propel the team to victory and Henderson Collegiate’s T.J. Ragland scored 2o points in their win.  Their performances earned them WIZS Player of the Week honors.

Ragland topped his tournament average of 18 points per game in Henderson Collegiate’s win. He did have help however as Markel Lloyd contributed 18 points and Ellis Williams poured in another 8 points including two back-to-back three pointers at the beginning of the second half.  (Listen to the Audio Recap Below.) Henderson Collegiate now waits until Saturday to find out just where they will be seeded and who they will play as they pursue another state championship.

Vance Charter’s Bliss didn’t begin her basketball career as a starter but she worked hard to move up from a reserve spot and as a senior is one of the team’s leaders. She averaged 17 points per game in the conference tournament. With their conference championship win they also wait until Saturday to find out where their seeding is and who the next opponent will be as the state playoffs begin.

Congratulations to Henderson Collegiate’s T. J. Ragland and Vance Charter’s Allie Bliss. WIZS Players of the Week.  The Players of the Week can be heard every Friday at 1pm on the Coach’s Corner segment of SportsTalk on WIZS 1450am, 100.1fm and online at wizs.com.

SportsTalk: Coach’s Corner: Craddock And Rogers WIZS Players Of The Week

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When not in a pool or on the soccer field, you might find Kailen Craddock on horseback.  Craddock wasn’t named women’s varsity WIZS Player of the Week for her equestrian skills but for her work in the pool at Vance Charter. The sophomore swimmer placed 3rd in the regionals and 13th overall after turning in a time of 116.15 in the 100 meter breaststroke.  Her performance was good enough to make her this week’s women’s player of the week.

For the men’s varsity player of the week, the honor goes to Drew Rogers, a senior basketball player at Crossroads Christian.  Rogers is averaging 20 points per game. On February 4th he scored 20 against Lee Christian and last night he scored 25 in the semi-finals of the Mid Carolina Conference tournament also against Lee Christian.  His performance for the team makes him the men’s varsity player of the week. Tonight Crossroads Christian plays Grace Christian for the conference championship.

The WIZS Players of the Week can be heard every Friday at 1 p.m. during the Coach’s Corner segment of Sportstalk on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM and online at wizs.com.  Congratulations to both Kailen Craddock and Drew Rogers.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vance Co. Vipers Hoping For Wins To Make Playoffs

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The state high school basketball playoffs are just around the corner and despite only having a 5-11 record on the season, Vance Co. High School Athletic Director Joe Sharrow thinks the Vipers have a good shot at getting in.  Sharrow was a guest on today’s SportsTalk with Trey Snide.

Sharrow knows that it will take a few more wins and those wins have to start with tonight’s game against Northern Lakes Conference rival Durham School of the Arts who are 3-17 on the season. While 5-11 against 3-17 might not look like much Sharrow says records are misleading, “The Northern Lakes Conference is a Murderer’s Row,” Sharrow said. Case in point, Vance County beat Southern Durham in what Sharrow calls the best win in school history to only lose to them in a second game a few days later.

Sharrow acknowleges the Vipers got off to a slow start but he says key injuries played a role and now that the Vipers are healthy he expects the team to be strong going into the final weeks of the season.

There won’t be much time to rest after tonight’s game as the Vipers will welcome J.F. Webb to Henderson tomorrow night for senior night.  J.F. Webb won the previous matchup in Oxford on a last second shot 57-54. Sharrow says if the Vipers can win tonight and tomorrow they will likely make the state playoffs.  If they drop one of these two games it will take a run in the conference tournament to get in.

The conference tournament will take place Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.

 

Crossroads Christian School

SportsTalk: Gladieux Signs To Play For Trine University

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“If somebody gives you an opportunity to follow your dream, that’s amazing,” Ryan Gladieux said at his son’s Letter of Intent signing at Crossroads Christian as part of today’s SportsTalk show on WIZS.  Mason Gladieux, a 6’3″ senior guard with the Colts, will be playing college ball next season for Trine University in Angola, Indiana.

Two years ago, Mason was at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh. He and his family had never heard of Henderson or Crossroads Christian but when Cardinal Gibbons made a “no school, no sports” decision because of Covid 19 his family decided to look for another school so Mason would not miss a year of basketball.  After Mason’s father, who is former player at Stetson, did some research, met with Crossroads Head Coach and Athletic Director Scotty Richardson, and visited the school, it was decided that Mason and Crossroads would make an excellent fit. It was Richardson’s idea of not wanting to win today but to have someone to build a program around that convinced the Gladieux’s that Crossroads was the right school for Mason.

