Athletic Appointments Announced for Vance County Middle & High School

-Press Release, Vance County Schools

Athletic directors and head football coaches were appointed for Vance County High School and Vance County Middle School for 2018-2019 with action taken by the Vance County Board of Education at its May 14 meeting.

Joseph Sharrow will be the athletic director and Darry Ragland will be the head football coach for Vance County High School for the new school year.

Len Manley has been named athletic director and Michael Rice has been named the head football coach for Vance County Middle School for the upcoming year.
Sharrow is currently the athletic director at Southern Vance High School, where Ragland has served as the head football coach. Manley is the athletic director at Henderson Middle School now. Rice is a physical education teacher at E.M. Rollins Elementary School.

KVA Lady Spartans Advance to NCISAA State Championships

-Information courtesy Frank Wiggins, Headmaster, Kerr Vance Academy

The Lady Spartan soccer squad of Kerr Vance Academy scored early and often then hung on to defeat Hickory Christian in the semi-finals at home, jumping out in the first ten minutes to a 3-0 lead.

Kerr-Vance was led in scoring by Ashley Dickerson who had two goals and Emma Hogge with one. The defense was anchored by seniors Caroline Hoyle, Bonnie Evans, and goal-keeper Holly Steg.

Looking for a repeat, KVA moves on to the state championship on Saturday, May 19 at 11 a.m. on the campus of Campbell University.

KVA Lady Spartans. Photo courtesy KVA.

KVA Spartan Baseball Team Defeats Wayne Christian

-Information courtesy Frank Wiggins, Headmaster, Kerr Vance Academy

The Spartan baseball team came up huge on Tuesday evening defeating Wayne Christian 7-1 at Boyd Field.

Senior Wil Short started on the mound for the Spartans, allowing only 1 hit and 1 run striking out 3. Cam Murphy came in as relief allowing no hits and no runs while striking out 6. The offense was led by Colby Wilkerson, 2 for 3 (2 doubles and 1 RBI), RJ Johnson, 3 for 3, with an HR, and Matt Overton, 2 for 3 at the plate with 3 RBI’s.

The Spartans advance to Wilson’s Fleming Stadium for a three-game championship series beginning on Friday, May 18 at 6 p.m.

KVA Men’s Baseball. Photo courtesy KVA.

Oxford Prep’s Lady Griffins Lose to Riverside High in State Playoffs

-Information courtesy Tommy Anstead, Coach, Oxford Preparatory School

In the second round of state playoffs on Saturday, May 12, Oxford Preparatory School’s softball team had six hits to Riverside High School’s five but still came up short in a 4-2 loss.

Emily Faucette drove in the Griffins’ first run. Riverside tied it up in the bottom of the 2nd and in the bottom of the 3rd. Riverside homered with a runner on, making it a 4-2 ball game. The entire line up hit all throughout the game but could not get anything to drop. The Griffins only had one strikeout during the day.

These young ladies showed what teamwork could accomplish. This was a #19 seeded team playing a# 3 seeded team in the 1A state playoffs. We are proud of this entire team and very proud to be the Lady Griffins’ softball coaches  Thanks for a great season.

~O.P.H.S. Softball Coaches

Tommy Anstead, Mike Roberson, and Dan Thomas

Oxford Prep Softball Team Advances in State Playoffs

-Information courtesy Tommy Anstead, Coach, Oxford Preparatory School

Jordan Dunn with five hits and Kaci Roberson with four hits led the way for the Oxford Prep Griffins softball team’s victory of 18-1 over #14 seeded Mattamuskeet High Wednesday, May 9 in the 1st round of state playoffs. The entire batting order contributed to the 16 hit/18 run win. This is Oxford Prep’s third trip to the state playoffs, but the first win.

Oxford Prep plays #3 seeded Riverside High School from Williamston, NC on Saturday, May 12 at 3 p.m.

Oxford Prep Competes in Men’s Golf Championship

-Information courtesy Rick Kenner, Coach, Oxford Preparatory School

The Griffin Golf Team of Oxford Preparatory School (OPS) competed for the third time in as many years at the NCHSAA 1A Men’s Golf Championship at Foxfire Golf & Resort (Red) on May 7th and 8th. After the final day of competition, Oxford Prep finished #8 out of 12 teams with a two day total of 737, improving the day 1 score by 23 strokes.

