Tag Archive for: #sportstalk

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Pender And The Vipers Head To Fayetteville For State Playoffs

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Burnout was a concern for Vance County Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender. With the 2020 season getting moved to the spring of 2021 due to Covid and then right back on the field in August it was a valid concern for the Viper’s coaching staff.  Vance County was up to the challenge for the most part finishing with a 7-2 regular season record and 4-1 in the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference which put them second behind Southern Durham and good enough to put the team into the playoffs.

Vance County will be on the road tomorrow night as they head to Fayetteville to play the 8th seeded Westover Wolverines who bring an 8-1 record to the contest. The Wolverines have a strong passing and running game and will give the Vipers all they can handle. “Hopefully, we can put it all together,” said Coach Pender Thursday on SportsTalk with Trey Snide.  “Being in the top 32 teams in the state is an honor but not where we want to be,” added Pender who hopes the Vipers can advance further than just the first round. “Playoff football is the expectation but, we don’t want to get bounce early,” Pender said of the Viper’s playoff hopes.

While players like Nazir Garrett, Dave Vines-Holder and Carl Stephens got much of the attention this season Coach Pender also singled out Omari Allen, Nate Durham and Jasir Gamble, all linemen, for their excellent play this season.  They will need all of them and then some if they hope to get past the Wolverines.

The Vance Co. Friday Night Football broadcast can heard on WIZS 1450am, 100.1fm and on wizs.com beginning immediately after the Joy Christian Center Broadcast at approximately 6:50pm. Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue will have all of the action from Fayetteville tomorrow night.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Look To Rebound Against Webb

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Shocked is the word Vance County High School Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender used to describe his and his coaching staff’s reaction to the 48-0 loss to Southern Durham last Friday night. “We knew it was going to be a mountain climbing experience,” Pender said. “We didn’t make enough plays and put our defense in bad situations,” Pender added about the Viper’s performance.  Despite the great week of practice the Vipers just couldn’t get the job done against Southern Durham. “It was the perfect storm for them and a great learning experience for us,” Pender said in summation of the loss.

Even with that loss Pender feels that the Vipers have been better than expected and that he’s put a good product on the field. He’ll need it tomorrow night for the final regular season game against J. F. Webb in Oxford.  The Warriors feature Javon Bullock who has torched defenses for over 1200 yards this season and the Vipers will have to shut him down and play better offense to walk off the field with a victory. With playoffs looming for the Vipers a victory against the Warriors to wrap up the regular season will add some momentum going into round one of those playoffs next week.

 

SportsTalk: Success On The Field Keeps Vance Charter AD Lance Stallings Busy

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#1 in women’s volleyball, #2 in men’s soccer, a great cross country season and women’s golf coach and player of the year have certainly put a smile on Vance Charter’s athletic director Lance Stallings. “Kudos to the coaches and the kids,” Stallings said on Thursday’s SportsTalk with Trey Snide. “It’s great to get back to normal and I’m lucky to be a part of it all,” Stallings added.

Women’s golf at Vance Charter has been a great success with second year head coach Tyler Woodside being named Coach of the Year and golfer Grace Stovall grabbing Golfer of the Year honors this season. Three other golfers finished in the top ten for the school.

Men’s soccer is #2 in the Triangle North Athletic Conference and Vance Charter’s team will get a bye going into the tournament and will play on Monday at 4:30pm. If they come away with a win they will play for the conference championship later next week.

Meanwhile, volleyball also has their tournament going on and Vance Charter will begin tournament play this Saturday at 3pm taking on Carrboro. It all adds up to a busy fall sporting season for Vance Charter and AD Lance Stallings.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Prepare For Southern Durham

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128 points…sounds like what a high school basketball team might score over a couple of games but, that is not the case here. This is what Southern Durham has scored in their last two football games and the high powered Southern Durham offensive show is coming to Henderson this week to take on the Vance Co. Vipers in what will most likely determine the champion of the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference.

Both teams are 3 – 0 in the conference and while Vance Co. boasts an overall better record at 6 -1 to Southern Durham’s 4-4, the Spartan’s have played a much more difficult schedule and Vance Co. is coming off a poor performance in a 21 – 8 win over Granville Central last week that saw the Vipers struggle on offense against a winless team.

Coach Wilbur Pender felt his team didn’t have their best offensive game last week but thought the defense may have turned in its best performance.  “We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Pender said of the Viper’s offense. This week Pender and Vipers are working on those mistakes. “Let’s stop being our own worst enemy,” is what Pender has stressed to his team.

Pender says the key Friday night is to tackle, stop the big play and don’t allow Southern Durham to score on special teams. Practice has been much better this week so Pender hopes that will result in slowing the Southern Durham offensive machine down and will lead to a victory and likely conference championship.

WIZS will have live play by play of the games beginning immediately after the Joy Christian Center broadcast about 6:45pm with kickoff at 7pm.

