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All things considered, it was a pretty good season for the Hornets. Their boys finished 15-10 and earned a playoff berth, a feat that was tarnished by a late-season player dismissal and three straight defeats to end the year.
"We weren't mentally tough enough to handle it," said head coach Art Wade, a self-proclaimed perfectionist who thinks next season, his third at the school, could finally be the time for the Hornets to reach the next tier. Western will lose five players from this team, but Wade is "in love with the pieces" coming in, including 6-foot-4 eighth-grader Donovan Gilmore, a "pogo stick" who "is close to touching the top of the square. He's not a stiff at all." Wade said that will open a new realm of offense for the Hornets, whose lack of size the last two years has meant a lot of four-guard sets. "The kids coming in are extremely raw, but they offer a lot of upside," Wade said.
The underclassmen-heavy Hornet girls had a losing record but were still way ahead of pace in head coach Jeremy Heinold's second season, pulling things together in time for a surprise playoff run as a wild card. They'll bring back 6-foot-2 junior center Catrina Green and explosive freshman guard Brittany Clency, both All-Conference selections.
Heinold is a former assistant for Graham head coach Kyle Ward, whose team just painfully lost the 2-A state title game for the third straight year.
"The running joke is now we call him Marv Levy from the Bills," Heinold said with a laugh, referencing the NFL coach whose Buffalo teams lost four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s.
And how does Ward like that joke?
"I don't think he shares our comedic response for it," Heinold said, "but he's OK. He's still got a lot to be excited about."

Bizarre story out of Illinois: A team was assessed a technical foul before the state title game for an illegal stripe on their jerseys. The team, which had been using the uniforms all season, proceeded to lose by one. How's that for a wardrobe malfunction?

Mistakenly called Shining Light's basketball coach Bill Packer instead of Bill Thacker in today's story on the Knights' national title. Blame a bad cell phone signal, lack of diligence on my part and March Madness on the brain.

Courtesy Robert Kent at Page, here are the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association's honorees for District 7, which includes all the public schools in Guilford, Forsyth, and Davidson Counties. Coaches have to be a member of the NCBCA in order to nominate and have players selected to the team. Players must make all conference in order to be nominated.

Player of Year - CJ Harris - Mt. Tabor
Coach of Year - Andy Muse - Mt. Tabor

1st Team
C.J. Harris 12 Mt. Tabor
Jay Canty 11 Ragsdale
Jonathan Frye 11 Northern Guilford
Keith Manley 12 Grimsley
Julius Brooks 12 Page

2nd Team
Jairus Simms 12 North Forsyth
Josh Hicks 12 Mt. Tabor
Mike Grace 12 Mt. Tabor
Kameko Walls 12 North Forsyth
Jacob Lawson 10 Northern Guilford

3rd Team
Wally Jones 12 Ragsdale
Quayshad Williams 10 Eastern Guilford
Michael Neal 10 Northern Guilford
Mitchell Oates 11 Page
Kyle Vebber 11 Northwest Guilford

We're currently taking nominations for our All-Area teams, which are scheduled to run in mid-April. I have a feeling they'll look a lot like these.

The Wachovia Cup award, sponsored by Wachovia and the NCHSAA, recognizes the high schools that achieve the best overall interscholastic athletic performance.
Points are awarded based on participation and standings in conference play.

Northwest 1-A: Bishop McGuinness dominated the winter athletic season,
taking league championships in men¹s and women¹s basketball as well as
women¹s swimming. Mount Airy moves from third to second place thanks to a
men¹s swimming title and by finishing as runner-up in men¹s basketball. East
Surry, the sixth place team in the conference after the fall season, is now
in third after placing second in women¹s swimming and basketball. Conference
Standings: Bishop McGuinness 80, Mount Airy 69, East Surry 60, South Stokes
57, West Wilkes 53, East Wilkes 46.5, Alleghany 43, Elkin 40, North Stokes
34.5.

North State 2-A: West Stokes is still all alone at the top of
the league on the strength of championships in men¹s and women¹s swimming,
as well as a second place finish in women¹s basketball. Eastern Guilford is
still the second place team after capturing league crowns in wrestling and
women¹s basketball and a runner-up finish in men¹s basketball. A men¹s
basketball championship allows Reidsville to remain in third place.
Conference Standings: West Stokes 107, Eastern Guilford 96, Reidsville 94,
McMichael 85, Southern Guilford 65, Atkins 40.

Mid Piedmont 3-A: Ragsdale swept the conference in men¹s and
women¹s basketball and men¹s and women¹s swimming, allowing it to maintain
the lead in the conference race. Southeast Guilford holds down the number
two spot on the strength of second place finishes in women¹s basketball and
men¹s swimming. Conference Standings: Ragsdale 148.5, Southeast Guilford
132, Asheboro 127, Trinity 114.5, Eastern Randolph 102, Randleman 90,
Southwestern Randolph 89.

Piedmont Triad 3-A: Reagan is still the class of the conference
thanks to titles in men¹s and women¹s swimming and a second place finish in
men¹s basketball. Parkland captured conference crowns in wrestling and
women¹s basketball, allowing it to move from fourth to second place.
Southwest Guilford drops to third place after finishing second in women¹s
basketball. Conference Standings: Reagan 50, Parkland 43.5, Southwest
Guilford 43, Glenn 42, High Point Andrews 31.5, Carver 13.

Triad 3-A: The conference leader is still Western Guilford
thanks to a second place finish in men¹s swimming. Conference a championship
in men¹s and women¹s swimming have propelled Northern Guilford all the way
from fifth to second place in the league. Rockingham County is holding
steady in the third place position after a runner-up finish in women¹s
basketball. Conference Standings: Western Guilford 64.5, Northeast Guilford
60, Rockingham County 49.5, Morehead 49, Northeast Guilford 47.5, Western
Alamance 46, Dudley 34, Bartlett Yancey 31.5.