Sophomore Wesley Aitken finished tied for 13th place adding a second round score of 82 to his Day 1 round of 83. Junior Jacob Bliss finished in a tie for 21st improving his day 1 score of 90 by 7 strokes for an 83 and a two day total of 173.

Rounding out the OPS team, Junior Adam Sizemore finished tied for 67 with a 2-day score of 201; Capers Pendergrass finished in 77th with a 2-day 216.

Senior Christian Furr, who broke his ankle just before the season began, returned to play six weeks later in the last few matches of the season and earned his way into the Regional and State competitions. Furr managed a 63rd place finish with a total score of 198 in his final high school golf match. Full field results may be viewed by clicking here.

Oxford Prep Girls Track Team NCAC Conference Champs

-Information courtesy Patricia Lyons, Coach, Oxford Preparatory School

The Oxford Preparatory Girls track team won the 2018 NCAC Conference Championship in their first year of competition. Competing with only six girls, the Griffins won the meet against track powerhouses Franklin Academy and Voyager Academy.

Coach Patricia Lyons stated, “I explained before the meet what had to take place for us to win. They all assured me that whatever event they needed to do they would try it. Every girl placed in the top three in all the field events which propelled us to win the championship.”

The Griffins now have their sights set on the NCHSSA Mideast Regional at Pender High School in Burgaw, N.C. on Saturday, May 12, 2018.

Oxford Prep Golf Team Advances to 1A State Championship

 -Information courtesy of Coach Rick Kenner, Oxford Preparatory School
The 1A Mideast Men’s Golf Regional Championship was contested yesterday at Kerr Lake Country Club in Henderson. There were 17 schools represented with 8 teams competing and 51 total golfers. The top 3 teams and top 6 individuals not on one of those qualifying teams will advance to the 1A State Championships at Foxfire Golf & Resort where they will play the red course on Monday, May 7 and Tuesday, May 8.
The individual medalist with a score of 79 is Stephen Spencer of Uwharrie Charter Academy.
There was a four-way tie for individual runner-up medalist with scores of 84: Bennett Barnes (Woods Charter), Cole Scearce (Voyager Academy), Wesley Aitken (Oxford Prep) and Jacob Bliss (Oxford Prep).
The team Regional Champion with a score of 351 is Raleigh Charter.
Individual State Qualifiers are:
Cole Scearce – Voyager Academy
Bennett Barnes – Woods Charter
Daniel Jones – Bishop McGuinness
Matt Kelly – Bishop McGuinness
Zachary Brayboy – South Robeson HS
Aiken McDowell – Falls Lake Academy
Team State Qualifiers:
Raleigh Charter
Oxford Prep
Uwharrie Charter

Oxford Prep Golf Team Competing in 1A Mideast Regional Championship

-Information courtesy of Coach Rick Kenner, Oxford Preparatory School

The Oxford Preparatory School golf team recently finished 2nd in the North Central Athletic Conference (NCAC) behind Franklin Academy. Jacob Bliss (junior) and Wesley Aitken (sophomore) tied for 2nd place in the individual standings.

Oxford Prep will be competing and hosting the 1A Mideast Regional Championship Tournament on May 1, 2018, at Kerr Lake Country Club. First tee time is at 9 a.m.

The top three teams and six individuals who are not on one of the winning teams will move on to the state championships May 7 – 8 in  Pinehurst, N.C.

Participating teams include Oxford Prep, Granville Central, Raleigh Charter, River Mill, South Davidson, Uwharrie Charter, Voyager and West Columbus.

Players from Oxford Prep include Wesley Aitken, Jacob Bliss, Christian Furr, Capers Pendergrass, Adam Sizemore.

Duke To Induct Eight Into Athletics Hall of Fame

-Courtesy of goduke.com and Duke Athletics

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University will enshrine eight new members into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, September 21, announced today by Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White.  Slated for induction are Elton Brand (basketball), Katie Chrest Erbe (lacrosse), Candy Hannemann (golf), Lindsey Harding (basketball), Bob Harris (broadcaster), Ryan Jackson (baseball), Randy Jones (football & track) and Shelden Williams (basketball).

