Tag Archive for: #sportstalk

SportsTalk: UNC Baseball Starts Friday

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Former Kerr-Vance Academy standout and Granville County native Daniel Wilkerson is excited about Friday!  Wilkerson, assistant to the head coach for UNC Baseball, is ready to get the 15th-ranked Tar Heels on the field for the first game of the season Friday.  “I can’t sleep the night before.  It’s like Christmas morning,” Wilkerson said.

The Tar Heels open the season with a three-game series against Wagner.  The first game is Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.  The Tar Heels are just one of six ACC teams ranked in the top 15 nationally including No. 1 ranked Wake Forest.  “We didn’t play them last year and I can’t wait to go to Winston-Salem this year,” Wilkerson said.  “The rankings are meaningless.  I ignore the rankings.  We still have to go win baseball games,” Wilkerson added.

Wilkerson is also excited about his team’s prospects.  “We’ve got young arms and a good pitching staff.  We are deep in the bull pen,” said Wilkerson.

Daniel Wilkerson joined the UNC baseball program as Assistant to the head Coach and Clubhouse/Equipment manager during the 2022 fall semester.

 

Crossroads Christian School

SportsTalk: Crossroads Gets Ready For Tournament

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Scottie Richardson has reason to be happy, back-to-back regular season championships for the Crossroads Christian boys basketball team.  Richardson, the school’s athletic director, was a guest on Wednesday’s Sportstalk, and he said, “The boys will get a bye in the first round and we will play at home at 2 p.m. Saturday.”  The opponent will be the winner of the New Garden/Halifax matchup.

Richardson is very proud of the accomplishments of his team.  “This is the third year in a row the boys team has been a top 4 seed.  “We’ve played New Garden three times this year and I think we will play them a fourth time Saturday,” Richardson added.

His girls team is also in the state tournament and plays at 6 p.m. Friday against Albemarle.  “If they win, they will play again Saturday against Ridgecroft,” Richardson said.

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SportsTalk: Louisburg College Softball Is Ranked No. 1 In The Nation

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When we think of a No. 1 ranked college athletic program, we may think of UNC, Duke or a team from a nationally known institution in other parts of the country.  Most people probably don’t think about Louisburg College.  Perhaps they should as the Louisburg College Hurricanes softball team is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the country.  Eric Lee, who took over the Hurricanes program in 2017, was Thursday’s guest on SportsTalk.  “It’s a good job,” Lee said of his position at the college.

Last year the Hurricanes led the nation in homeruns, not just at the junior college level but at every level including NCAA Division I.  That’s an impressive achievement for any school but even more so from a small junior college like Louisburg.  The college has a rich athletic history with names like Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, baseball coach Russell Frazier, basketball coaches Enid Drake and Mike Holloman.  “I’m honored to be at the school, but I don’t think of myself as being up there with those names,” Lee said.

With the recent success the college is spending $100,000 on upgrading facilities at the school.  These upgrades will hopefully lead to more kids wanting to play at Louisburg. “You can recruit here,” Lee said.  One of Lee’s goals is to recruit locally as much as possible from not only Franklin County but the surrounding counties of Wake, Vance, Warren and Granville Counties.  “We’ve had success recruiting locally.  A lot of students want a traditional college experience,” Lee added.

 

SportsTalk: Former Southern Vance Football Coach Dave Jennings Talks About The Super Bowl

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Dave Jennings is likely a familiar name to those who follow local athletics.  He was head coach at Southern Vance High School for 14 years before moving on to Franklinton High School where he was an offensive line coach and offensive coordinator .  Coach Jennings was a guest on Monday’s SportsTalk and shared his thoughts on the big 49ers vs. Chiefs game this weekend but also talked about his coaching days as well.  “I’m retired now,” Jennings said. While he may no longer prowl the sidelines on Friday night, he is proud of his accomplishments on the field.  “We had a winning record 13 of 14 seasons,” Jennings said.  Jennings also took Southern Vance to the state championship game in 2006 where they lost by three points to Shelby.

Today’s high school game is different with the influx of charter and private schools.  “You have to go with the flow.  You have to take the players you have and just go with it,” Jennings said.

During his time at Southern Vance he had the opportunity to coach Aaron Elliott, the current head coach at Vance High School.  “Coach Elliott is doing a great job,” Jennings said.

As for Sunday’s big game?  “I believe it will be lower scoring than most think,” Jennings said.  He feels that the Chiefs should come away with the victory on Sunday.

