Among the thrills for Eastern Randolph during the past school year came following a road victory against South Stokes in the boys’ basketball state playoffs as coach Johnny Thomas and the team celebrate. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
RAMSEUR – Eastern Randolph had a different kind of school year in 2022-23.
For athletics director Foster Cates, the perception of athletics at the school might be changing.
That’s because the Wildcats advanced to the Class 1-A state championship game in boys’ basketball. That had never happened before.
“It has been such a football and baseball dominant school forever,” Cates said. “I wanted to make it a one-stop shot. You can come to school and do all three.”
The Wildcats won the Piedmont Athletic Conference title in football last year. They followed that with the PAC crown in boys’ basketball, coinciding with a strong regular season and postseason from the girls’ basketball team.
The fan support followed, with Eastern Randolph drawing big crowds at home and on the road for basketball games.
“It gave the community something to rally around after football season,” Cates. “That’s a long wait before the next (football) season. It was great for the community.”
Cates said the boys’ basketball team’s high-scoring games heightened the interest.
“It’s entertainment,” he said.
The girls’ basketball team had a late-season eight-game winning streak and later won two games in the state playoffs.
In football, after a first-round bye in the state playoffs, the Wildcats won two games before they were eliminated. Combined with the basketball success, there were certain positives.
“Probably getting as far as we did in both sports,” then-senior running back / linebacker Devonte Brooks said of the school year’s highlights.
There seemed to be nonstop attention on Eastern Randolph.
“It was pretty exciting,” Brooks said. “I just wanted to make it a basketball and football school, not just a one-sport school. Leave it better than I found it, that’s all I’m trying to do.”
The buzz around Eastern Randolph athletics continued in the spring.
The baseball team advanced to the Class 1-A West Region finals, extending its season to late May. The softball team won three games in the state playoffs.
Southwestern Randolph’s Adam Cole runs behind teammate Eli Gravely during a 2022 football game. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Southwestern Randolph product seeks more fast times in football
ASHEBORO – Adam Cole figured out pretty early that the best way to make an impression was to do it fast.
He sprinted to a special high school career for Southwestern Randolph.
It mostly came about through football and baseball, allowing his foot speed to set him apart.
By his senior year, he became the face of the football program.
“It’s kind of a role I have to take,” he said. “It’s not like I control it. I definitely like it. It gives me a sense of responsibility, too. I like that. I definitely think I’m a leader on the field.”
That helped translate into a record career, setting the school standard for career touchdowns. He was a receiver and cornerback.
A center fielder on the baseball field, he gave track and field a try and ended up in the Class 2-A state meet as a junior.
But football has had his attention.
“I’m just not this big, huge guy you’d look at and say he’s going D-I,” Cole said this spring. “I’m 180 pounds.”
While the speed component is nice, a commitment to build himself as an overall athlete allowed him to excel.
“I was playing at 150 pounds last year,” he said last August in reference to his junior season. “I’m about 170. I want to be about 185. Just playing baseball and football and going to camps every day, I really haven’t had a day off this summer. It’s definitely not letting me gain as much as I want to.”
The workload largely paid off as Cole ended his high school career by being selected as the Male Athlete of the Year in the Piedmont Athletic Conference.
Faster, faster
Cole’s speed puts others in awe, but he looks at the fine print.
“I’ve always been fast,” he said. “I was running a 4.7 40(-yard dash). That’s honestly terrible for a receiver if you’re trying to go play college football. I’ve put in a lot of work over the summer. I’d get up early before we had baseball practice or before football practice, go do field work. I’d go do work. I work out every day. I went from a 4.7 40 to a 4.4.”
For Southwestern Randolph, Cole’s speed gave the Cougars a valuable weapon.
“Fastest dude I’ve seen around here,” said Easton Clapp, a classmate and quarterback. “No one can keep up with him, if not the best athlete we got. Crazy fast. He can run routes like crazy.”
Opponents knew it, too.
“He’s crazy fast,” Randleman linebacker Thomas Dobias said. “He’s probably the fastest kid in our conference, for sure.”
Prior to his freshman year, Southwestern Randolph coaches had an inkling Cole might be an impact player. They had him work with varsity players in summer camps.
“I started enjoying it because I knew by my sophomore, junior, senior year, I would really be one of the best around,” he said.
A broken ankle mostly derailed that first season in high school. He called his junior season the best when he scored 23 touchdowns.
Cole accepted the attention that followed.
“It makes me play better because I know I have a standard to play up to,” he said. “I know people are watching and really expecting a lot of me. I like that. I like the pressure knowing I have to be something. It just gives me a sense of confidence.”