Brand, a native of Peekskill, N.Y., helped the Blue Devils to a two-year ledger of 69-6 with two ACC regular season championships, one ACC Tournament crown, an appearance in the 1999 NCAA championship game and final Associated Press national rankings of No. 3 in 1998 and No. 1 in 1999.  His second and final season at Duke was highlighted by National Player of the Year honors from seven outlets along with first-team All-ACC, ACC Player of the Year, first team All-America, first team ACC All-Tournament, ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player, All-NCAA East Regional and All-NCAA Final Four citations.  For his 60-game collegiate career, Brand averaged 16.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 61.2 percent from the field.  The No. 1 overall selection in the 1999 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, Brand enjoyed a 17-year professional career that included co-Rookie of the Year (2000), NBA All-Rookie (2000), All-NBA (2006; 2nd team), NBA All-Star (2002 & 2006) and NBA Sportsmanship (2006) accolades.  In 1,058 career games with the Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks, he posted career averages of 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest.

Erbe, a native of Hampstead, Md., is the first member from the Blue Devil women’s lacrosse program to be enshrined into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame following a storied career headlined by the 2005 Tewaaraton Trophy, an honor presented annually to the nation’s top player.  From 2003-06, she helped Duke to a four-year ledger of 61-18 with three ACC regular season championships, one ACC Tournament title and four NCAA Tournament berths including two appearances in the Final Four.  A two-time All-America pick, Erbe was the 2003 ACC Rookie of the Year and went on to garner ACC Player of the Year accolades in both 2005 and 2006.  As a junior, she guided the Blue Devils to the first ACC Tournament crown in program history and was named the event’s Most Valuable Player after totaling five goals and three assists in wins over North Carolina and Virginia.  The first player in ACC history to garner Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year and Tournament MVP honors, Erbe established the program’s single-season record for total points with 96 in 2005 and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in both goals (216) and points (287).  She went on to help the United States to the 2009 Federation of International Lacrosse world championship.

Hannemann, a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, enjoyed a spectacular career on the links from 1999-02, helping the Blue Devils to four ACC championships and a pair NCAA titles in 1999 and 2002.  In 2001, she received the Honda Award, an honor presented annually to the top player in the nation, after winning three of her five career individual titles including the NCAA crown by posting a four-day score of 75-72-69-69=285 before capturing the championship in a playoff at the Mission Inn Golf Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.  One year later, Hannemann propelled Duke to the ACC crown by claiming medalist honors with a three-round, even par total of 216 at the Salem Glen Country Club in Clemmons, N.C., and then shot a team-low score of 68 in the final round of the NCAA championship as the Blue Devils won the second national title in program history.  Following her senior season in 2002, she received an All-American Scholar citation from the Women’s Golf Coaches Association and the four-time All-ACC and two-time All-America selection finished her career with 28 top-20 finishes, 23 top-10 showings and 16 top-5 placements along with a 74.26 stroke average in 112 career rounds.  Hannemann’s eight-year career on the LPGA Tour was highlighted by six top-10 finishes.

Harding, a native of Houston, Texas, earned both National Player of the Year and National Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2007 to complete a career that included 128 victories against just 12 losses, three ACC regular season crowns, two ACC Tournament titles and four trips to the NCAA Tournament with a pair of appearances in the Final Four.  The three-time All-ACC and two-time All-America selection also received ACC Player of the Year accolades in 2007 and was the recipient of the Mary Garber Award, an honor presented annually to the top female student-athlete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  Harding, a three-time member of the ACC’s All-Defense unit and two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year honoree, graduated as the school’s all-time leader in assists (579) and closed her tenure with career averages of 9.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game.  On January 20, 2008, Harding’s jersey No. 10 was hoisted to the rafters of historic Cameron Indoor Stadium to celebrate her accomplishments.  After being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, Harding played nine seasons with six organizations, was a WNBA All-Star choice in 2010 and later participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representing Belarus.