 

SportsTalk: Local Coaches Prep For Basketball Tournaments And Spring Sports

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John Hammett and Scottie Richardson may be athletic directors for different schools in different counties but they are both facing the same things: a basketball season that is winding down and the start of spring sports.

Hammett, Oxford Prep’s athletic director, says his boys’ basketball team is having a real strong year despite a loss this week to Vance Charter.  “We’ve got some real good shooters,” Hammett said.  They take on Roxboro Charter Friday night. “Roxboro is young but they have a couple of good player,” Hammett said of the team’s opponent. The girls team is currently 7-9. “They have been getting better throughout the year,” said Hammett.  Oxford Prep has five games remaining before they start the conference basketball tournament.

Meanwhile, at Crossroads Christian, athletic director Scottie Richardson says his girls team will be the second seed for their upcoming tournament. The boys could be.  “We control our own destiny,” Richardson said.   It will take a few more wins in the remaining four games for Crossroads to secure that second seed.

One of the problems both men face is an overlap between basketball and baseball.  “I would like to see both basketball and baseball seasons shortened to eliminate the overlap,” Hammett said on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  Richardson said it is difficult to coordinate with coaches when players play multiple sports.

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SportsTalk: Alex Tharp Talks JF Webb Basketball

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Alex Tharp, J.F. Webb head basketball coach, discusses the current basketball season.

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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: Sandlin Signs Letter Of Intent To Play For Methodist University

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Gavyn Sandlin, a senior at Vance Charter School, signed his letter of intent to play college lacrosse for Methodist University of Fayetteville last week.  The signing took place at Vance Charter. Sandlin has been part of the varsity lacrosse program for the last three years. He earned All-Conference his freshman year. During his sophomore year, he earned All-Conference, All-Region, All-State and was named a US Lacrosse All-American. During his junior year he repeated his honors of All-Conference, All-Region, and All-State.  

Sandlin was a guest on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  Dennis Sandlin, Gavyn’s grandfather, is the head coach of lacrosse at Vance Charter and his dad, Dan Sandlin, is an assistant.  One could say that lacrosse is the family business.  “It never ends,” Gavyn said about lacrosse and his father and grandfather.  “I knew I wanted to play from the age of five,” Sandlin continued.

Sandlin has been named the Tar River Prep player of the year for the last three years, served as a team captain, been a scholar-athlete and has been named conference player of the year and Vance Charter Offensive Player of the Year.

Having over 200 career points and over 100 career goals, along with holding a state record for most points in a single game, he will add to that this season as Vance Charter starts its season on Valentine’s Day. 

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SportsTalk: Biedenbach Reflects On David Thompson

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Eddie Biedenbach knows basketball and he knows NC State basketball.  He also knows David Thompson.  Thompson was a key player in for the Wolfpack in 1974 when they defeated Marquette for the national championship.

NC State University recently unveiled a statue of Thompson placed at Reynolds Coliseum. Biedenbach, who played for Everett Case and Norm Sloan at NC State in the mid to late 1960’s, was an assistant coach when Thompson was leading NC State to that national championship.

“No one knew much about him,” Biedenbach said of Thompson when he first started to recruit him for the Wolfpack.  He had seen film but seeing him in person was a different matter.  “I called Coach Sloan at halftime,” Biedenbach said of the first time he was Thompson play.  He was, needless to say, very impressed.

“He had no weaknesses.  He was a team player,” Bidenbach added on SportsTalk Wednesday. “He had everything it took to be a good player,” he said.  “He played the game like it was supposed to be played,” Biedenbach continued.

Biedenbach said today’s game is different from what it was 50 years ago when Thompson was leading the Wolfpack. Dunking was not allowed and there was no three point shot or a 30 second shot  clock. “He could play today’s game,” Biedenbach said of Thompson.

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SportsTalk: Vance Charter Girls Basketball Off To A Strong Start

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The Vance Charter Girls Basketball team is off to a 4-1 start this season and head coach Brian Howard is kind of happy about it.  “The one part in the 4 -1 isn’t very satisfying,” Howard said on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  That “1” part that Howard refers to is a 49-47 loss to Falls Lake.  “We left points on the free throw line and missed points in transition,” Howard added.

This week Vance Charter defeated Granville Central 58-10 in a game that saw Vance Charter’s Alaina Bullock record 14 points and 9 steals.  “We preach defense.  I’m a defensive-minded coach,” Howard said about allowing only 10 points in the game.

Vance Charter has been putting solid teams on the court over the last several years but Howard feels that they are all quite different.  “This year’s team is one of the most connected, due to chemistry, I’ve had,” Howard stated.

Next up for Vance Charter is East Wake Academy on December 15th.

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