Cedar Ridge High School

A long conversation with a longtime local coach was winding to a close recently when he exposed a theory that made my blood run cold.

“I can see a day in 20 years when there are no high school sports.”

No high school sports? Some people would rather go without oxygen.

The coach’s thesis is there will come a time when high school sports would no longer become financially sustainable. Athletes would focus on one sport only, whether its baseball, softball, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse or anything else where they could attain that elusive college scholarship. The days of two-or-three sports atheltes would steadily wither away, as would the purpose of the athlete serving the school.

Instead, the athlete could simply develop their skills with travel teams in the spring, summer and fall. To a lesser extinct, it’s already happpened with Showcase Baseball, which is one-stop shopping for college coaches where top-tier high school talent spend their summers traveling to colleges across the region to play in front of college recruiting coordinators. It’s also happened in boys and girls basketball for decades at the AAU level.

Shifting uncomfortably as I envisioned this plausible scenario, I asked this coach “How would the schools lose money?”

“Because of the loss of football,” he said.

And he we are.

Cedar Ridge was once so gung-ho about football under former coach Lou Geary, it became a tradition to hold Midnight Madness workouts on August 1st, the very second it became legal under NCHSAA bylaws to practice.

Now, the Red Wolves won’t have enough players to field a varsity team this fall. The official announcement came from the school system on Tuesday afternoon, catching even some of the people closest to the program by surprise.

What happened? There are many answers, ranging from the top of the sport to its most basic levels.

Acccording to the Aspen Institute, participation in youth football has declined 19 percent from 2011 to 2016 for kids aged 6 to 17. For the NFL, those numbers are a long-term problem. For high school, it’s a crisis right now.

”There has been a decline in our area,” said Chris Casey, a former Cedar Ridge Head Coach. “Since the NFL came out with its concussion report, it killed the Pop Warner programs and the Orange County Youth Football program. In turn, the numbers at middle school have dropped off and now you are seeing it at the high schools.”

The future of football has been increasingly in question for years now. The truth is, no one knows where the game will be in 30 years at the professional, college or high school level.

As far as Cedar Ridge’s situation is concerned, there are some things we do know.

The first one is there are no winners in this situation.

The players lose, namely the seniors, because they miss out on playing the sport they love. Last season, when East Chapel Hill didn’t field a varsity team, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools allowed Wildcat players to play at neighboring Chapel Hill High while remaining students at East. Whether Orange County Schools will allow Cedar Ridge players the same luxury at Orange remains to be seen. (Cedar Ridge will field a JV team this season, but seniors aren’t allowed on that squad).

The opponents of football, some of whom build their names and incomes off of the game while also desiring its demise, may learn about this situation and think the players are benefitting because they’re “staying safe” by not playing. If that’s true, then the seniors are just surviving life, not living it.

Cedar Ridge students lose because they miss out on the classic atmosphere of a Friday night home game. Granted, Cedar Ridge has struggled since reaching the 2-AA Eastern Regional Championship game in 2010. But where else in Hilllsborough do thousands of people, regardless of color, creed or political affiliation, gather to cheer together? To sing together? To celebrate together? To console together?

Most of all, the coaches lose. The circumstances that head coach Scott Loosemore has dealt with in his career have been nothing short of incredible. He joined the staff in 2015 as an offensive coordinator under former Burlington Cummings head coach Steve Johnson—who never even led one practice.

Johnson suffered a thoracic aortic aneurysm the week before training camp was ready to start. Loosemore stepped in as interim coach while Johnson spent the season recovering.

Loosemore was named the permanent coach in 2016 as crosstown rival Orange rose to prominence under Pat Moser. But adverse situations were nothing new for Loosemore, who led Eastern Guilford for eight seasons, including the 2006 campaign where the school literally burned to the ground.

Knowing Orange would have a numbers advantage because they have an entire side of the county to itself, Loosemore has worked tirelessly at middle schools across Hillsborough to attract students to Cedar Ridge football. He’s held private workouts on Saturdays when he could have sat home and watched the SEC. He’s held signing ceremonies for rising freshman that brought into his sincere message. He’s stayed late after school to attend lacrosse, baseball and basketball games in hopes of selling football to players.

In short, Loosemore has done a lot of work for free, all while being a newlywed and as his father was dying. He did all that not just to win football games, but to simply have the chance.

Unfortunately, the decision to quit was taken out of his hands and made by someone else. And, ultimately, everyone loses.

Eight years ago, the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves were one win away from playing for the 2-AA State Football Championship.

This fall, they won’t field a varsity team.

In a statement released by the Orange County Schools on Tuesday night, the system announced that Cedar Ridge will not field a varsity football team for the 2018 season. The statement cited safety and lack of players as the reason.