Harris, a native of Albemarle, N.C., spent 41 years as the Voice of the Blue Devils, broadcasting Duke football and men’s basketball games from 1976 until his retirement in 2017.  A four-time North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year pick by the National Sports Media Association in 1988, 1991, 2011 and 2017, he retired as the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference and is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame (inducted in 2006) and the Stanly County Sports Hall of Fame (1993).  Harris closed his football broadcasting tenure at Duke having called 471 consecutive games with the streak beginning on September 11, 1976, with Duke’s season-opener at Tennessee and concluding on November 26, 2016, with the season finale at Miami.  Additionally, he completed his remarkable career having called 1,392 Duke basketball games and his tenure with the Blue Devils featured 13 NCAA Final Four events with 10 championship games including all five of Duke’s national titles in 1991 (Indianapolis), 1992 (Minneapolis), 2001 (Minneapolis), 2010 (Indianapolis) and 2015 (Indianapolis).  Harris also broadcast 16 ACC Tournament championship game victories for the Blue Devils in 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2017.

Jackson, a native of Orlando, Fla., helped the Blue Devils to three 30-win campaigns including a school single-season record 39 victories in 1993 and capped off his career with National Player of the Year honors in 1994.  In the award-winning season, which included first-team All-America and ACC Player of the Year citations, the two-way star batted .378 with 22 home runs and 63 runs batted in while pitching a team-high 91.2 innings and posting a 7-5 record with five complete games along with four saves.  Led by Jackson, who equaled an NCAA record by homering in eight consecutive games and enjoyed the second-longest hitting streak in school history at 34 games, Duke posted a 16-8 record in ACC play in 1994 to finish in a tie for second place in the league standings, marking the program’s best conference finish since 1961.  The three-time All-ACC selection finished his collegiate career with a .322 batting average with 187 runs scored, 277 hits, 56 doubles, 42 home runs and 183 runs batted in to go along with 21 wins and 11 saves on the mound.  A seventh-round pick of the Florida Marlins in the 1994 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, Jackson made his MLB debut on March 31, 1998, and played four seasons in the big leagues as an outfielder with the Marlins, Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers.

Jones, a native of Winston-Salem, N.C., produced record-setting performances in multiple sports at Duke before earning international prestige as a member of four United States Olympic teams.  On the gridiron, Jones amassed 2,835 all-purpose yards as a running back and return specialist from 1987-90, was a member of Duke’s ACC championship squad in 1989, led the Atlantic Coast Conference and ranked seventh nationally in kickoff return average (28.25) in 1990 and finished his career as the school’s all-time leader in kickoff returns for touchdowns (3).  Competing as a sprinter with Duke’s track and field program, Jones broke the school’s 36-year old record in the indoor 60-meter dash in 1992 with a time of 6.74, eclipsing the previous standard of 6.84 set by fellow Duke Athletics Hall of Famer Dave Sime in 1956.  In addition, Jones finished his career with the second-fastest outdoor 100-meter time (10.38) in Blue Devil history.  He then earned a roster spot on four consecutive U.S. Olympic bobsled teams in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, garnering a silver medal in the four-man event in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Williams, a native of Forest Park, Okla., was a two-time National Defensive Player of the Year honoree while helping the Blue Devils to a four-year record of 116-23 with a pair of ACC regular season titles, three ACC Tournament championships and four appearances in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 including one berth in the Final Four.  A three-time All-America and three-time All-ACC choice, he averaged 13.9 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots and shot 57.2 percent from the floor during his tenure while becoming the first player in NCAA history to register 1,750 points, 1,250 rebounds, 400 blocked shots and 150 steals in a career.  After establishing the school single-season record for blocked shots with 137 in his final campaign as he served as a team captain, the two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year honoree graduated as Duke’s all-time leader in both rebounds (1,262) and blocks (422) and had his jersey No. 23 raised to the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium on January 28, 2007.  Williams, who recorded the third triple-double in school history with a 19-point, 11-rebound, 10-block performance against Maryland on January 11, 2006, went on to log a six-year career in the NBA after being drafted with the No. 5 overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in 2006.

The group will be inducted at the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony on September 21 in Cameron Indoor Stadium and, the following day, be honored at halftime of Duke’s football game against N.C. Central at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium.

There are currently 138 members in the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame, dating back to the inaugural ceremony in 1975.

Voting is conducted by the Hall’s enshrinees along with members of the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame committee.  Nominations for the Class of 2020 may be submitted online at GoDuke.com beginning in September 2019.