Orange sophomore center Katelyn Van Mater had eight points and six rebounds in the Lady Panthers’ win over Cedar Ridge on Wednesday afternoon. Van Mater is in her second season on the varsity level. After playing regularly as a freshman, Van Mater is now backing up starter Erin Jordan-Cornel in the Lady Panthers’ lineup. Orange has now won three straight games. On Tuesday, the Lady Panthers defeated Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium. Now 3-1, Orange is scheduled to travel to Vance County this Tuesday night as they search to make the state playoffs for the fourth time in five years.

For one night, Orange High Gymnasium resembled a pre-pandemic world.

That is, if you could ignore the empty bleachers. Well, empty except for Orange Principal Matthew Hunt and the Panthers cheerleaders.

On the floor, there was Aaliyah Harris leading the fast break, scoring on a lay-in and hitting the floor hard, but bouncing back up as she always does. On the other end, junior Jarmil Wingate locked down Southern Durham’s perimeter game. In the middle was sophomore Erin Jordan-Cornell, back in action on the hardwood after an abrupt end to volleyball season.

At a time where the template of a standard season has been thrown into the incinerator and any normal routine is a distant memory, it was nice to remember what the old normal was like.

The Orange women’s basketball team defeated Southern Durham 61-39 in its home opener at Panther Gymnasium on Friday night. Orange (1-1) was led by Jordan-Cornell’s 19 points and 16 rebounds. Harris added 17 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Orange started the week under the assumption that the Big 8 Conference regular season would consist of 14 games. On Wednesday, the league’s athletic directors voted to change that, reducing the conference season to seven games. Teams can still play 14 games, the full allotment allowed by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association this season, but only the first seven games will count in the Big 8 Conference standings.

“Honestly, I don’t think there was a better option,” said Orange County B.J. Condron, who was in Wednesday’s meeting. “It doesn’t look like some teams will be able to get all their games in. If I had a better soluton, I certainly would have presented it. But I think that’s the only way to go right now.”

It was another reminder that as much as everyone wants to return to normal, things still aren’t normal.

Even during a pandemic, the Orange women’s team is used to each other. Harris, Wingate, Jala Rainey and Samantha George have each been on the varsity team for three years, and were AAU teammates years before arriving at Orange. Jordan-Cornell, Katelyn Van Mater and Nikayla Whitted were freshman on the varsity team last year.

“They had some good rhythm in the second quarter,” Condron said. “The thing that impressed me was when some of them got in foul trouble, our younger kids stepped up and played a huge role. Jada Reed had some good minutes. It was a good team win.”

Southern (2-3), who finished second in the Big 8 last season, doesn’t have a senior on its roster. Orange’s experience was apparent offensively, finishing with 19 field goals off 14 assists. Southern’s offense generally contested of jump shots and dribble-drives off turnovers. The Spartans were 1-of-24 from 3-point range and had only two assists.

Southern’s Chloe Richmond, who led the team with eleven points, hit two free throws to give the Spartans a 6-5 lead. Orange responded with ten consecutive points and didn’t look back. Harris opened the game with a 3-pointer and had nine points in the opening quarter. Jordan-Cornell scored seven.

Southern got field goals from Destiny Herndon and Kailyn Griffin to pull within 16-11 early in the second quarter, but Orange’s offense shifted into midseason form in its home opener with seamless transition offense from Harris, Wingate and Jordan-Cornell to mount an 18-4 run and settle into cruise control. Orange led 30-15 with 3:10 remaining in the first half.

Orange shot 5-of-9 from the field in the second quarter.

After dropping the season opener at Northwood last Friday, Orange is focused on its remaining five games that will count in the conference standings. Of course, there’s a chance the schedule could be adjusted whenever Orange Athletic Director Mark McCulley’s cell phone rings.

If there’s a season that fits the old Beatles’ song “Tomorrow Never Knows,” it’s this one. Somehow, it’s a mindset that Condron embraces through the most unusual season of his young coaching career.

“Honestly, it hasn’t phased me,” Condron said. “I’m looking at how many games can we get in? If we end up in one of the top spots, that’s great. If we don’t, then at least we got to play this year. Because there was a time where it wasn’t even looking like we weren’t going to play. So I tell the team to play every game like it’s their last. Because it could be.”

Orange 61, Southern Durham 39

Southern Durham-Rymiah Sanders 7, Briana Hughes 8, Kailyn Griffin 4, Chloe Richmond 11, RaShae Christopher 2, Destiny Herndon 1, Ashari Robinson 6.

ORANGE: Samantha George 8, Aaliyah Harris 17, Jarmil Wingate 7, Erin Jordan-Cornell 19, Makayla Alston 1, Jada Reed 3, Jala Rainey 4, Katelyn Van Mater 2.

