Back in the days when the Orange Panthers were in the PAC-6 Conference, trips up Highway 57 were common.
It was only natural that Orange and Person High Schools developed a rivalry. They were neighboring counties with a healthy population of students from rural areas. For some residents of northern Orange County communities like Cedar Grove, Hurdle Mills and Caldwell, a drive to Person High was actually shorter than a trip to their home school in Hillsborough.
Yet Orange and Person haven’t been conference rivals since 2001.
It appears that’s about to change.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released the third draft of its 2021 realignment plan on Thursday. Orange and Cedar Ridge remained paired in the 3A “Conference 25.” There were no changes from the second draft, which pairs the Red Wolves and Panthers with teams located closer to the Triad and leaves its longtime rivals across Durham and Chapel Hill in the rear view mirror.
Conference 25 includes Person, Eastern Alamance, Williams, Western Alamance and Northwood in a 7-team league. Of those squads, only Northwood is a current league rival for Cedar Ridge and Orange in the Big 8 Conference.
Schools have until February 10 to turn in any written appeals to the realignment committee. Since there were no changes from the second draft, it appears that Conference 25 (which will be given a more traditional name by the NCHSAA this spring) will be set in stone this spring.
The original draft, released in December, had Carrboro in Conference 25. That changed in the second draft, where Carrboro and Person basically switched spots. Carrboro is now slated to be in Conference 18, a spit 3A-2A league with Southern Durham, Vance County, Durham School of the Arts, Granville Central (2A), South Granville (2A) and J.F. Webb (2A)
Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill and Northern Durham, the remaining Big 8 schools, will return to 4A. They’re slated to join Conference 30 with Jordan, Hillside, Riverside and Southern Alamance.
When the current formation of the Big 8 was created in 2017, there was some surprise among high school observers that Person wasn’t included. Instead, the Rockets opted to join the Mid-State Conference, facing schools like McMichael High in Mayodan (a distance of 66 miles) and Northern Guilford in Greensboro (58 miles).
When asked at the time, Person High’s Athletic Director said the NCHSAA didn’t want 9-team conferences, so the Rockets chose a less traditional and much lengthier option.
The creation of Conference 25 will mark the end of an era for Orange on several levels. For the first time since 1985, the Panthers will not have a conference rival from Durham.
After Cedar Ridge opened in 2002, a reduction in Orange’s enrollment forced them to drop to 2A. Even then, the Panthers competed against Durham School of the Arts in the Mid-State Conference.
The new league also breaks up the Orange-Chapel Hill dynamic. For decades, Orange-Chapel Hill was a natural rivalry since they were the only two high schools in the entire county. They’ve remained Big 8 Conference rivals since Chapel Hill dropped to 3A in 2009.
For Cedar Ridge, the new league brings together natural rivalries that have been brewing through nonconference games for years. In softball, Eastern Alamance and the Red Wolves have competed regularly, including in the 3rd round of the 2019 3A State Playoffs, where the Eagles prevailed en route to the State Championship. The Red Wolves and the Eagles regularly compete in men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis and volleyball.
An Orange-Eastern Alamance football rivalry has been the object of desire for many local fans for ages, and it would seem easy to make. But red rape and regulations from school boards constantly got in the way. Many Orange players honed their skills in Mebane in youth leagues. Orange and Eastern Alamance have regularly held a football scrimmage on the final Friday before the regular season begins, but they haven’t played in an actual game since the 2012 3A State Playoffs, where Orange won 14-13 in Mebane.
The changes will go into effect in August. The 2021-2025 realignment figures were based on the 2019-2020 Average Daily Members numbers.
For years, Cedar Ridge had the lowest ADM in the Big 8 Conference. Based on the 2019-2020 numbers, that will remain the case in the new league. Cedar Ridge’s last reported ADM was 1,076. The next closest school is Person at 1,095.
Orange’s ADM is 1,306. Among teams in Conference 25, Northwood has the highest current ADM at 1,433, while Eastern Alamance is 1,234. Western Alamance is 1,155 and Walter Williams is 1,177.