As the touchdown totals soared, his reputation as a speedster grew.
“They joke about it all the time. Yeah, they know,” Cole said of reaction from teammates. “I don’t remember any time in four years of high school football, I don’t think I’ve ever been run down.”
Betting on himself
Cole is joining the East Carolina football program as a preferred walk-on. Division I scholarship offers weren’t coming his way, but he didn’t want to settle for anything else.
“I’m not trying to be cocky in any way, but I feel like I’m more talented than to go D-II, D-III,” he said. “I’m just betting on myself. I’m going to work my way up and I think I’ll be on scholarship after a few years if I work as hard as I can and everything goes to plan.”
Here’s Adam Cole at Southwestern Randolph football practice last August. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)Adam Cole had a notable baseball career while with Southwestern Randolph (here) and Randolph County Post 45. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)Adam Cole competed in select track and field meets for Southwestern Randolph. (Bob Sutton/Randolph Record)
Yet he sensed interest from the Pirates and assistant coach Roy Tesh, who was his primary recruiter. Cole’s workout last year in Greenville made a difference.
“I just showed out at that camp,” he said. “They talked to me more consistent than really any other school did which is surprising.”
At the outset, he’ll be pegged as a defensive back.
“I would rather be scoring touchdowns, but I like defense, too,” he said.
He might also try punt returns and kickoff returns.
Too fast, this time
While getting to spots on the field faster is generally a bonus, it doesn’t always have the greatest results.
That’s what happened in the Cougars’ third-to-last football game last fall. Randleman’s Chesney Welch made a catch and took off toward the end zone.
“It was a play across the field and I chased him down and punched the ball out,” Cole said. “When I punched, I hit just his elbow with this pinky right here. It snapped this bone right here.”
He was pointing to his right hand.
But on that mid-October night, Cole wasn’t finished. He stayed in the game, ending up filling in at quarterback in the Cougars’ 34-7 loss.
“I played through the game,” he said. “I didn’t really feel it until I came off.”
It marked his final high school football game. The next day he went for an exam. Surgery was scheduled.
Cole sent a photo of X-ray to Welch, who probably could have done without a reminder of the sequence.
“Adam running his 4.3 came down and poked it out,” Welch said. “You don’t want to be chased by him.”
Even now, there’s a sliver of satisfaction for Cole that came from that play. He not only caused the fumble, he recovered the ball.
Cole said he made the most of the rehabilitation.
“My grip strength increased because I did therapy for it,” he said.
Adam Cole puts down a bunt for Randolph County Post 45 during last year’s Southeast Regional. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
Burning up base paths
Cole’s baseball numbers might suggest a future in that sport. He led the Cougars this year by batting over .490 in addition to swatting four home runs. He had been a mainstay in the Randolph County Post 45 lineup for two years, and even spent a couple of weeks with the team this spring prior to football commitments in Greenville.
“I don’t really enjoy baseball like I do football,” he said. “I go out of my way to go put in work for football. Baseball, I just kind of go out there and play.”
Played it quite well. Classmate Tyler Parks, a North Carolina baseball signee, saw up close what Cole’s speed could do.
“With baseball, speed doesn’t slump,’ Parks said. “He can fly. He has always been fast. As he got older, he just got faster. He just keeps getting faster. I work out with Adam. It’s just unreal how quick he is.”
Show it on the track
While Cole’s speed wasn’t camouflaged, it hadn’t been on display in the most obvious way – on the track – until his junior year.
“I was joking around with the track coach: When you going to put me on the roster and let me run?” Cole remembered.
Next thing he knew, he was sprinting in the 100 meters and then taking off to go play baseball.
Adam Cole competed in the 2022 Class 2-A state meet. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
It resulted in more than a spring fling. Cole became the Class 2-A Midwest Regional champion in the 100 in 2022.
“I didn’t expect to go out there and win regionals, and went to the states,” he said. “I’d never run track in my life. Definitely pretty cool.”
For the most part, track became a part-time pursuit.
“I don’t practice track,” he said. “I just go to baseball.”
But extra sprinting had side benefits.
“It’s really good for me,” he said. “Because baseball isn’t a ton of running, it’s keeping me in shape. Keeping me fast. Last year when I needed to go to camps to get recruited, it helped my 40-yard dash a lot. It’s helped my form. It’s a good way to compete.”
That might have been the biggest factor. A chance to test himself in a different forum.
“Really, I just like to compete,” he said. “That’s the big thing.”
