Tag Archive for: #kerrvanceacademy

SportsTalk: Rain And Umpire Shortage Are Obstacles For KVA

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“Rain rain go away, come again some other day” might be what’s on the mind of Kerr Vance Academy Athletic Director Mike Joyner.  “We’ve had no baseball, no soccer and only one golf match,” Joyner said on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  Rain has caused seven baseball games to be cancelled this year.  “We have nowhere for the water to drain,” Joyner added.

In addition to the rain, rescheduling has been difficult due to ongoing umpire shortages. “We need better recruiting,” Joyner said of the shortage.  Joyner also said disrespect from fans and low wages has made it difficult to recruit umpires. Additionally, Joyner said that not enough young people are going into the ranks as umpires to replace those who are aging out.

There is a bright side to the cancellations.  “We had a couple of player with nagging injuries and these cancelled games have allowed them time to heal,” Joyner stated.  With better weather forecast next week, KVA hopes to get all of their spring sports back out playing.

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SportsTalk: KVA Prepares For Playoffs And Spring Sports

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For Kerr-Vance Academy’s athletic director, Mike Joyner, it’s been a long fall season.  Basketball tournaments and the holidays have all contributed.  Joyner, who was a guest on Thursday’s SportsTalk, said the season is going well.  “Our boys basketball team has won two conference games in a row,” Joyner said.  The most recent victory was Wednesday night against Halifax.  The boys team is just over .500 for the season.  Meanwhile, the girls and JV teams have already qualified for the state playoffs. “The playoffs should start with the first round on February 13th,” Joyner added.

Joyner also looked ahead to spring sports. “Our baseball team should be able to contend,” Joyner said.  The team was a solid playoff team last year and lost no players to graduation and the same can be said for the school’s golf team, while girls soccer will bring back almost all of the players from last year.

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SportsTalk: KVA Prepares For Holiday Tournament

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Mike Joyner, Kerr Vance Academy athletic director, has reason to be happy with the school’s Fall sports programs.  “Every team made the playoffs,” Joyner stated on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  Now that fall sports have come to an end, the winter sports season is kicking into high gear.  The Spartans have one win to their credit in boys basketball and the girls team is struggling with injuries at the moment but an upcoming holiday tournament at the school will give both squads a chance to rebound.  The tournament takes place next weekend.  “Big crowds and lots of alumni are expected,” Joyner said.

Joyner also singled out cheerleading coach Elizabeth Wilson.  “The cheerleading squad has tripled in size,” Joyner said.  One of the highlights of the upcoming basketball tournament will be the Spartanettes who are cheerleaders from lower grades, Almost like a JV cheerleading squad.  They have several opportunities to perform routines with the older girls throughout the season and the tournament will provide the Spartanettes a chance to show off their skills.  Again, the tournament begins Friday, December 15th at Kerr Vance Academy.

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SportsTalk: KVA Prepares For Tournaments

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Schools around the area are approaching state playoffs and conference tournaments.  Kerr Vance Academy is no exception.  The school’s Volleyball team, currently ranked 7th in the state, will take on Faith Christian in the second round of their conference tournament in Rocky Mount after receiving a first round bye, according to Mike Joyner, KVA Athletic Director.  Once the conference tournament finishes up it’s likely KVA will have some more home games to start off state playoffs.  “Depending on how the conference finishes, it’s likely we will get more home games,” Joyner said.

Soccer and Tennis have also finished their regular season.  “We will likely have to travel in the first round,” Joyner said in regards to his soccer and tennis teams. “We are waiting for seeding,” Joyner added.

Basketball is also gearing up for JV girls and boys and varsity girls and boys.  Basketball season opens Oct. 30th.

And if that weren’t enough Joyner is also prepping the school’s swim team.  “We have six or seven swimmers and we are hoping to schedule meets closer to home this year,” Joyner commented. Joyner was a guest on Wednesday’s SportsTalk on WIZS.