“Currently, the Cedar Ridge High School football program has five rising seniors, nine rushing juniors, 15 rising sophomores and 22 freshman who have committed to play football in the fall,” the statement reads. “We have had some of our student athletes in recent weeks choose not to play football for a variety of reasons.”

“After considering the injury data and the number of student athletes committed to play football in the fall, we have decided to not field a varsity football team in the fall of 2018.”

The statement confirmed that the school will field a junior varsity football team and play a full schedule of games.

“This will give our freshman, sophomores and juniors the opportunity to play against peers of similar size and strength,” according to the statement.

Cedar Ridge becomes the second Big 8 Conference school in as many years to not field a varsity football team. In 2017, East Chapel Hill only had a junior varsity squad. Last month, East Athletic Director Randy Trumbower hired Brian Nunn as its new head coach and plans to return to varsity competition in August.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a program that was one win away from playing in the 2-AA state championship game in 2010. Since losing to Elizabeth City Northeastern 21-7 on December 3, 2010, Cedar Ridge has gone 21-56 through five head coaches. It’s only winning season in that span was in 2015.

Last spring, Cedar Ridge Football Coach Scott Loosemore said he knew numbers could possibly be a problem for 2018. In 2017, Loosemore attracted enough players from other sports to play varsity, and even had enough for a junior varsity team for the first time in four years. Nonetheless, Cedar Ridge went 1-10.

In the offseason, several Cedar Ridge players told Loosemore they would not be returning for 2018, including starting quarterback Phillip Berger, an all-Big 8 Conference pitcher.

In an attempt to improve participation numbers, Loosemore voluntarily stayed after school to attend basketball, lacrosse, wrestling and baseball games to encourage players to go out for football. He worked with students in the weight room that weren’t football players. His main purpose was to get them to play football.

It was something he did when he was the head coach at Eastern Guilford, a school that is now a 3A power. When Loosemore took over the reigns of the Wildcats in 2004, there were roughly 35 players in the program. Three years later, there were 110, despite the school burning down in November 2006.

While Orange gets the vast majority of players from the northern end of the county, Cedar Ridge has been left to compete with Carrboro, Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill for the students in the western and southern end.

Cedar Ridge has scheduled a town hall meeting on Monday night at 6:30 inside the school gymnasium.

Orange and Cedar Ridge’s baseball seasons ended on Saturday, but that’s about the only thing the two teams had in common this weekend.

In Fayetteville, Cedar Ridge’s game against Terry Sanford went down to the wire. In Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill Tigers pounced on Orange early and proved why they were the best team in the Big 8 this season.

Cedar Ridge went to the bottom of the sixth inning tied with Terry Sanford 4-4 after Adam Chnupa, in his final at-bat for the Red Wolves, smoke a 85-mile-per-hour fastball over the centerfield wall. But those would be the last runs of the Cedar Ridge season.

East Carolina recruit Christian Jayne, who earned the victory on the mound for the Bulldogs, stroked a go-ahead double in the bottom of the inning. Andrew Jayne followed with a two-run homer to centerfield to seal Sanford’s 7-4 victory.

The Red Wolves end the season 18-6, the most victories they’ve had in a season since 2006.

Senior Chris Cox laced a two-run homer in the first to immediately give Cedar Ridge the lead. Sanford’s Christian Jayne responded with a solo blast to right field in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead in half.

The Red Wolves squandered plenty of chances to extend its lead. They left the bases loaded in the second. In the third, Cox and Sailor Ramos were left stranded in scoring position.

The Bulldogs’ Justin Ebert pounded a double to centerfield to start the fourth. After a walk and a hit-by-pitch, pitcher Logan Brown laced a two-run double to right to gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead.

In the fifth, Cedar Ridge tied the game. Shortstop Dante DeFranco hit a leadoff double down the left field line. Senior Erik Zehnder lined a two-out single to left field to score DeFranco.

It was the final game for Ramos, Cox, Zehnder, Chnupa, third baseman Landon Badger and Nicholas Starr.

Ramos ends the year with a team-best .439 batting average. He led the team with 29 hits and 23 RBIs. Cox and Chnupa tied for the team lead with three home runs.

In Chapel Hill, a rare battle of Orange County rivals in the state playoffs could have set the table for drama and intensity. Instead, Chapel Hill scored eight runs in the first inning and an intense playoff atmosphere turned into a leisurely stroll into the Round of 16 as the Tigers won 15-3.

After Chapel Hill’s Tyler Tachman flew out to Orange centerfielder Jaydin Poteat in the first inning, nine consecutive Tigers reached base and eight of them scored.