Orange junior point guard Aaliyah Harris started her junior season much later than normal, but she make up for lost time. Harris registered 17 points, 6 rebounds and five assists as the Lady Panthers defeated Southern Durham 61-39 in Hillsborough on Friday night. Harris has played regularly on the varsity level since her freshman year. Last season as a starter, Orange made the state playoffs for the second straight year. This year, Orange will play a maximum of 14 games, but Harris is determined to make the most of it. She’s surrounded by teammates Jarmil Wingate, Samantha George, Jala Rainey and Erin Jordan-Cornell, who have been on the varsity level for several years. Orange, 1-1, will travel to Northern Durham on Tuesday night.

In its home opener, the orange women’s basketball team defeated Southern Durham 61-39 on Friday night. Sophomore center Erin Jordan-Cornell finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds as the Lady Panthers earned its first win of the season. Jordan-Cornell was an outside hitter on the Orange volleyball team in November, so she’s had time to get in shape. Though it was only Orange’s second game of the season, Jordan-Cornell played like an experienced veteran against the Spartans, making 9-of-10 free throws. She also found teammate Samantha George on a transition basket in the third quarter to help the Lady Panthers pull away. Orange travels to Northern Durham on Tuesday night looking to go to 2-1.

Suppose you’re a NASCAR driver running in the Daytona 500, figuring the race is going to be the standard 500 miles. Then 100 miles after the green flag drops, you learn from your crew chief that the race will be 300 miles instead of 500.

In the modern pandemic world where games and schedules adjust on a daily basis, that’s where Big 8 Conference basketball coaches found themselves on Wednesday.

The Big 8 Conference Athletic Directors voted to reduce the Big 8 regular season to seven conference games, including the three games that Orange has already played. Originally, the plan was for 14 regular season conference games.

Under the format, only the initial meetings between two teams will count as conference games. The repeat matchups will count as nonconference games, if they’re played, at all.

It was a sour note for Orange men’s coach Darryl Britt, whose Orange Panthers are now 0-4 after Wednesday’s night loss to Chapel Hill. With no postseason conference tournament, the new decree largely eliminates Orange from North Carolina High School Athletic Association 3A State Playoff contention only two weeks into the season.

Under the NCHSAA pandemic format, only the top two teams from an 8-team conference can make the postseason, along with wildcards.

Despite the seven-game conference season, Britt still wants to play 14 games.

“We’re going to play as many as we can,” Britt said. “That’s 14. It’s just that there’s only seven conference games that will actually count. If there’s a team that we can’t play or they’re quarantined, then we’ll look to schedule outside the conference.”

As for Wednesday night, Chapel Hill (1-2) defeated the Panthers 72-58 to end a three-game losing streak to Orange. Jermaine Burnette paced the Tigers with 15 points to ruin Orange’s home opener, contested in front of the usual pandemic gathering of limited staff, coaches, socially distanced cheerleaders, junior varsity players, and plenty of empty bleachers.

Orange, always reliant on the 3-pointer with a three-guard lineup, opened without a field goal in the first 3:35, leading to Britt benching four of his starters early. Joshua Jackson drained a 3-pointer midway through the opening frame to give Orange its only lead of that game at 12-11.

Chapel Hill’s Franklin Johnson was fouled by Kyle Stanley just as the first-quarter clock expired. Johnson drained the free throws with no time remaining to put the Tigers ahead 13-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Orange missed its first five shots from the field in second quarter, which propelled the Tigers to a 10-0 run that kept them in control the rest of the night. Reserve Franklin Johnson came off the bench to score eight points in the first half for the Tigers, and finished with 12, one of five Chapel Hill players to finish in double figures.

Orange senior Jerec Thompson had a game-high 23 points, including a remarkable 29-foot three pointer in the third quarter that gave the Panthers a brief spark of momentum. Despite that, Chapel Hill’ offensive rebounding led to second-chance baskets that kept its lead in double-digits for most of the second half.

Senior Jason Franklin had 16 points for Orange, but no other Panther had more than six.

Of Burnette’s 15 points, 13 came in the second half. Chapel Hill’s Grant Ferris added eleven. Matt Polsky had 13, Jake Chisholm finished with ten.

The loss continued a pattern of streaky shooting for Orange that was best exemplified in Friday’s loss to Northwood, where Orange had four points in the third quarter, then 32 in the fourth.

“I can’t complain about the effort that my guys give,” Britt said. “They’re trying to execute a game plan. It’s unfortunate that we’re a shooting team and we’re not able to make shots. It hurts.”

Now, a combination of the pandemic and outside forces have all but guaranteed that Orange will miss the state playoffs for the fourth straight season. Britt’s challenge is keeping his team motivated going into next Tuesday’s trip to Northern Durham.