Still, at this spring’s Randolph County Championships, Cole said there were doubters. He referred to it as guys talking smack.
For his part, Cole won the 100 and 200 meters.
“It’s in one ear and out the other,” he said. “I’m a baseball player. I’m fast, too, and I can do good in things like this. Coming out here not training for track and just being able to win all these track meets like I am makes me feel good. Really, I like to win.”
TRINITY – Bear Bradley is taking a job as a football head coach at a school in Randolph County.
Even though it’s a different stop than in a previous role, he said it feels like a return to a comfort zone.
Bradley has become the football coach at Trinity, leaving a similar position at Southern Guilford.
“The more I got thinking about it, I think it was one of those things, I already had some of those relationships,” Bradley said. “To be back in Randolph County, and people you’ve known. There’s a family atmosphere and you’re welcomed.”
Bradley spent four seasons (2013-16) as head coach at rival Wheatmore. So he said he’ll be familiar with many of the families who will have players on his first Trinity squad.
Bradley, 44, compiled a six-season record of 24-38 at Southern Guilford, a Class 3-A team. The Storm went 6-5 overall last season, finishing third in the Mid-State 3-A Conference behind Greensboro Dudley and Eastern Guilford.
Bradley replaces Marlon Morris, who stepped away after three seasons and a 9-16 record. The Bulldogs have posted back-to-back 4-6 records, with seven of those victories coming in non-conference games.
So becoming more competitive in the Piedmont Athletic Conference is among the objectives.
Bradley coached from 2013-16 at Wheatmore with a 14-31 record. Previously, he spent time as an assistant coach for his alma mater, Smoky Mountain, and at Randleman.
Bradley had two sons playing for his Southern Guilford teams. Malachi Bradley, a center, will graduate this spring, while quarterback / linebacker Noah Bradley will join him at Trinity and be a junior on the 2023 team.
Coach Bradley said he’ll embrace the culture at Trinity.
“It’s a very appealing situation,” he said. “They’re more than ready and know what it takes to compete. They were always scrappy, blue-collar kind of people.”
Even though his new school will be a neighboring one from his role at Wheatmore, he considers this a chance “to come back to a place with business left unfinished.”
Clashing with traditional powers such as Greensboro Dudley and Southeast Guilford should prove beneficial, Bradley said.
“As a coach, you learned and grew,” he said. “It really challenges your knowledge of the game and pushes you to expand what you do.”
Bear Bradley will finish the school year as a teacher at Southern Guilford, where he instructs weightlifting. He said he’ll make the approximate 14-mile commute in afternoons to address topics with the football program at Trinity.
Marlon Morris spent three seasons as Trinity’s head coach. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph record)
TRINITY – Trinity is amid a coaching change for its football program.
Marlon Morris stepped down from his role as head coach after three seasons.
“It was kind of a surprise,” Trinity athletics director Robert Mitchell said. “He decided it was best not to stay as coach.”
Trinity was 9-16 in three seasons under Morris. The Bulldogs had back-to-back 4-6 seasons after a 1-4 mark in the pandemic-reconfigured 2021 spring season.
“We’re going to give it a few weeks and see how the next month goes,” Mitchell said Monday of hiring a replacement. “It’s still fresh now and we want to see what openings we might have (on the school staff).”
Within a few days of word spreading about the vacancy, Mitchell said about a dozen potential candidates made contact with him.
Trinity’s 2023 team could have up to 30 seniors. Mitchell said there were good roster numbers for the junior varsity team last fall.
Morris, also a social studies teacher, was defensive coordinator in 2019 before he was named head coach in March 2020 shortly after the start of the pandemic. The High Point Central alum previously had been on the coaching staff at Ledford.
Morris replaced Brett Andrews, who had been coach for five seasons.
Morris’ first season as head coach was the 2021 adjusted spring season because of the pandemic. Trinity ended a 17-game losing streak that March.
“I think he did a great job during the pandemic,” Mitchell said, “because that was tough for everybody.”
In 2022, the Bulldogs won four of their first five games, but ended the season on a five-game losing streak and were the last-place team in the Piedmont Athletic Conference. Except for a one-point loss to Wheatmore, the other PAC defeats were by 31 or more points.
“It was definitely a rough ending,” Mitchell said.
The problems were compounded by injuries. Senior Dylan Hodges, one of the team’s top two-way players, suffered a broken collarbone in the third game of the season. Injuries mounted, with quarterback Dominic Payne missing the last two games with an ankle ailment.