Tyler Hansen scored the first run after Ryan Lonegan drew a bases-loaded walk. Colin Liebe, who singled off of Orange starter Will White, tallied a run after a wild pitch. Anthony Castellano reached on a catcher’s interference call and scored after Drew Govert lined a ball off the third baseman’s glove.

The only positives on the night from Orange came when junior first baseman Trey Clayton lined a opposite field double to right, scoring Mark Willms. Caige Clayton, in his final game, led off the fourth with a single to left. After catcher Cooper Porter singled to right, Clayton scored off an RBI groudout by senior Dalton Brown.

In the fifth, Poteat singled in his final at-bat as a Panther, ending his career with a nine-game hitting streak. Joey Berini reached on a fielder’s choice and scored off a triple by Jason Slaughter.

Slaughter, who will play in college at Belmont Abbey, led Orange with 27 hits and 24 RBIs this season. Orange finishes the year 13-11.

It was the final game for Poteat, Slaughter, Clayton, Willms, pitcher Kaymin Matsko (who earned the win on Saturday in the state playoffs), Clayton, White and Brian Werden.

To go along with competing in the Penn Relays and taking two conference championships, Jamar Davis has added to his long list of accomplishments.

The Orange senior earned two regional championships during the 3A Mideast Regionals at Southeast Guilford High School in Greensboro on Saturday.

Davis captured the championships in the long jump and the triple jump, both events that he competed in at the Penn Relays and numerous national meets since March. On Saturday, Davis won the long jump with a distance of 22 feet, eight inches, beating Chapel Hill’s Terry Green by five inches.

The triple jump wasn’t nearly as close. Davis won with a maximum leap of 48-feet, 4 inches. Southern Durham sophomore Jordan Purvis finished 2nd at 44 feet, one inch.

It’s the second year in a row that Davis has won the triple jump regional championship. Last year, he won with a jump of 45 feet, seven-and-a-half inches. Davis finished fourth in the long jump last year.

Orange’s Morgan Paschall claimed the regional championship last year in the high jump. Paschall was unable to compete on Saturday because of a leg injury.

Davis will go for the state championship next weekend at the North Carolina High School Athletic Assocation Track and Field Championships at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

Cedar Ridge freshman Ben Pardue qualified for the state championships in the pole vault. Pardue finished fourth clearing 12-feet. Chapel Hill’s Jacob Hickerson won the regional championship for the second year in a row at 13-feet, 6-inches.

On Saturday, the Cedar Ridge 4×800 Relay Team did something that even past Red Wolves tracks teams that won state championships couldn’t accomplish.

They broke the school record at the 3A Mideast Regionals.

The team of freshman Anne Morrell, sophomore Ella Nissler, junior Mason Henry and sophomore Allison Musty set a new school mark with a time of 10:08.78 at Southeast Guilford High School. The squad finished third behind champion Chapel Hill and runner-up Union Pines.

Morrell, Nissler, Henry and Musty qualified for the 3A State Track & Field Championships at next Friday at North Carolina A&T State University.

Morrell qualified individually in the 3,200 meters, finishing third with a time of 12:17.88.

They will have company.

Orange freshman Sasha Godfrey qualified for the state championships in two events. She finished 2nd in the 1,600 meters with a time of 5:23.09. Chapel Hill’s Katherine Dokholyan, who won the Big 8 Championship last week at Southern Durham, finished first.

She also finished fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:25.76. Chapel Hill’s Megan Marvin won the regional championship, while her teammate Anna Stouffer came in second.

Orange’s Kate Burgess also earned a spot in the state championships in the 300 meter hurdles. Burgess finished fourth with a time of 47.85 in an All-Big 8 affair. Hillside had the top two finishers. Jessica Wright beat her teammate Ashlyn Bowery by five-tenths-of-a-second. Northwood’s Annika Tracy came in third.

While falling short of the state championships, Cedar Ridge’s Yolanda Simpson finished sixth in the discus finals. The senior’s best toss was 104 feet, eight inches.

The biggest question surrounding the 3A North Carolina State Softball tournament is who can hit Rivers Andrews?

Not in the traditional softball sense of opposing teams getting base hits and scoring runs off of them, but actually trying to make contact with Andrews’ pitches.

On Friday night in the second round of the 3A state playoffs, West Carteret (16-8), who rolled to the Coastal Conference Championship with a 10-0 record, had just two players put the ball in fair play.

The first, Makyiah Mitchell, came up to bat in the third inning after Andrews started the game by striking out the first ten Patriots she faced. Mitchell grounded out to Red Wolves shortstop Tionna Carter. The other was Sierra Mitchell, who was thrown out by third baseman Taylor Barnes. That was the 15th and final out.

Andrews struck out the other 13, bringing her total for the season to 190, and Cedar Ridge rolled past the Patriots 10-0 for the school’s second-ever win in the state playoffs.