“I just want my kids to have the chance to play,” Britt said. “On top of that, we have to get right. The only way we’re going to get better is to play and fix what’s wrong. Without playing a full season, that’s hard to do.”

CHAPEL HILL 72, ORANGE 58

CHAPEL HILL: Matt Polsky 13, Jake Chislom 10, Grant Ferris 11, Jermaine Burnette 15, Carter Grubbs 6, Tyler Stillson 3, Ryan McKinnon 2, Franklin Johnson 12.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 23, Jason Franklin 16, J.J. Thompson 3, Kyle Stanley 2, Joshua Jackson 6, Darius Corbett 2, Ryan Moss 2, Hunter Birch 4.

It’s hard to say Cedar Ridge volleyball’s season is over when it barely felt like it started.

Usually, a volleyball season is around 24 matches that starts the first week of the academic year. Good teams will play until the end of October. The best last until early November, when they wind up going for a state championship at Reynolds Coliseum or Crown Coliseum.

In the aftershock of the train wreck that was 2020, everything still feels irregular. Cedar Ridge’s regular season was supposed to be 14 games, but is over after just ten.

Along the way, the Red Wolves defeated the defending 3A State Champions, won the Big 8 Conference championship and captured its first state playoff win since 2015 behind a fleet of sophomores who make the Red Wolves’ future blindingly blight.

Unfortunately, Cedar Ridge’s fleet ran into a barrage of cannons from D.H. Conley on Thursday night.

Conley, the champions of the 4A/3A Eastern Carolina Conference, defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 on Thursday night at Viking Gymnasium on scores of 23-25, 25-15, 25-21 and 25-18.

Conley (13-1) will host Chapel Hill on Saturday.

For the first time in Cedar Ridge’s brief season, they ran into an opponent that could not only match its finishing firepower, but overwhelm it. The Vkings’ front court of 6’0 freshman Ashlyn Philpot, 5’10 junior Maddy May and 5’11 junior Ella Philpot supplied plenty of killing power, which only grew more formidable when sophomore outside hitter Kylah Silver came off the bench.

“They have size, but we were prepared for it,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Fiona Cunningham. “They played phenomenal. They had great offense, but when it came down to blocking we got touches. We slowed down the ball exactly how we wanted to.”

After a two-and-a-half hour bus trip to Greenville, the Red Wolves didn’t lack for confidence early. They rolled out to a 6-1 lead behind two kills from sophomore Cameron Lloyd, along with finishes from Layne Foster and Justice Wilborune.

The Vikings evened the opening set after a series of powerful spikes from Silver and an ace from senior Sarah Dees. With the set tied at 23, Lloyd gave Cedar Ridge the lead when she tipped the ball over the hands of May, who sent the volley off the antenna. Senior Layne Foster, in her final match, earned the kill on set point off an assist from Julie Altieri.

“We slowed down the ball exactly how we wanted to in the first set,” Cunningham said. “We stuck to the game plan. Conley responded. They adjusted to what our game plan was and we just didn’t match that adjustment quite as quickly.”

With the second set even 8-8, the Vikings started to impose its dominance. They went on a 9-1 run behind finishes from Dees and Ashely Thomas. Philpot, the freshman, blocked set point to even the match.

Though Conley never trailed in the fourth set, the frame was tight throughout. Lloyd had six kills in the 4th, all assisted by Altieri. Lloyd also had an ace to tie the set at 18 when Conley immediately reeled off four straight points, starting with a spike by Silver off an assist by Olivia Lefever. An errant serve by Cedar Ridge gave the Vikings the third set 25-21.

Conley took control of the final frame with a 13-0 run to go ahead 19-8. Cedar Ridge fought back to narrow the gap to 20-13 behind kills from Lloyd and Wilbourne, but Ashlyn Philpot spiked home match point to send the Vikings on to the state quarterfinals.

In her final match at Cedar Ridge, senior libero Marlee Rakouskas had 29 digs.

As Cedar Ridge prepares for what will hopefully be a more traditional season starting in August, they can take solace over the fact the team won the first Big 8 Conference championship at the school since the softball team in May 2019.

It’s Still a Bloated Mess

Just a few weeks ago, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its plans for the 2021-2025 Realignment to including schematics, initial drafts, and conferences.

When the NCHSAA tried to expand to a fifth classification and to make Realignment occur more frequently, Realignment was to be delayed by one academic year. When these votesfailed along with COVID-19 concerns, Realignment went back to its original course. Realignment will now go into effect on August 1, 2021.

As opposed to recent versions when Realignment primarily involved only one component, this version of the “Ole Switcheroo” includes two more. 

