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SportsTalk: Elliott Readies Vipers For Practice
Where will you be at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, July 31? If you want to play JV or varsity football in a Vance County High School Vipers uniform, the correct answer is: at football practice.
Head Coach Aaron Elliott said high schools can officially start practice on July 31 and the players are looking forward to the late-night tradition that Elliott began his first year as coach.
“This is the third year,” Elliott said on Thursday’s SportsTalk with Bill Harris and George Hoyle. The players “absolutely love it and look forward to it – we’re gonna keep it going.”
The workouts and practices they’ve had over the summer have been well attended, , but they’re not mandatory, so Elliott said the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning session will get things started in earnest. He figures he’s talked with 85 or so young people who want to play this season.
He’s especially pleased about the number of younger players – “that’s going tohelp the JV team out,” he said.
There’s one incoming freshman, however, who has probably already got a spot on the varsity squad, Elliott noted. He said he got the chance to catch a Vance County Middle School game and witnessed a particular player score touchdowns three different ways – on a kickoff return playing special teams, intercepting a pass on defense and scampering across the goal line for six on offense.
Making a mental note to keep an eye on this young man, Elliott said he had the chance to speak with him and about being a part of the program. “He’s been with us all summer – hasn’t missed a practice,” Elliott said. Chances are, he’ll be starting on defense when the season opens.
Elliott said he’s talked with other coaches and they’re experiencing an uptick in interest in high sports, which is encouraging.
“As much as we want to put COVID in the past, it’s still affecting high school sports,” he said. The football team graduated 10 players last year; that number is set to rise to 14 this year and if the trend continues, next year’s team will have 29 graduate. For Elliott, those numbers have a direct correlation to decreased numbers during the COVID pandemic.
The Wednesday practice will last about an hour and 45 minutes, Elliott said and then they’ll have a more normal practice time on Thursday at 5 p.m.
There’s a Jamboree on Aug. 9, and another exhibition-style game on Aug. 17 before the season opener away again Warren County High School on Aug. 23.
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SportsTalk: Alston Signs With South Carolina
Taeshawn Alston has one more season to suit up in the green and white uniform as a Vance County Viper before he trades those colors for the garnet and black of the University of South Carolina.
As of Tuesday, Alston has committed to play football for the SEC school located in Columbia, SC.
Alston and Vipers Coach Aaron Elliott were on Sports Talk Wednesday to talk about the recruiting process and what led to Alston’s decision to become a Gamecock.
“Coach Beamer is amazing,” Alston said, referring to Head Coach Shane Beamer, son of legendary Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, adding that it “felt like home, then and there,” when he paid a visit to the school. “It just clicked with me.”
He’d been on their radar since April 2023, and Alston said he liked everything about the coaching staff – how they treat the players and how, in turn, the players treated recruits like him who were visiting.
And then there’s the “Game Day atmosphere,” he said, surrounding the famed Williams-Brice Stadium, home of the Gamecocks.
Being the focus of coaches’ attention during the recruiting process was fun, Alston said. “It was good, (but) sometimes it was stressful.” He named UNC-CH, Virginia Tech and Rutgers as other schools that were interested in what he could bring to their programs.
As a coach, Elliott said he encouraged Alston to “find a place that best fits him – a place that’s going to show him love, that wants him to be there…and wants him to grow as a player.”
When schools contact Elliott about his players, it’s always “measurables” that they want to know about: How fast can he run? How tall is he? How does he move? What are his grades like?
“Taeshawn checks all those boxes,” Elliott said. “It was easy for me to talk to coaches about Taeshawn,” he explained, which shows “he’s doing what he needs to be doing on the field and in the classroom.”
When Alston takes the field this fall for his final season as a Viper, he’ll be playing linebacker and EDGE. He likes both positions, so he’s happy to go in any direction his coaches decide.
The coaching staff at USC has said they’d like for him to get a little bigger, something that Alston has taken to heart. For the record, he’s listed now at 6-foot-4 and about 230 pounds.
Alston has a good idea about what USC will give him – a chance to play against top-level opponents in the SEC and a quality education. But what are the Gamecocks getting from him?
“They’re getting a great athlete, a great academic student,” Alston said. “I feel like they’re getting a monster, on the field and in the classroom.”
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SportsTalk: It’s Football Season
It might be a strange think to say a week before June but it’s football season! At least at Vance County High School. Head football coach Aaron Elliott was a guest on Thursday’s SportsTalk to explain why football is happening.
“Our spring game was last Friday,” Elliott said. After practicing for ten straight days the Vipers took the field in an offense versus defense match up that saw the game end with the very baseball like score of 5-0. “What I took away from the game was competitiveness,” Elliott said.
The team now prepares for summer workouts and a trip to the FCA football camp at NC Wesleyan in Rocky Mount. At $185 per player, it was expensive but Coach Elliott had help. “Clearview Church helped out tremendously by paying for the entire camp,” Elliott said.
While the boys are preparing for next fall, the girls are taking the field tonight against Southern Durham for the first ever girl’s flag football team. “We have lots of female athletes who can get it done,” Elliott said of the lady Vipers. Next week the Vipers will take on Louisburg. Elliott thinks by next season the sport will be fully sanctioned and they will have a full season.
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SportsTalk: Youth Lead KVA Baseball To Championship Game
Mike Rigsbee, Kerr-Vance Academy baseball coach, is proud of his young team. With only two seniors in the lineup, the team advanced all the way to the state championship series this past week.