“It goes back to the framework that we put in early on last year,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Allen Byrd. “It’s fundamental softball and we’ve stuck to the game plan.”

On Tuesday, Cedar Ridge will travel to face top-seeded West Brunswick in Shallotte in the 3rd round. The Trojans cruised past Wilson Fike 9-0 Friday. Last season, West Brunswick lost to Orange in a best-of-three Eastern Regional Championship series, dropping the final two games in Hillsborough.

How dominant has Andrews been?

Her five-inning perfect game on Friday night was her ninth no-hitter this season and second in as many games. In playoff wins over Southern Wayne and West Carteret, Andrews has faced 37 batters. One of them has gotten on base.

That was a walk issued with two out in the top of the seventh on Wednesday against Southern Wayne after she had retired the first 20 Saints.

Andrews has struck out 32 of 37 batters in the postseason. So how does the rest of the defense keep from getting complacent?

“That’s something we work on in practice everyday,” said Byrd. “Because there’s going to be girls that can hit her. These girls that play in travel ball see that speed. (There’s) not a lot of them. But they’re expecting the ball and we the ball comes to them, they come up with some plays.”

The Red Wolves (17-1) scored in the opening inning, then added six more in the second to put the game away in front of a packed home crowd that watched for all of 67 minutes for the final out.

In the first, Taylor Ruhl and Carter singled. Andrews grounded to 2nd baseman Kiersten Newton, who threw out Cater at second, but the relay throw to first nearly wound up in the West Carteret dugout along first base, allowing Ruhl to score.

12 Red Wolves came up to bat in the second. Kara Wagoner, Taylor Barnes and Amy Stutzer all reached on errors to start the frame. Tori Dalehite, who leads the team with 29 RBIs, stroke a single to right field. Ruhl followed with a three-run, inside-the-park home run to left to push the Cedar Ridge to 5-0 and they were just getting warmed up.

After Andrews got aboard on a fielder’s choice, courtesy runner Shili Quade scored after Wagoner lined a ball off pitcher Breann Caldwell’s glove.

The Red Wolves pushed across three more runs in the fourth. After Andrews and catcher Kymberlie Thacker each singled with one out, Quade scored off a looper to center by Emma Roby. Wagoner lined a 2-1 fastball to center, scoring Reagan Ruhl, who was running for Thacker. Roby scored the final run off a groundout by Barnes.

Of Cedar Ridge’s 17 wins, nine have come from the slaughter rule, which is outscoring teams by ten runs after five innings, or 15 runs after three.

Now Cedar Ridge will made a four-and-a-half hour bus trip to West Brunswick, just a few miles from the South Carolina line. It’s only natural that a team that’s never been to the third round of the playoffs faces an unfamiliar opponent at a place they’ve never played.

“I just told the girls in the dugout that they made a statement tonight,” said Byrd. “It doesn’t matter who we play because eventually we’re going to have to play at someone’s else place at some point. Wherever we play, we’re going to tackle it one step at a time.”

Cedar Ridge’s Rivers Andrews was dominant again on Friday night in the Red Wolves’ 10-0 win over West Carteret in the 2nd Round of the 3A State Playoffs. Andrews struck out the first eleven batters that came to the plate, 13 of the 15 batters overall as the Red Wolves advanced to the third round of the 3A State Playoffs to face West Brunswick on Tuesday. Through the first two games of the playoffs, Andrews has allowed just one baserunner after facing 37 batters. That one was after a walk issued on Wednesday against Southern Wayne, ending a perfect game after Andrews had retired 20 consecutive Saints. 

Cedar Ridge Pitcher Rivers Andrews on Another Perfect Game

Cedar Ridge’s Rivers Andrews was dominant again on Friday night in the Red Wolves’ 10-0 win over West Carteret in the 2nd Round of the 3A State Playoffs. Andrews struck out the first eleven batters that came to the plate, 13 of the 15 batters overall as the Red Wolves advanced to the third round of the 3A State Playoffs to face West Brunswick on Tuesday.

It was another quick night for the Cedar Ridge softball team. They defeated West Carteret 10-0 in five innings in the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs in Hillsborough on Friday night. In a six-run 2nd inning, Taylor Ruhl scored on a three-run, inside the park home run. Ruhl scored four runs as the Red Wolves advanced to face West Brunswick on Tuesday near the South Carolina border. This will be the first time the Red Wolves have faced the Trojans.

Cedar Ridge Junior Taylor Ruhl Talks Inside the Park Home Run in Playoff Win vs. West Carteret

It was another quick night for the Cedar Ridge softball team. They defeated West Carteret 10-0 in five innings in the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs in Hillsborough on Friday night. In a six-run 2nd inning, Taylor Ruhl scored on a three-run, inside the park home run.