 

SportsTalk: Vance Charter Women’s Basketball Hoping For A State Championship

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With basketball season only about a month away expectations are high for the women’s varsity program at Vance Charter. “It’s the most excitement we’ve had going into a season in a long time,” says coach Brian Howard. The Knights, who return every player from last year’s team, are looking to this year as an opportunity to make a state championship run. Coach Howard says tryouts have gone well and this year he held summer workouts for his players for the first time.  “We had about 80% participation,” Howard said. That meant some players would leave work, come to practice and then return to work. He is very pleased with the maturity level his four returning seniors are showing. “They have shown tremendous growth and are the leaders of the team,” says Coach Howard.

They won’t be relying only on their talented seniors. Last year’s undefeated J-V team was undefeated and many of those players are now freshmen and they will also play a huge role in the success the Knights are hoping for.

Coach Howard says that while some of his players do play multiple sports, they are very, very dedicated to the basketball program at Vance Charter.  All of these factors figure into the belief that Vance Charter may indeed make a run at a state championship this season.

The road to that championship begins next month against Franklin Academy. A team who, at this point, Coach Howard knows nothing about. He’s not really too worried about that. “We just have to handle our business,” Howard said to Trey Snide on Thursday’s SportsTalk.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Look To Go 6 – 1 Against Granville Central

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In his first year as head coach of the Vance County High School Vipers, Coach Wilbur Pender has his team sitting at 5-1. Not bad for a first year coach. When asked if he expected the team to have this kind of success this season he responded, “We could be wherever we worked to be.” Right now that means sitting at the top of the conference. The Vipers are coming off their fourth consecutive victory, a hard fought 18-12 win over South Granville last week.

“They were well coached,” Pender said of the Vikings. “We took whatever the defense gave us. We were efficient enough to make South Granville’s defense stay honest,” Pender added.  With only 1 victory, on paper it looked like South Granville would be easy but the Vikings put up a fight. This week, Granville Central also is, on paper, a solid opportunity for the Vipers to move to 7-1. Granville Central is 0-7 but Coach Pender, who used to coach there, says the team is building things and is very young. With Friday’s game being somewhat of a homecoming for Pender it’s likely Granville Central would enjoy nothing better than taking the Vipers down a notch.

Pender respects what Granville Central is doing but he has been preparing some new wrinkles with the Vipers.  He says he isn’t adding anything new to what has worked but just a few tweaks here and there.

We’ll see those tweaks, perhaps, Friday night at Granville Central. Bill Harris and Doc Ayscue will broadcast the game live on WIZS beginning immediately following the Joy Christian Center broadcast around 6:45 with kickoff at 7 p.m.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Pender Preparing Vipers For Rain And Vikings

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While the Vikings of South Granville High School may not come from the land of ice and snow, as the song says, weather may very well be a factor in tomorrow night’s homecoming game at Vance County High School.

South Granville brings a 1-5 record to Henderson to face the 4-1 Vipers but Vipers Coach Wilber Pender explained that the South Granville record is somewhat deceiving. Pender said the Vikings losses have been to some very strong competition such as Orange, Hillside, Heritage, Southern Nash and Lee County. “South Granville has challenged themselves,” Coach Pender said on Thursday. “They are battle tested,” he added.  South Granville will likely keep the ball on the ground which, considering the 70% chance of rain Friday night, might be smart. “They are not going to stop until you decide to stop it,” Pender said of the South Granville offense.  However, the Vipers have a ground attack of their own with Dave Vines-Holder, who racked up nearly 200 yard last week against Carrboro and Carl Stephens who added nearly one hundred yards in the 36-12 win over the Jaguars last Friday night.

Coach Pender felt that while the team played well against the Jaguars he is still not satisfied. “We are making progress and improving each week. We are putting in the work and it’s starting to show on the field,” the coach said.

Those are things Pender can control but the weather is not. He says that rain is just another element to the game. He has had the Vipers practicing with a wet ball in anticipation of a wet field and while the weather may have an impact, Pender says that the game “comes down to focus”.  For Vance County the rain will pose more challenges for the passing game than the ground game and the staff feels that receivers must focus on catching the ball. Those pass routes may be a bit shorter too.

As Pender prepares for the Vikings and the elements he says he has concerns about about inconsistencies with the Vipers. On some series, he says, the team looks great while others are not. As the team plays their second conference game Friday night Coach Pender says the team in the conference that gives him the most nightmares is Vance County because of those inconsistencies.

Tomorrow night will be the Vipers first home in several weeks and with homecoming taking place Pender expects to have a great home turnout, rain or not.

The Vipers kick off against the South Granville Vikings at 7:00 tomorrow night.  WIZS will have live coverage with Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue beginning immediately following the Joy Christian Center Broadcast around 6:45.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Look To Move To 4-1 Against Carrboro

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“We don’t win future games from what we did in the past,” were the words of Vance Co. High School football coach Wilbur Pender when discussing the Viper’s upcoming matchup with Carrboro. The Vipers are coming off a 21-20 victory last week over Northern Durham and are looking to open their conference schedule against Carrboro with a win.