With changes at Asheboro and Providence Grove, it means three of the seven football-playing schools in Randolph County will be under the direction of new coaches this year.
CLIMAX – David Hayes has been around high school football teams for more than a decade as an assistant coach.
Now it’s something different. He’ll be a head coach.
Providence Grove hired Hayes, who has close ties to a couple of other schools in Randolph County, as its next football coach.
“I feel like I was ready to take an opportunity like this,” Hayes said.
Hayes takes the vacancy left when Calvin Brown departed to become Asheboro’s coach.
Most recently, Hayes has been an assistant coach and physical education teacher at Thomasville, which has one of the state’s most tradition-rich football program.
But Hayes has other ties close to Providence Grove. He’s a Trinity graduate and former assistant football coach and head girls’ basketball coach at Asheboro.
“I’m a football coach,” Hayes said. “PG worked very hard to get me.”
Providence Grove will open the Hayes era Aug. 18 at East Davidson. The home opener will come Sept. 1 against Bishop McGuinness.
Hayes is a former Guilford College offensive lineman and later a student assistant with the Quakers. He spent time on coaching staffs at Trinity, Southwest Guilford and East Gaston, where he was offensive coordinator for five seasons.
Then he joined the Asheboro staff under coach Kevin Gillespie. While there, he coached the girls’ basketball team to a 54-30 record.
After three seasons with the Blue Comets, Hayes followed Gillespie to Thomasville.
The Patriots could be in a regrouping mode considering that 20-plus seniors were on the 2022 roster. Providence Grove won a game in the state playoffs for the first time last season, defeating host McMichael in a Class 2-A game and finishing with an 8-4 record after a second-round loss to Reidsville.
“The measuring stick might be a little different,” Hayes said. “How quick can we get over the learning curve? It will definitely look a little bit different.”
Hayes said he has always been an offensive guy in terms of coaching. He’s looking to stock a coaching staff.
“Mission 1 for us right now is to determine how many (from the most-recent staff) stay and it goes from there,” he said.
Hayes said he has never attended a Providence Grove football game. When he was at Asheboro, the schools didn’t meet in football, but they did have girls’ basketball matchups.
“Coach Hayes is a true leader (who) brings energy, passion and he has a unique ability to form relationships with all students,” new Providence Grove athletics director Cody Moran said.
The coach’s mother, Renee Hayes, guided Trinity to two Class 3-A girls’ basketball state championships in the 1980s. David Hayes lives in Trinity.
Coming from Thomasville, which went 11-2 last season, will mean an adjustment when Hayes formally starts his duties March 2 at Providence Grove.
“Thomasville is one of the few places in the state where the logo instills fear,” Hayes said.
CLIMAX – New Asheboro football coach Calvin Brown is still finishing his time at Providence Grove.
While no longer the football coach of the Patriots, Brown is remaining at the school in other roles, including as athletics director, through Jan. 20.
Then he makes the full transition to Asheboro.
In more than a month’s time between his introduction as Asheboro’s coach and completely leaving Providence Grove, Brown said he hopes to have in place most of his new staff with the Blue Comets.
“I’d like to have everything lined up,” he said.
Brown, who spent seven seasons as Providence Grove’s coach, said last month that he hasn’t been involved in the process to hire a new coach for the Patriots.
Oak Grove promotes assistant
Oak Grove hired Rob Creason as its next football coach, promoting him from assistant coach.
He replaces Mark Holcomb, who was the only coach in the program’s six seasons and moved on to become the coach at Bishop McGuinness.
Creason is a physical education teacher at Oak Grove.
Oak Grove is in the Mid-Piedmont Conference along with Asheboro, so that league will have at least two new football coaches in 2023.
Mount Airy players cling to Eastern Randolph’s Ervodd Cassady during the Class 1-A West Regional semifinal in November. Mount Airy went on to win the state championship. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
The coaching change at Asheboro isn’t the only change atop a football program in the Mid-Piedmont Conference.
Calvin Brown is leaving Providence Grove to be Asheboro’s new coach, replacing Blake Brewer.
Oak Grove has lost coach Mark Holcomb, who has taken the job at Bishop McGuinness. Holcomb, a former coach at North Davidson, had been at Oak Grove for all six seasons that the program existed.
Oak Grove was 11-1 this year. Beginning with the first varsity season in 2018, the Grizzlies have had records of 5-6, 10-2, 6-3 and 7-3.
Season to savor
An Asheboro man coached a 13-win team this year.