Metro 4-A: Conference championships in women¹s basketball,
women¹s swimming, and wrestling allow Northwest Guilford to maintain its
hold on the conference lead. Grimsley and Page are tied for second place
following the conclusion of the winter schedule. Grimsley won the men¹s
swimming crown and finished second in women¹s swimming and men¹s basketball
while Page drops from second to third place in spite of a conference title
in men¹s basketball, a runner-up finish in men¹s swimming, and a third place
finish in women¹s swimming. Conference Standings: Northwest Guilford 61,
Grimsley 48.5, Page 48.5, East Forsyth 40, High Point Central 34.5, Ben L.
Smith 15.5

Dudley's Desiree Drayton hauled down 18 rebounds, one of the 15 best rebounding games in the last 24 years of the women's finals. ... Bishop McGuinness' win over East Bladen means the West has now won 22 of the last 24 titles in the 1-A classification for women. The only Eastern teams to break through during this time were Union in 1998 and Lakewood in 1994. ... Aaron Toomey's 35 points were the sixth most in the finals by a men's player since 1986, and the best in a men's championship since Michael Joiner poured in 36 for Fayetteville Seventy-First in the 2000 4-A game against Winston-Salem R.J. Reynolds.

Congratulations to Northern Guilford, Dudley and Bishop McGuinness on their victories today. The fact that three of the four won convincingly says a lot about the quality of basketball being played in the area.

If you've got any pictures/videos/memories from today's game, feel free to send them along. I wouldn't mind seeing Jacob Lawson's two-footed dunk over a helpless defender a few more times.

...and I can't even see how it will be close. The Panthers are so, so talented and have the perfect system to make the most of it. Factor in how close they've been to the title game the last four years, and the experience of someone like Helen Terry down the stretch, and I'd have to call Dudley double-digit favorites. Call me a homer, but I'd also bet the house on Bishop McGuinness' girls, give Northern Guilford a 2-to-1 shot at winning and call the McGuinness boys a slight favorite. Bulletin board material galore, I'm sure.

Here's a look around cyberspace at tomorrow's games. See you there.

3-A GIRLS

Gastonia Forestview will be the first school in state history to play for both the 3-A girls and boys titles in the same season. The Jaguars are deep, including a late-blooming six-foot center. Forestview head coach Ken Beaty said his team will try to keep up with the Panthers' up-tempo style, but "if we can't run with them, it won't take too long to find out."

3-A BOYS

Forestview head coach Dan Ghent echoed what many have said lately: Northern Guilford "does not have any weaknesses." But the Jaguars are no slouch either, having upset both Andrews and Concord to get here. Forestview has been seeing a different hero every night, including a burst of energy off the bench from sophomore Zeek Bigger, who rivals my old Little League teammate Tommy Powers on the list of epic sports names. Forestview guard DeJuan Means, who torched Andrews for a career-high 24 points last week, missed some practice time with an illness earlier this week but is expected to be good to go on Saturday.

1-A BOYS

Weldon went undefeated in conference play and hasn't lost since the second game of the season. The Chargers are led by identical twins, but don't worry, head coach Donnell Handsome won't switch their jerseys to slip anyone up. (D2: The Mighty Ducks, anyone?) Bishop will likely need someone other than Aaron Toomey and Ross Diachenko to step up.

1-A GIRLS

The Villains took out East Bladen by 37 in the 2007 title game, but don't expect it to be that lopsided this time. My friend Rachel George at the Wilmington Star-News has an interesting perspective on people who complain about Bishop's private school advantage.

A few weeks ago, we linked to a clip of Dudley's Breonna Patterson beating Rockingham County at the the buzzer in the Triad 3-A title game. Here's a much better clip from our own Mike McCray:

Northern head coach Stan Kowalewski obviously had some strong feelings about today's story. Here are excerpts of what he said to me this afternoon:

"We don't make the rules. Guilford County and the NCHSAA make the rules, and we abide by them. And until Guilford County changes their rules, then parents are going to, within those rules, do what they want to do. If they end up at our school, they end up at our school. Or they end up at another school. The rules are what they are. We make sure we follow them to a T, our athletic department as well as our administration. All we can do is follow them, we can't make them.

It's very disappointing to me that although the News & Record says that there's a lot of e-mails from coaches or fans, that nobody is willing to be non-anonymous, that nobody's willing to bring forth concrete evidence that we're doing things wrong. Everyone wants to hide behind anonymity. That's disappointing because I think it's cowardice. It's very difficult for us as a school to defend ourselves when we don't know who our accusers are. ...

Whoever these coaches are, it's just jealousy, that's all it is. Until they can step up and first of all be a man and make a comment to a newspaper on the record, when they can do that, then I think somebody would listen to them. If I want to hide behind "I don't want to be revealed as a source," then it is what it is. ...

People thought we were doing something wrong before reading the article and people thought we weren't. I don't think the article changes their opinion of it.

I did believe there's no information in this article that couldn't have been written two, three, six months ago. The timing of bringing it out on the eve of the state championship, I wasn't impressed with.

When you work so hard as a coaching staff and your kids work so hard as players to get better, and this article is brought up instead of, ‘Hey, maybe Northern Guilford's coaches really know what they're doing. Maybe they work harder than everybody else around here. Maybe their kids work harder and they deserve the accolades they're getting when they get this far.' Nobody wants to give us any credit, they just find ways to discredit us.

Our coaching staff, we don't have any egos. We don't care. But the kids deserve better than that."