Photo by Ben McCormick of the Courier Times
At the risk of dating myself more than I already do, I’m a massive fan of The Who.
I sit on my couch many nights while I’m writing and listen to “Who’s Next,” “Tommy,” “Face Dances.” I even like “Who are You,” generally considered their worst album and released just as their drummer Keith Moon died in 1977.
Most Who fans that do even the most basic research about the band understand two things:
1. They haven’t really been a band since 2002 when their bassist, John Entwhistle, died in the most rock n’ roll way possible. In Las Vegas, naturally.
2. The two surviving members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, hate each other.
Perhaps that bitterness is from Townshend, who wrote most of the band’s songs. Maybe he’s upset that his solo career didn’t rise to the popularity of the Who and couldn’t surpass his work from the 1960s and 1970s.
The bottom line is regardless of how much animosity exists between the two, which is plenty, Townshend and Daltrey do their best work together.
Which brings us back to January 9 in Roxboro.
The Orange men’s basketball team was down 28-9 against Person with 5:30 remaining in the first half. The Rockets had a 13-0 record and looked unstoppable. Orange wasn’t just on the ropes. They were on the verge of being knocked out of the Central Conference championship race before MLK Jr. Day.
In prior years, Orange may have turtled up inside its shell, got blown out by 25 points and traveled back up Highway 57. Instead, Xandrell Pennix came up with his best game ever in Roxboro, scoring 19 points. Orange made 11-of-14 shots in the third quarter, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Orange trailed by nine at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, they were up nine.
The fact they didn’t have their point guard, Kai Wade, because of foul trouble didn’t stop them. Ethan Ellis, Freddy Sneed, Jalen Crayton, and Michael Clark all made big plays down the stretch.
The fact that a conference championship race hung in the balance wasn’t lost on both times. That’s why trash talk went back-and-forth and the night continued.
In other words, it was a rivalry.
And they brought out the best in each other.
And it’s been one for a long time. Some of my earliest memories as a high school student go back to being a camerman for the Orange junior varsity basketball team in the early 1990s. Winning at Person was HARD. I’ve seen Orange men’s basketball play in Roxboro at least 15 times. The win two weeks ago was only the second time I ever saw Orange beat Person.
Plus, when I was 15, Person’s gym felt mammoth. I was used to bandbox gymnasiums. The fact that Person had a second deck where you coach watch the games down below made it seem like it was Madison Square Garden in my sheltered mind.
For over two decades, that rivalry ended when Orange moved down from being a 4A team in 2001 when Cedar Ridge opened. But Person and Orange were reunited as conference rivals when the Central Conference was formed in 2022.
That’s now in jeopardy.
Last month, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its first draft of conference realignment for the new eight classification system. Orange would be in a league with Cedar Ridge, Seaforth, Durham School of the Arts, South Granville and Webb. It would be a group of exclusively 5A teams, one of the few non-split conferences in the new alignment.
Person would remain a 5A team, as well. They would be with Eastern Alamance, Western Alamance, Southeast Alamance, Williams, Southern Alamance, and Rockingham County.
It’s a bad draw for Orange and Person. They’re natural conference rivals not just in terms of geography, but also competition. Last year, Orange football’s most inspired effort came against Person. They’re also natural rivals in softball. Many of the Lady Panthers live in northern Orange County, only about 10-15 minutes from Roxboro.
If the first draft of the new alignment is passed, Orange and Cedar Ridge won’t have any traditional rivals aside from each other. Webb was in the old Big Eight Conference with Orange and Cedar Ridge in the 2010s, but the games with the Warriors were hardly the stuff of legend.
Geographically, Person could fit in a league based in Granville County. The Rockets were rivals with Webb for years in the 80s and 90s.
Part of the reason why Person remains such a rich area for high school athletics is because they still have traditional media outlets. They have WKRX Radio, which broadcasts the Person football and basketball games. They have a newspaper, run by my friend Kelly Snow, that puts the Rocket first and foremost in their coverage. And their fan following, unlike other schools in bigger cities, hasn’t suffered.
That’s what makes games like January 9 so special. And high school sports special.
Orange and Person don’t like each other.
And they do their best work together.
