HighSchoolOT.com editor Tim Candon provides his opinion and insight into Triangle area high school sports. Tim can be reached at tcandon@wral.com.
Mar 13, 2009
Saturday night around 11:30 p.m., as I was ending my drive home from Greenville after the Hillside girls’ basketball team won the East Regional championship, it all came rushing back.
Three years? Really? Has it been that long? That was three apartments, two jobs and 15 pounds ago. My wedding was 14 months away.
I thought about it for several more minutes, and indeed it had been that long … just a smidge more than three years to the day, as a matter fact.
On March 4, 2006, Wakefield High seniors Steven George, Timothy Steinberg, Baker Wood and Anthony Bostic died in a horrific one-car crash as they were returning from Greenville after watching the Wakefield boys’ basketball team beat New Hanover at the buzzer to win the East Regional title. The car was travelling at 115 mph when it hit a concrete barrier on the exit ramp where U.S. 64 meets I-440. It went over the barrier, fell 60 feet to the ground and burst into flames. Alcohol was
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Mar 4, 2009
Panther Creek coach L.J. Hepp spoke eloquently about what his team will take from the events of the last week. (File photo by Grant Halverson)
As Jack Britt opened the second half of Tuesday’s East Regional semifinal on a 13-2 run, it became clear that Panther Creek’s season would soon be over.
The odds-on favorite to represent the East in the 4-A state championship game wasn’t even going to play in the East Regional final.
“I want them to be proud of what they accomplished this year,” Panther Creek coach L.J. Hepp said. “They don’t really have a sense for that right now, but what they’ve done in three short years, it’s hard to believe three years have passed. I’m proud of them. I told them in the locker room I expect wedding invitations. I want to be a part of their lives from here until the end. I hope our relationships have grown to that point.”
When Hepp convened his first practice back in the fall of 2006, everything the Catamounts did over the course of the next two years was geared toward making a state championship run
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Mar 2, 2009
We’re about to learn an awful lot about the Panther Creek and Enloe basketball teams.
When they take the floor for their respective regional semifinal games Tuesday night in Greenville, both will do so without having had a single practice since they played last Friday.
Team’s typically don’t practice on Saturdays, and if either did this past weekend, it would have been an informal shootaround since they didn’t find out their regional opponent until late in the day. NCHSAA rules prohibit Sunday practices, and neither team could practice Monday because the weather closed Wake County schools.
These unpredictable and unexpected circumstances have unfortunately put Panther Creek and Enloe at a disadvantage heading into Tuesday’s games.
Not only are Panther Creek and Enloe unfamiliar with the teams they’re playing on Tuesday, but since Cumberland County schools operated on a two-hour delay Monday morning, Jack
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Mar 20, 2009
On Saturday evening, I was the guest speaker at a fundraiser for the Panther Creek High School athletic department.
Here is the transcript of the speech, and this largely what I said. I went off script once or twice, but I never deviated too far from the main script. I had just about a month to prepare this, and I wrote it all over the course the 36 hours before I delivered it.
It went over pretty well. I didn't get heckled off the stage, and no one said it was awful, which was my only fear.
Enjoy.
***************
First of all, I’d like to thank Todd Schuler for inviting me here tonight.
I’ve known Todd for about five years now, back when he was a little known assistant soccer coach at Franklinton High and when I was an even lesser known sports editor at The Wake Weekly in Wake Forest. When he called me several weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in being your guest speaker tonight, I laughed hysterically
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Feb 18, 2009
PAC-Six Conference
The PAC 6 didn’t make a lot of noise during the regular season, but the league just might be, from top to bottom, the most competitive in the Triangle. Seven of the league’s eight teams won at least eight games in the regular season, and Northern Durham, which went 5-17, avoided last place because four of its wins were in league play.
For more evidence, take a look at the results from the first round of the conference tournament on Tuesday night, where two of the bottom seeds won, and the other two lost by a total of five points.
No. 8 East Chapel Hill beat No. 1 Riverside. Riverside went 11-1 in PAC 6 play this season and had won 14 in a row before losing to the Wildcats on Tuesday. East Chapel Hill, meanwhile, went 3-11 in league play and had lost seven of its previous eight games before Tuesday’s win.
No. 6 Southern Durham beat No. 3 Jordan. Southern Durham lost five games in overtime in league play and finished 5-9. Southern lost
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