 

SportsTalk: Local Schools Making A Run In State Playoffs

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It’s an exciting time at Oxford Prep and Kerr Vance Academy.  Both schools have teams advancing through the state playoffs.

At Oxford Prep it’s Tommy Anstead’s softball team that is looking to make it to the third round of the state playoffs.   “We’ve never been as far as the third round,” Anstead said on Thursday’s SportsTalk on WIZS. On Tuesday Oxford Prep had a convincing 5-3 win over Union High School.  That school featured a pitcher with 196 strike outs this year.  When asked how you prepare for a pitcher with that type of talent Anstead said, “You hope they don’t have any,” referring to the strike outs. This is the school’s third time advancing to the second round and they must defeat Riverside Martin from Williamston Friday night to make it to round three.  Riverside Martin is ranked eleventh in the state.  That game is in Oxford and will be at 6pm Friday.

Meanwhile, Mike Joyner, Athletic Director at Kerr Vance Academy, will need to be in two places at once Friday night as both the baseball team and the girl’s soccer team will be playing.  The Spartan’s soccer team is ranked #8 in the state and escaped with a 1-0 win over Lee Christian earlier this week and will now face local rival Crossroads Christian.  That game is at 5pm Friday.  At 6pm the #1 seeded baseball team, which is coming off a first round bye, will take on North Hills Christian.  “We lost in the semi-finals last year and we felt we were in good shape to make a run this year,” Joyner said of the team.  “We are young with no seniors but we added two really good players,” Joyner added.  KVA will be at home throughout the playoffs with the championships coming up on May 19th and 20th.

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SportsTalk: Local High School Programs Struggling With Bad Weather

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Talk to Ray Noel, Athletic Director at Vance County High School, or Mike Joyner, Athletic Director at Kerr Vance Academy, and both men will tell you the same thing.  Weather has slowed Spring sports to a crawl.  “We need games,” said Ray Noel on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  “The weather has been unforgiving,” Noel added.  Vance County’s softball team is currently 1-4 but failed to get in games with Louisburg High this week because of the wet conditions. The baseball team has only played one game this season, a win against Triangle Science and Math over a week ago.

Rain is not the only problem.  Wet conditions that persist long after the rain stops is also an issue for those on the baseball or softball diamond.  The cool cloudy conditions have not allowed for much drying of the fields this week.  Soccer at Vance County can deal with some wet conditions and the Vipers’ girls soccer team is 0-2 in the conference but are playing hard.  The squad has two seniors and are coming off of a split with Louisburg High School in non-conference play.

Noel also looks forward to the beginning of track season.  The Vipers’ track team has it’s first meet scheduled for March 29th.

Meanwhile, over at Kerr Vance Academy the boys’ baseball team is 1-2.  “We are young but we will be ok,” Joyner said.  The school’s first conference game is scheduled for Friday.  KVA has already had two baseball games rained out.  Soccer has had one game rained out, and the golf team has yet to tee it up this year due to inclement weather.

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SportsTalk: Rigsbee Relies On Youth For KVA Baseball

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Kerr-Vance Academy’s young baseball team is coming off of a 4-1 win over East Wake Academy on Wednesday.  While it was a good win for Kerr-Vance, Coach Mike Rigsbee knows his team is very young.  “We are young but we are talented,” Rigsbee said on SportsTalk on Thursday.  “We are relying on our junior and our sophomores,” Rigsbee continued.  Junior, as in singular. Kerr-Vance’s team only has one junior this year and no seniors at all. The team is also made up of three sophomores, five freshmen along with two 8th graders and one 7th grader.

“Our older kids embrace the younger ones. Kids start at a young age and they have to hustle and control their emotions,” Rigsbee explained.  Youth is not all he has to be concerned with though as weather is playing a factor.  With recent rains leaving the Kerr Vance field drenched, the upcoming game against Thales Academy is likely to be postponed. Rigsbee said the field at Kerr Vance is notorious for poor drainage.

