high school athletics

November 23, 2022

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Christian Long

Randolph Record Sports athlete of the week, Christian Long, high school athletics, Randleman athletics, Randleman football

Randleman, football/boys’ basketball

The seasons changed for Randleman, but Christian Long keeps on producing.

After helping guide the Tigers to a second-place finish in the Piedmont Athletic Conference football standings as the starting quarterback, Long turned his attention to basketball.

In last week’s season-opening 71-54 victory at Lexington, Long racked up 17 points. He made three of four 3-point shots and went 4-for-4 on free throws. He also was charted with a team-high five steals.

Sophomore Tyshaun Goldston, who was on the receiving end of some of Long’s passes during football season, paced the Tigers with 19 points in the basketball game against Lexington.

July 27, 2022

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Maggie Lowe

Randolph Record Sports athlete of the week, girls soccer, high school athletics, prep soccer, soccer

Southwestern Randolph | girls’ soccer

Lowe scored 27 goals across 22 games to pace the Cougars in that category.

Lowe also finished her senior season with seven assists for the third-most total on the team.

The Cougars posted a 14-7-1 record. That was the team’s most victories since 2017.

Lowe landed a spot on the All-Piedmont Conference team following the previous season’s selection for the 2021 All-Mid-Piedmont Conference team when Southwestern Randolph competed in a Class 3-A league.

Lowe had a team-best six goals in the shortened 2021 season, with the Cougars playing ten games.

June 3, 2022

History runs deep for Class 2-A title contenders Randleman, Whiteville

Bob Sutton Sports Class 2-A, high school athletics, nchsaa, Randleman, Randleman athletics, Randleman baseball, Tigers, Whiteville

Powerhouse teams Randleman and Whiteville will meet in the best-of-3 state finals for Class 2-A at Burlington Athletic Stadium. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)

This Randleman-Whiteville championship matchup, beginning at 8 p.m. Friday at Burlington Athletic Stadium, is ripe with historical overtones.

Randleman is in the finals for the sixth time in a 11-season span in which the postseason was conducted. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out most of the 2020 season, including the playoffs.

The Tigers won the 2011 title and then lost in the 2012 finals to Whiteville, were beaten by South Granville in 2015 and fell to North Lincoln in 2019 before claiming last year’s championship against Rutherfordton-Spindale Central.

Whiteville is a regular on the final weekend of the states as well. Since that 2012 meeting with Randleman, the Wolfpack won the 2014, 2015 and 2017 championships in Class 1-A and was the runner-up in 2016. Whiteville returned to Class 2-A to capture the 2018 title.

Whiteville swept Randleman in the 1985 and 2012 finals. Whiteville also won the 2018 state title, beating Ledford.

In 2019, Randleman won at Whiteville in a third-round game when both schools were in the East Region.

There hasn’t been a repeat champion in Class 2-A since North Lenoir in 2005 and 2006.

Randleman fans know their way to Burlington Athletic Stadium, going there last June.

“It’s just a great environment,” coach Jake Smith said. “Our fans, we know how loyal and committed they are.”

Also in Burlington, the Class 4-A series between Charlotte Providence and Pinecrest will be contested beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and again at 11 a.m. Saturday (and maybe Game 3 at 5 p.m. Saturday).

Last year, Class 4-A teams from Reagan and Fuquay-Varina also competed in Burlington. Among the four teams at the site, Randleman fans represented the largest turnout.

June 2, 2022

With lofty standard, Tigers just roll with it into state finals

Bob Sutton Sports baseball, Class 2-A, high school athletics, nchsaa, Prep baseball, Randleman athletics, Randleman baseball

Coach Jake Smith has directed Randleman back to another spot in the state finals. A familiar foe awaits. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

RANDLEMAN — All those lopsided results for Randleman’s baseball team on the way to the Class 2-A state finals don’t mean it has been easy this year for the Tigers.

“We can’t take any team lightly,” first baseman Gus Shelton said. “We are expected to win and that is pressure on us, if you want to call it pressure. I don’t think anybody has changed anything. We’re just taking it game-by-game.”

It will take two more victories to repeat as state champions. Whiteville is the opponent, beginning with Game 1 of the best-of-3 series at 8 p.m. Friday at Burlington Athletic Stadium. Game 2 is at 2 p.m. Saturday, with a third game, if necessary, later in the day.

Randleman (31-1) has won 15 games in a row since a loss to Catawba Ridge, a team from South Carolina in a spring break tournament in Charleston, S.C.

Whiteville (23-3) holds a 21-game winning streak. The Wolfpack has gone more than two months since losing to Class 4-A teams New Hanover and Wilmington Laney and splitting a non-conference set with St. Pauls – three opponents that combined for a 50-22 record. The Wolfpack beat St. Pauls in a third meeting by 10-5 in the third round of the state playoffs.