Andrew Carrouth was in his fourth season as North Moore’s coach. His team won the Mid-Carolina Conference title in a league comprised of Class 2-A and Class 1-A teams.
The Mustangs didn’t lose this year until a 27-7 setback to Rosewood in the fourth round of the Class 1-A state playoffs. They finished with a 13-1 record.
Carrouth, 37, spent one season on the Asheboro coaching staff in between head coaching assignments at Southern Alamance, which is his alma mater, and North Moore.
Tough losses
A couple of Randolph County teams lost in the state playoffs this year against teams that went on to play for state championships.
Eastern Randolph’s fourth-round loss by 35-17 to Mount Airy in Class 1-A marked the closest result for Mount Airy in the postseason other than the Granite Bears’ 20-7 victory against Tarboro in the final.
Providence Grove lost in the second round to Reidsville, which went on to finish as the state runner-up in Class 2-A.
Calvin Brown was introduced Monday as Asheboro High School’s new football coach. He spent the past seven seasons in that role at Providence Grove. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
ASHEBORO – Calvin Brown will try to get Asheboro’s football program back on a winning path.
“We want to compete on Friday nights and I know that’s what Asheboro expects,” Brown said Monday. “We want to change the culture and bring back the winning atmosphere.”
Brown is leaving Providence Grove, where he directed sustained success, to become coach of the Blue Comets.
Among more than 40 applicants, Brown was a clear choice for the hiring committee, principal Dr. Ryan Moody said.
“You look at where we were,” Moody said. “You want to find a coach who is successful, high character, high motor type of guy. … He was head and shoulders the best candidate we could possibly ask for.”
Brown’s Providence Grove teams were 42-34 in seven seasons. He guided the Patriots to their first postseason football victory in school history earlier this fall as part of an 8-4 record.
Brown takes the position held by Blake Brewer, a former Asheboro quarterback whose three-season record was 2-25 as head coach. The Blue Comets were 1-9 each of the past two seasons.
Providence Grove defeated Asheboro 28-14 and 49-0 the past two seasons.
It could be quite a project for Brown. Asheboro is a combined 7-52 in the last six seasons.
Brown said Asheboro, which has about twice the enrollment of Providence Grove, should be the best football program in Randolph County.
“I see that as a great opportunity,” Brown said. “That’s one thing that really excited me and (made me want) to take the job. The potential that is here at Asheboro.”
Brown was also athletics director for the past four years at Providence Grove, where he spent 11 years overall. He won’t hold those responsibilities at Asheboro, where such a dual role isn’t permitted.
“I’m thankful for Providence Grove and everybody there,” Brown said.
Brown stressed a family atmosphere when he spoke to supporters Monday. He said he feels the football team can set the tone for the athletics department.
He said he’ll require a commitment from players on and off the field.
Providence Grove’s eight wins matched the most in program history. The Patriots went 8-4 in 2019 and 8-3 in 2021.
Brown said his Asheboro coaching staff could include a few members from his Providence Grove staff.
Providence Grove lost to eventual Class 2-A runner-up Reidsville, a team it has never defeated in six all-time meetings, in the second round.
Not only will Providence Grove also have a new coach in 2023, it could be a rebuilding period for the Patriots. There were 22 seniors on this year’s team.
Here’s Calvin Brown during Providence Grove’s 2022 game at Asheboro (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)
ASHEBORO – Calvin Brown will try to get Asheboro’s football program back on a winning path.
Brown is leaving Providence Grove, where he directed sustained success, to become coach of the Blue Comets.
Brown’s Providence Grove teams were 42-34 in seven seasons. He guided the Patriots to their first postseason football victory in school history earlier this fall as part of an 8-4 record.
Brown takes the position held by Blake Brewer, a former Asheboro quarterback whose three-season record was 2-25 as head coach. The Blue Comets were 1-9 each of the past two seasons.
Providence Grove defeated Asheboro 28-14 and 49-0 the past two seasons.
It could be quite a project for Brown. Asheboro is a combined 7-52 in the last six seasons.
Brown was also athletics director at Providence Grove. He won’t hold those responsibilities at Asheboro, where such a dual role isn’t permitted.
Providence Grove’s eight wins matched the most in program history. The Patriots went 8-4 in 2019 and 8-3 in 2021.
Providence Grove lost to eventual Class 2-A runner-up Reidsville, a team it has never defeated in six all-time meetings, in the second round.
Not only will Providence Grove also have a new coach in 2023, it could be a rebuilding period for the Patriots. There were 22 seniors on this year’s team.
*******************
Calvin Brown’s coaching record at Providence Grove