“He’s the model player. He can play all five positions,” Richardson said of Gladieux. “His impact on campus and in basketball and crosscountry is tough to put into words,” Richardson continued. Gladieux won a state championship in crosscountry this past season at Crossroads and now he and the team are looking to do the same thing in basketball. Crossroads will first have to bring home the conference championship. That tournament begins in a few days. A state championship would be a great way for Gladieux to end his high school career but he has to battle through an ankle injury that has hampered him this season.

“I loved the campus,” Mason said of Trine University. His mother, Brittney, said the family has roots in Indiana and that with Mason choosing Trine it feels somewhat like he is going home. She said Trine feels a lot like Crossroads. Trine is a division 3 school but that isn’t a concern for Mason’s father, Ryan. “This school isn’t offering you a destination. They are offering you a beginning,” Ryan said.  Trine was the number two team in the country last season in Division 3 basketball.

Congratulations to Mason Gladieux on signing to Trine University.

SportsTalk can be heard Monday through Friday at 1pm on WIZS 1450am, 100.1fm and online at wizs.com.

 

 

Jones and Taylor are WIZS Players of the Week

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For two years Christian Jones has been the go to guy off the bench for the Vance County Vipers men’s basketball team.  The 6’4″ Jones has been so good off the bench that he has now worked his way into the starting lineup. The Vipers have won three of the last four games and Jones is a big reason why. This week the Vipers beat Granville Central and Jones contributed 10 points and 8 rebounds. In a second win this week against Southern Durham, Jones pumped in 18 points and had another 8 rebounds.

Vance County Athletic Director Joe Sharrow says Jones is a game changer and added that with Jones’ contributions and getting their best player back into the lineup, the Vipers are starting to put things together and will be a force to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, over at Crossroads Christian, it’s Abby Taylor who is making a significant contribution to the women’s team. Taylor, a freshman, is only averaging 5 points per game but she is the team’s leader and a captain on the Colts’ team. She is the player that communicates with everyone to keep them all on the same page during games.  She helps on both ends of the court and while her contributions may not show up on the stat sheet, she is likely the most important player on the team.

Congratulations to Vance County’s Christian Jones and Crossroads’ Abby Taylor, WIZS Players of the Week.  Players of the Week are named every Friday on the Coach’s Corner segment of Sports Talk. Sports Talk airs at 1pm Monday through Friday on WIZS 1450am, 100.1 fm and online at wizs.com.

 

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SportsTalk: Coach’s Corner Players Of The Week

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In order to be a successful athletic program at any level, you have to have the players, and both Vance Co. High School and Henderson Collegiate have two such players: Jayla Taylor and Ellis Williams. These two athletes are this week’s WIZS Players of the Week.

Taylor has helped power the Vance Co. Women’s Vipers to three consecutive wins. Against South Granville Taylor contributed 17 rebounds, 12 points and a steal. Taylor added another 15 blocked shots, 9 rebounds and 7 points in the Viper’s win over Granville Central and against Carrboro she grabbed 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. An impressive set of numbers for Taylor earns her player of the week honors.

Over at Henderson Collegiate, Ellis Williams is putting up some impressive numbers as well. So far on the season, Williams is averaging 18.5 points per game, 3.5 steals and 4 rebounds. Against Eno River, Williams scored 15 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and made 5 steals and then against Heritage he contributed 22 points, 1 assist and 3 rebounds. His performance earns him player of the week honors.

Congratulations to Vance Co. High School’s Jayla Taylor and Henderson Collegiate’s Ellis Williams, this week’s WIZS Players of the Week.

 

Vance County High School

Vance Co. High School Basketball Games Scheduled for Fri., Jan 14 Postponed

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According to an email sent to WIZS from Vance County High School Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Joe Sharrow, the JV, women’s varsity and boy’s varsity games scheduled between the Vipers and Southern Durham for Friday, January 14 have been postponed until Wednesday, February 2. The games will be played at their usual time on February 2 – JV at 4:30 p.m., Women’s Varsity at 6pm and Boy’s Varsity at 7:30 p.m.