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We will no doubt get some criticism for addressing some of the recruiting rumors at Northern on the eve of their state title bid. I look at it less as trying to spoil the party and more as trying to shine some light on what are obviously some very deep divisions in this community. We get more unsolicited complaints about Northern than any other school, by far, and while a lot of those people no doubt have some kind of axe to grind, we can't just stand by with our fingers in our ears, either.

I asked longtime Grimsley AD and current Metro 4-A commissioner Bob Sawyer a few weeks back if recruiting is more prevalent now than when he was in the mix of things. He said no. "Your school recruits for you," he said.

That said, nothing should diminish a victory Saturday if the Nighthawks can take down Gastonia Forestview. Everything comes back to the court, and you have to be doing something right to still be playing this weekend.

I got a chance to meet Northern head coach Stan Kowakewski's wife, Traci, at the team's bowling outing this week. Sporting a "Coach K Is All Mine" T-shirt, she later told me how the two were high school sweethearts in Syracuse while Stan was a ballboy for the Orangemen. They now have four kids, who made waves earlier this season when they brought pots and pans to a game and singlehandedly doubled the decibel level in the gym.

"If we want to see (Stan), we have to go to the gym...which we love doing!" Traci wrote in an e-mail. "I wouldn't trade the relationship my children or myself has developed with players and their families for the world."

Here's a photo she sent along. Hope the Nighthawks stay as cool as this guy tomorrow.

The Wildcats will no longer share a conference with any Guilford County teams after next year's realignment, but they've been a thorn in the side of Ragsdale, Southeast and Trinity the last few years. From the Burlington Times-News:

Burton Cates, longtime football coach at Eastern Randolph, is leaving for the coaching position at Lee County.

Cates, who directed Eastern Randolph to the 2006 Class 3-AA state championship in 25 years as head coach, had a 236-81 overall record in 25 years as a head coach.

The Wildcats, who will move down to Class 2-A beginning with the next school year, posted a 3-8 record in Cates' final season. He took teams to title-game appearances in 1994 and 2003.

Cates, a 56-year-old Graham resident, will remain as a physical education teacher until May 1 at Eastern Randolph.

Lee County is a Class 4-A school in Sanford.

Best two-day performance I've seen. Here's the second-half play-by-play that got cut from today's story:

Toomey hit Diachenko backdoor for a layup plus the foul, then converted his own 3-point play to put Bishop back up 26-24 just before halftime.
Whisnant opened the fourth with a triple from the corner to give Cherryville its largest lead at 52-45. But Diachenko unleashed a furious seven-point spurt, including a fist-pumping 3-pointer and a contested layup that tied the game back up at 55.
Each basket in the slug-it-out fourth quarter felt like it was earned through herculean effort, with Diachenko finally breaking through with a spinning layup for a 71-70 McGuinness lead with 31 seconds left. After a Howell miss and one of two free throws by Toomey, Howell made a driving layup from the left to tie it at 72 with eight seconds left.
Toomey took the inbounds pass and sprinted up floor, drawing so much attention that Cherryville sophomore Thomas Bess couldn't get out of his way and plowed him into a heap around midcourt. "It was definitely worth it," said Toomey, who hit one of two free throws again. Bess got the inbound pass across halfcourt but ran into traffic and couldn't get a shot off in time. As Bess teared up, whipped his mouthguard at a wall across the court and covered his face with his jersey, the Villains collapsed into a dog pile in front of their bench.
"That's the best feeling I've ever had as a coach," Thompson said.

You know what this means now, right? We'll have someone in all four games at Reynolds next Saturday. Bishop girls at noon, Bishop boys at 2:30, Dudley girls at 5, Northern boys at 7:30. I started charging my laptop now.

Bishop McGuinness boys head coach Josh Thompson opened his postgame press conference by offering his condolences to Cherryville point guard Darius Howell's family. It wasn't until later I found out what he was referring to: Last Sunday, Howell,a junior, discovered his father, Larry, dead on the couch at the house the two of them shared. Larry Howell was known to carry a towel on his shoulder everywhere he went, and the Cherryville cheering section waved "Howell's Towels" all game as a show of support. Howell finished with 24 points and five assists in a 73-72 loss to Bishop, one of the most admirable performances you will ever see.

Howell said the towel gesture "meant a lot" and that "I tried to keep mind on the game instead of what went wrong with my father. But I'm not going to lie, I thought about it sometimes in the game, what would he say to me. I couldn't really let that get to me."

Here's a longer story from earlier in the week from the Gaston Gazette.

My heart's also out to Cherryville's Thomas Bess, who broke down after committing a costly foul and not getting a potential game-winning shot off in the final seconds of the defeat. All these kids play with such heart this time of year, and I hope the incredibly thin margin between victory and defeat doesn't let anyone lose sight of that effort.

Interesting side note here at halftime of the Bishop McGuinness-East Surry girls game: East Surry head coach Brent Long has to be the least tenured coach to ever make it this far.

Try two games.

His predecessor, 22-year veteran of the program Robert Smith, decided before the season that this would be his last at the helm. Smith's retirement became effective Feb. 28, right after the Cardinals advanced to the regional round. He offered to work as a volunteer for the rest of the season, but state law prohibits any official contact in order to still draw retirement benefits. Long, an assistant coach, assistant principal and father of Cardinals guard and conference player of the year Kelsey Long, took over for Wednesday's regional semifinal.

"That was the risk I took," Smith told the Winston-Salem Journal, "and of course now I come out looking really dumb."

"I've enjoyed the last three days I've got to spend with them," Long said after the game.
"I've always had the dream of being here."

Also of note: The East Surry student section's postgame chant of "public champs!"

Last night's arctic blanket has already caused a little havoc for the basketball regionals here, canceling this morning's press conference and bumping Tuesday's games back to Wednesday. Here's the full schedule again.
Fans of Andrews and Bishop McGuinness are in luck - they've only got to get to the Coliseum. But with Dudley (times two), Northern Guilford and Rockingham County all playing in the home of Petey Pablo (a.k.a. Greenville), I'm curious how the weather will affect your plans for what was already an almost three-hour drive.
So where are you going this week? And who's got the best shot to make it to next Saturday's final? Everything should be melted by then.

Without much time for thinking, how do you celebrate becoming the eighth wrestler in state history to win four state titles? Jacob Creed took off in a sprint, did a cartwheel across the Joel Coliseum mats, then flipped"It was pretty amazing, actually," head coach Andy Chappell said. See for yourself how high he got.

I don't often get e-mails from Switzerland, but Markus Stüdeli just wrote in about the recent accomplishments of the Grimsley's swim team, for which he swam as an exchange student in 1987-88.

"Swimming is still a sport I enjoy," he wrote, "and today I try to pass on the flame to my 1 year old son Corvin (he's taking a baby swimming course currently). I hope Coach Griffin stays another couple of years, so Corvin can join his team if he also chooses to become an exchange student!"

Credit Martin Samek for jumping right into his new job, but I couldn't help but chuckle when at his introductory press conference he said he was ready to "go beat those Pirates of Greensboro Page." Give him some time.

Big players make big plays.