Unfortunately, KVA lost two games out of three to Lawrenceville Academy. “Our goal was to get there,” Rigsbee said on SportsTalk Wednesday.
KVA lost the first game 5-4, rebounded in the first game Saturday by winning 3-2 but lost the second Saturday game by the score 10-0. “It was a great season overall,” Rigsbee stated. “I knew we could make a run,” the coach continued.
Rigsbee has already started preparations for next season. Schedules are being prepared now, and he fully expects that KVA will be back in the running for a championship next year.
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SportsTalk: Oxford Prep Looking For Playoff Success
High school teams from all across our area are now in the state playoffs, and Oxford Prep is no exception. The school’s athletic director, John Hammett, was on SportsTalk Thursday to discuss how his school is doing. “Our baseball team is young,” he said. Despite the youthfulness of the squad, Oxford Prep came from behind in the seventh inning to secure an 8-7 win over Clover Garden earlier this week to afford them the opportunity to go on the road to take on Pinetops. “Pinetops is an athletic school that does well in all sports,” Hammett said.
Meanwhile, the softball team is also on the road but with a much shorter trip as they will play Vance Charter at Oxford Park Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. Oxford Prep is coming off a convincing 16-0 win in three innings this week at Northwest Halifax. The Vance Charter game is a huge rivalry. “Everybody knows everybody. Vance Charter plays hard and hits the ball well,” Hammett said. Expect a huge turnout in Oxford for that game Friday afternoon.
SportsTalk: Crossroads Baseball, Soccer And Golf In State Playoffs
Soccer, baseball and golf are all representing Crossroads Christian in the state playoffs, keeping Athletic Director Scottie Richardson a busy man, but he found a few minutes to talk about his teams on Wednesday’s SportsTalk. “Our baseball team has won its first playoff game in school history and its first trip to the elite eight,” Richardson said. “We have a young team and the sky is the limit,” added Richardson. Next up is the top seeded Lawrence Academy. “The pressure is on them,” Richardson said of Lawrenceville.
In soccer, Crossroads has also advanced to the elite eight by defeating Oakwood. They play again on Friday at Crossroads with game time at 4 p.m., weather permitting of course. The rain has been difficult this week. “We spent five hours to get the field ready,” Richardson said.
Richardson also is keeping his eye on the golf course where Crossroads’ Merritt Cogdill will represent the school in the state tournament Monday and Tuesday of next week in Greensboro.
SportsTalk: KVA Looking To Advance In Playoffs
Kerr-Vance Academy’s baseball and soccer teams have begun the playoffs. Mike Joyner, KVA athletic director, was on Wednesday’s SportsTalk and said both teams got off to a great start in the first round with the soccer team defeating North Hills Tuesday 1-0 and the baseball team winning 10-0 in six innings, also against North Hills. “The kids step it up a notch in the playoffs,” Joyner said. The season has been a challenge for KVA. “The schools we play against are significantly bigger,” Joyner added.
The KVA soccer team will play Pungo this (Wednesday) afternoon, weather permitting and the baseball team will have to wait on the winner of the Halifax vs. Ridgecroft matchup to know when they will play next.
SportsTalk: Thomas Works At Rebuilding JF Webb Sports
During his first year as athletic director for J.F. Webb High School, Keith Thomas has certainly faced some challenges. The school was unable to field a baseball team this season due to a lack of players but Thomas is hopeful this will change. “We have a JV team this year and next year those kids can move up,” Thomas said on Thursday’s SportsTalk.
Building J.F. Webb’s programs back up is all about relationships Thomas said. “Community outreach and putting a good product on the field will help us build relationships,” Thomas added. “We want to win but win the right way,” he continued.
The track team is doing well this season. “I like our kids. They have a positive attitude,” Thomas said. He was with the track team in Louisburg for a meet on Thursday.
Softball is also on its way back after two years without a team and the numbers are growing. Football is also bringing in more student athletes as well. Thomas was an assistant football coach with the Warriors before taking over as athletic director. This is Thomas’ first AD job and he says it has been an interesting learning experience. “I’ve picked up a lot on the fly,” Thomas said of his first year.
SportsTalk: KVA Graduate Joins The Iron Dukes
Duke, NC State and UNC…them’s fightin’ words around here. Loyalty to your favorite university sports team is just part of growing up in North Carolina. What do you do if you are a graduate of NC State, UNC and work for Duke? That’s the unique situation that Kerr Vance Academy graduate John Averette finds himself in.
Averette, who was a guest on Wednesday’s SportsTalk, started off as an undergraduate at NC State. “Getting into sports management at NC State was an accident,” Averette said. He was thinking about going into business but was placed in the sports management program. “I didn’t know anything about it,” Averette added.
During his time with the Wolfpack, he interned with Wolfpack Sports Properties and when he completed his time at NC State he moved over to UNC to work with the Rams Club as an intern. Once he graduated from UNC, he went into the job market where he landed a position with the Iron Dukes.
“I do a lot of fundraising,” Averette said. According to Averette, sports management is more than just fund raising. “There are hundreds of people behind the scenes,” he said. All of the athletic events and people fall under the sports management umbrella.
Averette credits Kerr Vance Academy for giving him the foundation to succeed in his current profession. “They are a great school for having a college prep environment. They teach the little things to get you ready for the college environment,” Averette said. They just don’t teach you who to pull for.
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