SportsTalk: Wake Forest Fungo Baseball Finds Success
Brad Mize, General Manager of the Wake Forest Fungo Baseball Team, discusses the club’s success.
SportsTalk: JF Webb’s Burnette To Play College Lacrosse At Sewanee
Henderson’s Beau Burnette’s list of activities and accolades while at JF Webb High School is quite impressive. He played five sports: lacrosse, golf, baseball, football and basketball. Burnette was the Triangle North Conference Player of the Year his junior and senior seasons, academic all conference all four years, all conference in lacrosse, football and golf and was awarded the Tony Cullen Scholarship Award. While this was happening, Burnette developed a love of history and maintained a 4.29 GPA.
Burnette, the son of Scott and Caroline Burnette, will take his love of lacrosse to Sewanee, whose official name is The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee – where he has received a scholarship. He appeared on Thursday’s SportsTalk to discuss his high school career, love of lacrosse and his upcoming college experience.
While not playing summer travel ball, Burnette isn’t taking the summer completely off. “I’m lifting weights and running,” Burnette said as he prepares for the start of his college career on August 19.
So how does a young man handle five sports and academics? “I try to keep a good balance between practice and grades,” Burnette said. While he played many sports at JF Webb, Burnette will limit his college career to just lacrosse while in college. He said he enjoyed the camaraderie of the other sports he played but the speed of lacrosse combined with the physicality of the sport is what he loves and that’s what he will concentrate on as well as his academics.
Burnette will major in history at Sewanee.
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SportsTalk: Ellington Participates In Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament
Most of us have spent a little time at a local pond, river or Kerr Lake trying to catch a fish for fun or for supper. An eight pound bass can sometimes put up a good fight and be difficult to reel in so imagine what it’s like to have a 500-pound fish on the line. Oxford’s Mark Ellington knows all about trying to land that big fish. He has just recently competed in the 65th Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in Morehead City trying to catch the big fish and some big prize money.
“I’ve fished that tournament for seven years,” Ellington said on Thursday’s SportsTalk. He typically participates in around four tournaments a year, but for Ellington fishing really takes 365 days a year. “I go to check on the boat every other week,” Ellington said. The boat is a 58-footer that Ellington built himself. “It took four years to build,” Ellington stated. During tournaments he takes two mates and a captain. Even with the extra hands, Ellington said he spends 20 percent of his time worrying about the boat instead of worrying about the fish.
Ellington said his interest began as a kid going to Harker’s Island with his father and seeing the boats docked there.
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SportsTalk: Sharrow Named Athletic Director Of The Year
Joe Sharrow spent 10 years between Southern Vance High School and Vance County High School as athletic director. He was also an assistant principal at Vance County High School, and those years in Vance County have paid off for Sharrow. He is now AD at one of the biggest schools in the Triangle, Jordan High School. Sharrow has been named Athletic Director of the Year by NC High School OT and WRAL.
Sharrow was a guest on SportsTalk Wednesday and gave plenty of credit to Vance County for the award, which Sharrow received after his tenure in Vance County but after just one year in Durham. “This is every bit a Vance County award. Vance County helped me become the person I am today. I love and appreciate Henderson and Vance County,” Sharrow said.
Jordan High School is a bigger school and with that it brings bigger responsibilities. “We have 2,200 students and 700 student athletes,” Sharrow said. Jordan offers 27 varsity athletic programs. “It’s a different animal at Jordan compared to Vance County,” Sharrow added.
Even with his success and love for Jordan, Sharrow said he will always bleed black and green, the colors of the Vance Co. Vipers and his roots will always be Columbia blue and white – the colors the Southern Vance Raiders wore during their existence.
Jordan High School has played the Vipers on a number of occasions over the years but, no games are on the schedule for the upcoming school year. Congratulations to Joe Sharrow on his success!
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SportsTalk: Vance County High Prepares For Football Season
School may be out for the summer, but that doesn’t mean Vance County High School Athletic Director Ray Noel is taking it easy. Camps are taking place in the coming weeks for soccer, basketball and volleyball. This week the Viper’s football team is participating in a 7 on 7 camp at NC State.
“It’s an opportunity to work on passing and defense,” Noel said. One of the teams Vance County has faced is Sanderson. The Vipers prevailed in that contest but they also have to face Northern Durham and Chambers from the Charlotte area. It’s a great opportunity for the kids to get some touches on the football according to Noel. Turnout for these offseason camps and workouts has been strong. “We’ve had good numbers at workouts with 50 to 60 kids,” Noel said.
While losing their starting quarterback to graduation, Noel said to expect big things from Taeshawn Alston and Javon Vines-Holder this season. Upcoming 7 on 7 camps will be held at Winston-Salem State and St. Augustine’s.