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SportsTalk: Mike Joyner on KVA Athletics

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As an athletic director Mike Joyner of Kerr Vance Academy stays busy overseeing all of the sports his school provides to students. In addition to that there are tournaments that also are part of the school’s athletics.  Over the recent holiday period KVA hosted a basketball tournament with Oak Forest winning the men’s’ championship and Brunswick Academy in Virginia taking the girls’ title. “We hoped we could have done a little better,” Joyner says of KVA. “We are very young. We start a lot of 9th and 10th graders,” Joyner added.  The boys’ team did win this week over Wake Prep while the girls lost.

Joyner says it’s great to have a team like Wake Prep to play since they are close by in Youngsville.  The KVA conference schedule requires longer trips to Rocky Mount and to Greenville, and Kerr Vance is just about to start the bulk of its conference play. The travel means kids miss some classes which can be difficult on students and teachers.

In addition to basketball, Joyner says the school’s swim team has an upcoming meet next week and will soon be hosting travel volleyball tournaments bringing in some extra cash for the school and exciting games.

Additionally, KVA is gearing up to celebrate the 2003 State Baseball Championship team.  “We are looking to hold an alumni game between the 2003 team and the current team,” Joyner said. No details for that have been set but should be forthcoming soon.

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SportsTalk: Johnny Yount of Vance Charter and Mike Joyner of Kerr Vance

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Johnny Yount and Mike Joyner are used to success. They expect it.

Vance Charter Girls Soccer Coach Johnny Yount and his team are coming off a playoff run. The Knights were eliminated on Wednesday night with a 2-0 loss to Hobbton.  While they didn’t make to the state finals, Yount was happy with his team which will be losing five seniors to graduation. Next year he will have another senior heavy team with six girls on the roster plus a strong class of freshmen will be moving up as well. “Give it your best and demand it from everyone around you,” Yount said on Thursday’s SportsTalk. Those are the words he tells his team. No doubt next year’s Vance Charter Girls Soccer team will hear those words many times during the season.

Speaking of Hobbton, that’s a school familiar to Mike Joyner, Kerr Vance Academy Athletic director. It’s one of several schools where Joyner has been involved with athletics. He recently spent 8 1/2 years as athletic director at Wake Forest High School and six years as the head baseball coach. This year he retired, or so he thought. “I was retired for seven hours. I worked a basketball game at Wake Forest, slept seven hours and worked a basketball game the next night for KVA,” Joyner said. He said it was tough leaving the kids at Wake Forest but he had to make the right decision for his family and step back. Wake Forest fielded 32 teams where Kerr Vance fields nine. His duties don’t include coaching at KVA so he can actually get home at a normal time and spend time with family.  He says the difference from working in public schools as opposed to private schools is the closeness of the relationships. “It’s more of a family atmosphere,” Joyner said. At KVA he actually gets to spend time with the kids and that was something he was unable to do at Wake Forest.

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SportsTalk: Introducing Mike Joyner, The New AD At Kerr Vance Academy

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Mike Joyner has been named as the new Athletic Director for Kerr Vance Academy.  His first day on the job isn’t until February 1st, but Joyner has already been on campus to meet people and take in a basketball game.

Joyner, who currently is in the same position at Wake Forest High School, got his career underway coaching middle school baseball in Johnston County in 1994. He also was a coach at Smithfield-Selma High School as well.

Joyner, who spoke with Trey Snide on Thursday’s edition of SportsTalk, says he is looking forward to getting his hands dirty and starting a new chapter in his career at KVA. “I’m excited about taking over a program with such a rich history.” KVA has multiple state championships in a variety of sports.

At Wake Forest High School, Joyner enjoyed the football season. “It will be really different without football,” Joyner said when describing the transition to KVA.

“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Joyner said when asked about his immediate goals at the school. He is looking forward to meeting the people involved with the school and immersing himself in KVA’s culture along with involving himself with the booster club.

He has already had the opportunity to make assessments on the baseball field and he will have to hit the ground running on his first day, February 1st as KVA has a basketball game scheduled that night.