Component #1 remains the Average Daily Membership, or ADM. This remains the average enrolment of a school from 9^th through 12^th grades factoring admissions and departures throughout the academic year. The ADM score is originated by utilizing the school’s 2019-2020 ADM number, as published by the NCHSAA prior to the 2019 football playoffs, and multiplying it by 50 percent.

(Example – 2019-2020 ADM x .50 = ADM score)

Component #2 is a schematic known as the State Cup Score. The Wells Fargo Cup or “State Cup” is a yearly NCHSAA award that recognizes the high schools that achieve the best overall athletic performance within each of the Association’s four classifications. The State Cup is based on overall performance, primarily scored by season finish and postseason play.When teams participate in their respective sports, they are given a score at the end of that season that is scored into the overall standings of the Wells Fargo Cup.

Calculating the State Cup score will consist of multiple steps. First is finding the State Cupaverage of the last three years. 

[Example – (2018 score + 2019 score + 2020 score) / 3 = Three-year State Cup average]. 

After tabulating the three-year average, it is then multiplied it by 25 percent for the official score.

(Example – Three-year State Cup average x .25 = State Cup Score)

Component #3 is the Identified Student Percentage, or ISP. The ISP is the number of students in a school who receives some form of government assistance via guidelines fromthe U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The ISP score will be the most complicated score to compile. First, the Association will find the three-year ISP average for each school, just like with the State Cup Score. Although, the Association voted to eliminate the highest of the three scores as certain discrepancies in numbers from incidents such as natural disasters or other Acts of God could impact a school’s overall realignment score.

[Example – (2018 ISP + 2019 ISP + 2020 ISP) / 3 = Three-year ISP average]

Second, the Association will determine a school’s ISP multiplier by placing each school using a comparative & precise distribution range from .25 to 1.75. Schools that have related ISP averages will be found among similar spots on the distribution range. The higher a school’s ISP average, the lower the multiplier will be. This means that the more students at a school receiving government assistance, the lower the multiplier the school will have, thereby reducing its realignment score. Once the ISP multiplier is identified, the Association will multiply the school’s 2019-2020 ADM number by the ISP multiplier to reveal the ISP factor.(Example – 2019-2020 ADM x ISP multiplier = ISP factor)

Third, when the ISP factor is determined, it is multiplied by 25 percent to get the ISP score for the school. (Example – ISP factor x .25 = ISP score).

The organized calculation of all three components equals a school’s Realignment Score.

Did anyone understand all of that? Neither did I. 

The blueprint for classification reminds me of the obscure Adjusted MaxPreps Ranking, themonolithic Bowl Championship Series formula, and the mysterious trade secret for Colonel Sanders’ Original Recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Despite the openness to do one’s own homework, realignment has again resulted in a cluster of clutter factored by a tedious set of schematics.

Last year, I filed an article wishing for the NCHSAA to designate schools per region, as such designations would allow schools to budget funds set aside for away sporting events and make playoff seeding more easily. The Association has adopted this measure, as the East / West boundary will be set west of the counties of Caswell, Alamance, Chatham, Moore, and Richmond. This will also take effect at Realignment in August.

Despite its overall framework, the Association seemed to return Orange and Cedar Ridge to historical roots. I spoke with our fearless leader, Jeff Hamlin, who passionately recalled of some classic games of the Panthers & Red Wolves against Carrboro, Eastern Alamance, Northwood, Walter Williams, and Western Alamance. While I look forwards to these games, I’m also looking forwards to some shorter drives, especially avoiding the near 60-mile trek to Vance County.

Another Christmas gift the Association has given to all of us through Realignment will be the elimination of split classifications for the football playoffs, which will go into effect in the 2021-2022 season. In previous editions, I cited examples of snafus, favored positions despite producing abysmal season results, and an excessive number of inferior playoff teams with sub-500 records. Hopefully, the playoffs can return to some normalcy with a plain’ol, 16-team tournament on both sides of the state. 

One can also hope that playoffs in other events can be reduced from the engorged 64-team brackets, to a smaller 48-team tourney that rewards the best teams with a bye in the first round. In essence, it’s quality over quantity.

My overall take on the current events from the NCHSAA is that it’s still swollen. Despite some good changes, it’s not enough. We will never see any truly reformed efforts until the principals and athletic directors vote to change the NCHSAA by-laws by expanding the Associationbeyond four classes. 

As I’ve said before, the Association has needed to expand since 2006 with the statewideboom in population and high school construction. Playing within the confines of a four classification system is like trying to fit into your favorite pair of blue jeans that haven’t fit since high school.

There’s only so much that can be done to produce a sensible athletic program in North Carolina. It cannot be accomplished unless those with the power, changes the rules.