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SportsTalk: Oxford’s Adcock Called Up to the Majors
Oxford’s Ty Adcock has been called up to pitch for the Seattle Mariners. The South Granville High School Graduate made his Major League Baseball debut Monday night in relief during the Mariners 8-1 win over the Miami Marlins. Adcock pitched two innings and gave up no hits, no runs and no walks. The 26 year old pitcher is the son of Keith Adcock and Jennifer Strickland Adcock. He played college ball at Elon.
The road to the majors has been a long one for Adcock. While at Elon, Adcock developed a back injury in his freshman year, fracturing his L5 vertebra, and shoulder issues hampered his senior season. After being drafted by the Mariners, the team kept him off the field in 2019 to rehab. In 2020 Covid took care of the season. In 2021 Adcock tore his UCL ligament in his elbow while facing his 6th batter of the season during a stint in the Mariner’s farm system. That injury resulted in Tommy John surgery and 17 months of rehab.
Adcock was called up to the Mariners after an injury to pitcher Penn Murfee.
SportsTalk: Wilkerson Wraps Up Junior Season At UNC
Colby Wilkerson saw much success during his time at Kerr-Vance Academy and that success has continued at UNC where Wilkerson is the starting shortstop. Wilkerson, who is a junior this year, and the Tar Heels just wrapped up the season making it into the NCAA Tournament. Wilkerson felt UNC was successful this season but didn’t quite get to where he had hoped this season. “Every season has goods and bads. We always want to get to Omaha,” Wilkerson said. Omaha is the site of the college baseball world series, and while UNC didn’t make it this year, Wilkerson did say one of the highlights of the year was his sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the ninth inning in a late regular season game against rival NC State to win the contest.
There were other highlights for Wilkerson including the opportunity to play another year, finishing the season healthy and contributing to other players success. Wilkerson said that every game is exciting for him and that he credits much of his personal success to having a good routine that he sticks to.
UNC will only lose three seniors for next season which could mean more wins on the diamond for the Tar Heels. “We hope to get a little better and be the last team standing,” Wilkerson concluded.
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SportsTalk: Duke Baseball 2023 Super Regional
Chris Edwards, play by play announcer of Duke Baseball for Learfield, spoke with John Rose on WIZS SportsTalk.
Super regional play begins Friday for Duke at Virginia at 12 noon.
Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia hope to advance to the College World Series.
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2 Vance Charter Lacrosse Players Make All-State Team
-information courtesy of Vance Charter School Lacrosse Coach Dan Sandlin
Vance Charter School is excited to share that two student athletes have propelled to All State in lacrosse. Junior, attackman, Gavyn Sandlin, and Senior defenseman, Daniel Mangum, have both taken a spot on the All State lacrosse team for NCHSAA 1A/2A/3A. Both serving as Captains during this season, Sandlin and Mangum were also named to the All Region team and All Conference players. Mangum was the Vance Charter School Defensive Player of the Year, while Sandlin was the Offensive Player of the Year.
Sandlin reached the 200 career point mark, finishing out with 218 points over his last three seasons. This season, Sandlin finished with 52 goals and 29 assists, putting him among the top point getters in the 1A/2/3A East Division. Last year, Sandlin was also named to the All Conference, All Region and All State teams, finishing out being named a US Lacrosse All American. He finished this season strong.
Mangum had 65 ground balls and 35 takeaways after a strong season. His defensive skills allowed him to excel on the field as a constant leader. Mangum brought an amazing level of energy to the field each day at practice and games. This energy was contagious, and the rest of the team would feed off of his energy.
The Vance Charter Knights had a strong season finishing at the top of the conference, making it to the second round of state playoffs for the second consecutive year, and having All Region and All State representation the last two years.
SportsTalk: Crossroads Celebrates 4th State Championship
Crossroads Christian School has just wrapped up its girls soccer season with the school’s fourth state championship. The school had previously won a championship in golf and has had two consecutive boys cross country championship teams. The girls soccer team has come a long way in the last couple of years, according to the school’s athletic director Scottie Richardson.
“We were 11-10 in 2022,” Richardson said on Thursday’s SportsTalk on WIZS. “This year we exploded. We were ranked number 1 most of the year. We lost our first game but went on to win fifteen straight games,” Richardson added. The team, consisting of mostly 8th, 9th and 10th graders, featured two all state freshmen. “We are still a young team,” Richardson said.
Next year is shaping up as a good one for Crossroads as Richardson said boys soccer will return most of its players after a deep run in the playoffs this season. Richardson also has high hopes for volleyball and feels that the girls cross country team could add to the championship banners at Crossroads Christian.
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