Pender said the team has had a great week of practice and said the team is back in rhythm after a two week lay off due to a Covid exposure. The effects of the layoff are quickly fading and preparation for Carrboro is the key to a victory Friday night. “If we don’t prepare well, we won’t play well,” said Pender.

The Vipers are looking to clamp down on the mistakes made last week. Six penalties in the first quarter against Northern Durham eliminated two touchdowns but Coach Pender was impressed that they were able to overcome those mistakes. “We kept fighting and chipping away,” Coach Pender said. That included two big 4th down conversion late in the game to allow the Vipers to overcome a Northern Durham lead.

Carrboro is an improving team with a strong rushing game and Pender says that the Vipers have been working on getting players to the ball, gang tackling and making sure they have the fundamentals down.

The Vipers play Carrboro at 7 o’clock Friday night.  You can hear the game on WIZS beginning at the conclusion of the Joy Christian Center broadcast at approximately 6:45 tomorrow evening.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Ready For Northern Durham

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“It feels like the universe is back set right,” said Vance County High School Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender about the return of the Vipers to the field this Friday night. The Vipers have missed the last two games due to a Covid exposure. Now they are ready for some football.  Northern Durham, 1-3 on the year, will travel to Henderson to take on the Vipers who put a 2-1 record on the line.

Coach Pender said the Vipers have had a good week of practice for a team coming off quarantine. He expected some drop off after missing two ball games but he and his coaching staff have worked hard to make sure any drop off has been kept to a minimum.

The last game the Vipers played was a victory against Durham-Riverside and Coach Pender said the secret of the win was that the team executed better. They will have to be consistent about execution to be the team that Coach Pender has in mind. While Northern Durham may be 1-3, the Vipers will have to be on top of executing their game plan. Northern Durham is big and their losses have been against very stiff competition: perennial state power Scotland County along with Knightdale and Wakefield.  Those two Wake County teams play in one of the toughest 4A conferences in the state.  Northern Durham is expected to run the ball about 80% of the time and Vipers have had some trouble with stopping the run so far this season.

Coach Pender says the Vipers will need to run the ball, help the quarterback, catch the ball and tackle better. “I’m still learning,” Pender says of his first year. “We are improving each and every day,” added the coach. “I want to be undefeated,” continued Pender. While that won’t be possible this year, the Vipers are looking to become a force to be reckoned with. “Vance County has a pretty good football team. The state is going to be knowing about that soon,” said Pender.  A bold statement from a first year coach. Perhaps Northern Durham will be one of the first schools to discover just how good the Vipers are.

The game will be broadcast live on WIZS with Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue. Airtime is 6:45 with kickoff at 7pm from Vance County High School.

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers To Return To The Field On Sept. 24th

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There may be some who recall the old PAC 6 – 4A conference and hard fought battles between the Vance Vikings and the Northern Durham Knights at Veterans Field in downtown Henderson or at Durham County Stadium. Those two teams hooked up for some great high school football games back in the 1980’s.  While the Vikings are no longer with us, their spirit remains in the Vance County Vipers and they will once again tangle with the Northern Durham Knights in Durham on Sept. 24th. It will be the Vipers first game since defeating Durham-Riverside almost two weeks ago where, unfortunately, they were exposed to Covid shuttering the school’s football program for two weeks. The good news is that even though there was exposure, none of the Viper’s players or coaches tested positive.

Vance County Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender said today on SportsTalk with Trey Snide, “This week has been something else. It’s different. It’s weird.  When you have football in the fall and have to sit on your hands for two weeks you get a bit antsy.”

While the team has been quarantined coaches have stayed in touch via phone and computer. Coach Pender said he and his staff check in on the players to make sure they eat right, get in workouts instead of playing video games and stay on top of their school work. “Players are chomping at the bit,” Pender added about the chance to return to action.  However, Pender also noted that the health and well being of players and staff is the top priority. They won’t have to wait much longer as the quarantine ends Friday and the students return to school and practice on Monday to begin preparations for the Knights.

They will have their work cut out for them too. The Knights boast several offensive line men on the northside of 300 pounds and will run hard at the Vipers. The Knights are 1 -2 having been beaten by Scotland Co. 52 – 0 and losing 56 – 6 against Knightdale. There only victory was a 25 – 23 win against Franklinton.

Meanwhile, the Vipers put their 2 – 1 record on the line but Coach Pender feels good about his chances. Effective execution on offense, allowing a good mix of run and pass should put the Vipers where they want to be against Northern Durham. “Any play can become a home run play,” Pender said.

The Vipers will play the Knights on Friday Sept. 24th in Durham with kick off at 7pm.

Remember to listen to the Live Play by Play on WIZS Radio if you are unable to attend the game.