Randleman lost only two core players from last year’s team. So it has been clear that the Tigers would be viewed as a favorite this time around.

“It’s hard,” junior third baseman Hunter Atkins said. “We have a target on our back. They’re coming for us. Just got to stay rolling. They’re shooting for us.”

The Tigers are aware of that.

“To me, that makes it harder,” shortstop Trey Way said. “Everybody is out to get you at that point, if everybody expects you there (in the finals). We’re just playing Tiger baseball.”

Randleman has rarely been challenged, winning its last seven games by shutouts – six of those cut short by the mercy rule. That’s OK with the Tigers.

“Coach (Jake Smith) always says you want to be chased,” Shelton said. “You never want to chase down. You want to stay at the top of the mountain. It’s definitely nice. It’s always fun to win.”

Smith said the Tigers enjoyed the 2021 title for several weeks, but got back to work.

“They made a commitment to get back here,” he said. “We expect to win every year. Anything less than to have an opportunity to play for a state championship isn’t up to our standards.”

Atkins and then-freshman pitcher Drake Purvis had key roles last year, joining what’s now a strong senior class. Ryan White, who was the Most Valuable Player of the state finals last season, and Purvis have been the main pitchers this year.

“We really only lost two dudes last year,” Atkins said. “More chemistry, for sure, playing together more.”

This year’s team includes senior catcher Brooks Brannon, who has tied the state record with 20 home runs and set the RBI state mark with 87.

Randleman’s starting lineup has seven seniors, with four of them Division I signees (and two other underclassmen committed to Division I programs) and another senior Division II recruit. Way is one of them and he wants to soak in the rest of his high school career before playing for Virginia Tech.

“It’s a blast,” Way said. “I try to hang on to every last second I can. It’s senior year.”

June 1, 2022

Wheatmore girls hold state record, will play for state title

Staff Reports Sports girls soccer, high school athletics, prep soccer, prep sports, soccer, state record

Wheatmore’s Kara Comer, right, heads the ball over East Davidson’s Carson Suggs during a game in the Class 2-A state playoffs earlier this spring in Trinity. Wheatmore won the second-round game 5-1. (PJ Ward-Brown/North State Journal)

TRINITY – Wheatmore owns a state record in girls’ soccer.

Now it’s a matter of seeing if the Warriors can add a state championship to that.

It took overtime in Tuesday night’s regional final, with a 4-3 victory at Wilkes Central to keep the season alive.

In the fourth round of the Class 2-A state playoffs, Wheatmore scored three goals to set the record for goals in a season with 187.

That came in the West Region semifinal by taking down third-seeded Community School of Davidson in a 3-2 result last Thursday night.

All those results put the Warriors (24-0) in the state final, which will be played against Clinton on Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

Wheatmore, which now has 191 goals, will be in the state final for the first time. Wilkes Central was the runner-up in Class 1-A/2-A in 2006 in the final year before the North Carolina High School Athletic Association went to four classifications for girls’ soccer.

The state’s team record for goals in a season had been held by East Forsyth’s 1988 team with 185.

Ellie Garrison has 76 goals for Wheatmore, with freshman Natalie Bowman at 38 and junior Summer Bowman at 34. Senior Kara Comer is the Warriors’ assist leader with 33.

Garrison’s total is the most in state history in a sophomore season, 12 more than Aycock’s Cheynnne Warrick in 2011.

Garrison ranks in the top five nationally in goals for this school year.

Knocking off Community School of Davidson (17-7) was notable because the Spartans were the 2021 Class 1-A state champions. Community School of Davidson was the first opponent to score more than one goal against Wheatmore this year.

Wheatmore won in the third round earlier last week with a 6-1 home romp past seventh-seeded Hendersonville.

Garrison and Comer both had two goals and Summer Bowman and Natalie Bowman had the other goals. Comer and Natalie Bowman had two assists apiece.

In Class 3-A, No. 12 seed Asheboro’s season ended with a 3-0 third-round defeat at fourth-seeded East Lincoln. The Blue Comets finished with a 17-5-2 record.
In Class 1-A, seventh-seeded Uwharrie Charter Academy’s season closed with a 4-1 third-round road loss to second-seeded Bishop McGuinness in Kernersville. UCA posted a 9-7-1 record.

June 1, 2022

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Ryan White

Randolph Record Sports baseball, high school athletics, prep athletics, Randleman baseball

Randleman | baseball

The senior pitcher was stellar in the Class 2-A regional finals, setting the tone by going into the fifth inning of the team’s shutout victory in Game 1 of the series against Community School of Davidson.

White struck out six while allowing one hit before he was taken out to preserve his pitch count.

White, a left-hander who’s signed to play collegiately for Western Carolina, has had an increased role for the Tigers’ offense as well. He holds the No. 8 spot in the batting order, serving as the designated hitter for games when he’s not pitching.

January 5, 2022

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Jazmin Palma

Staff Reports Sports athlete of the week, high school athletics, Holy Angels Invitational, randolph county athletes, wrestling

Uwharrie Charter Academy | Wrestling

Palma secured first place in the girls’ division of the Holy Angels Invitational last week in Charlotte.

It was a rare event set up with several brackets for girls. Palma captured first place at 113 pounds. In the title match, she defeated Martha Dominguez of Purnell Swett with a 50-second pin.

December 29, 2021

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Sean Adkins

Randolph Record Sports athlete of the week, boys' basketball, high school athletics, high school sports, randolph county sports, sean adkins, Southwestern Randolph

Southwestern Randolph | Boys’ Basketball | Junior

Adkins poured in 20 points as the Cougars secured a 61-48 non-conference victory last week at Chatham Central. It’s a huge point total for the junior considering Southwestern Randolph has struggled at times on the offensive end.

Coupled with the previous Friday’s road victory at Randleman (when Adkins had 12 points), that’s back-to-back wins for the Cougars, who improved to 5-4 overall.

The result against Chatham Central marked only the third time this season that the Cougars reached the 60-point mark.

December 22, 2021

Holiday tourneys take new twists for area teams

Bob Sutton Sports Asheboro, basketball, Eastern Randolph, high school athletics, prep sports, Providence Grove, Randleman, Southwestern Randolph

Area basketball teams will be in holiday tournament action next week, but the format will look different from past years.

Teams will be headed to two sites, with a Davidson County vs. Randolph County flavor.

“They agreed to do that this year,” Asheboro athletics director Steve Luck said. “It kind of worked out. We thought this would be neat.”

The changes stem from sponsorship changes and the renovations at Asheboro’s gym, which had been used for what were basically Randolph County tournaments on back-to-back weeks. That venue is unavailable this year.

This is called the Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic.

Now, the girls and boys play on the same days. That’s eight games per day at each site.

Games are set for Dec. 27-29 at Providence Grove and Ledford. Eight schools will be at each site with both their boys’ and girls’ teams.

“We kind of wanted something new and different,” Providence Grove athletics director Calvin Brown said.

Luck, Brown and Ledford athletics director Donald Palmer were among those putting together plans, beginning last spring.

With new North Carolina High School Athletic Association conference alignments beginning this school year, it was another reason to adjust. All the schools in Randolph County with the exception of Asheboro are in the same league.

“The Randolph County schools were getting tired of playing each other,” Luck said.

There are bound to be some matchups between conference teams, but the brackets are set up to avoid that as much as possible.

So on Day 1, Randolph County schools (plus Jordan-Matthews) take on Davidson County Schools.

There are benefits to the format, primarily that three days – albeit it long ones – will be used. In the past, the girls’ tournament came prior to Christmas and the boys’ tournament followed Christmas, so that meant organizers and support personnel had six days when they had to be in attendance.

“You’ve got three days dedicated to this,” Luck said.

Providence Grove was a site for NCHSAA championship games last March. Now there will be three consecutive days stacked with basketball in the gym.

“We’ll see how it goes and we’re hoping it grows from this,” Brown said.

Revenues from the two sites will be combined and split among the 16 participating schools.

Brown said other benefits could arise from this format. With the girls and boys playing in separate weeks in the past, it made scheduling difficult across those periods because normally girls and boys play doubleheaders. This way, Brown said it frees time in the week prior to Christmas for non-conference games.

************************************************************************************

Davidson-Randolph Christmas Classic

The tournament runs Dec. 27-29. Listed below are matchups for Day 1. Game times at both sites will be the same for Day 2 and Day 3 with matchups pending.

At Providence Grove

Girls

Randleman vs. Lexington, 10 a.m.

Asheboro vs. East Davidson, 1 p.m.

Jordan-Matthews vs. Central Davidson, 4 p.m.

Providence Grove vs. West Davidson, 7 p.m.

Boys

Randleman vs. Lexington, 11:30 a.m.

Asheboro vs. East Davidson, 2:30 p.m.

Jordan-Matthews vs. Central Davidson, 5:30 p.m.

Providence Grove vs. West Davidson, 8:30 p.m.

At Ledford

Girls

Thomasville vs. SW Randolph, 10 a.m.

Oak Grove vs. Eastern Randolph, 1 p.m.

South Davidson vs. Trinity, 4 p.m.

Ledford vs. Wheatmore, 7 p.m.

Boys

Thomasville vs. SW Randolph, 11:30 a.m.

Oak Grove vs. Eastern Randolph, 2:30 p.m.

South Davidson vs. Trinity, 5:30 p.m.

Ledford vs. Wheatmore, 8:30 p.m.