|
Trying to keep up with area athletes ...
It’s a good thing Donna Carr had several teammates from Finland on the Catawba women’s basketball team last season.
She’s going to that country as a professional basketball player.
Asked what city she will be living in, she laughed and said, “I can’t pronounce it.”
But it doesn’t matter. She’s playing for pay.
Carr, a former Salisbury High star, was recruited by the University of South Carolina, where she played for three seasons before transferring back to her hometown. She helped lead John Duncan’s Indians to a 25-5 campaign, one of the best in school history.
“After the season I had here, I started getting interest,” Carr said. “The coaches started pushing me more and I started taking it more seriously.
“I was blessed to have three Finnish players (Vuokko Timola, Ella Pasola and Satu Puolitaival) on my team and they pushed my name around the area,” Carr said. “They taught me a little Finnish so I’m semi-prepared.”
n
CATAWBA MEN: Jim Baker’s men’s basketball team at Catawba College will be loaded next year and he brought in two recruits to join the Indians.
Robert Owens is the marquee recruit. A 6-foot-4 left-hander, he averaged 22 points per game last year in Trenton, N.J. He spent three seasons at Camden Catholic before transferring.
“I think he’ll fit in,” said Baker, who, like Duncan, also coached a 25-5 squad. “He’s very athletic, a good kid and a good student. He has a lot of upside. He’s going to get bigger.”
Baker’s other recruit is Collin Brough of East Chapel Hill. Baker anticipates the 6-3 Brough
redshirting.
n
FAMILIAR FACE:Jarrett Wishon won’t be going to Cullowhee alone.
A North Rowan High School teammate, Matt Hestwood, will be on the Western Carolina squad as well. Coaches have told Hestwood, a lineman, that he is getting no aid but if he has a good fall, he’ll get some scholarship help in the spring.
n
CAPTAIN:Wishon and Hestwood can learn from the best, namely another former North Rowan Cavalier.
Jeff Chambers has been named captain of the Catamounts football team.
n
SKY-HIGH: West Rowan’s highly recruited defensive lineman, Kendall High, was working the Catawba College football camp last week and was asked — again — where he’s going to play on the next level.
Many of the ACC schools, along with South Carolina, have wooed Scott Young’s 6-5, 250-pounder and he said Tuesday he’s about ready to make his choice.
“By the first game, I’ll make my commitment,” he said.
Curiously, High added he wasn’t sure he really wanted to go to a big school — and then began praising Catawba’s program and head coach David Bennett.
Hmmm.
n
BIG NUMBERS: South Rowan is winning in 4A football and coach Rick Vanhoy is reaping the benefits, numbers-wise.
A total of 133 Raider prospects were interested in the spring after an 8-3 season and Vanhoy expects more than 100 during the first week of practice.
n
LOWERY UPDATE: Davie County coach Doug Illing will be coaching a big-time football prospect this season in linebacker Patrick Lowery.
Lowery had 163 tackles last season (and was 50-1 in wrestling). Everyone from Michigan to Florida State has courted him. But right now, he appears to be leaning toward N.C. State.
“State’s probably my leader,” Lowery told Brian Pitts of the Davie County Enterprise-Record. “It’s not too far away and not too close.
“I think they’re on the way up. Coach (Chuck)Amato’s got them going the right way and I think they’re going to be better than last year.”
Florida State has made a late push.
“Florida State’s really come into the picture the past month,” Lowery said. “And I mean, how can you not give them a serious look? I’ve gotten a couple of handwritten letters from them.”
When Lowery signs with a Division I school (perhaps during wrestling season), he’ll continue a family tradition. Father Buddy, Davie’s athletic director — and a former star at North Rowan — played for East Carolina.
n
WOOLDRIDGE UPDATE: Illing also has perhaps the best kicker in North Carolina in David Wooldridge.
The 6-2 booter was 10-of-13 on field goal attempts last season, including a 50-yarder. The Enterprise-Record listed his favorites as North Carolina, N.C. State, Clemson and Virginia.
This past week, believe it or not, he spent time in Dallas with the Cowboy kickers.
And just think. He was a skinny soccer player when North Davie coach Ron Kirk (yet another former North Rowan star) first noticed that impressive right leg and urged Wooldridge to try kicking a football.
“I never thought it would lead to this when I started back in the eighth grade,” Wooldridge told Pitts. “I thought I’d try to go for soccer.”
n
CRANFORD SIGNS: Apparently, Nathan Cranford’s collapsed lung of a year ago didn’t bring on a collapse in the number of colleges wanting his services.
On the first day that college coaches could offer scholarships, Central Cabarrus boys basketball coach Scott Brewer got a call from Appalachian State. So did Cranford, who committed to play hoops the next four seasons in Boone.
“App offered him on the spot,” Brewer said. “Everybody in that conference wanted him and even Harvard called because he’s such a good student.”
Cranford missed 14 games but still averaged 25 points for the Vikings, who are moving up to 4A for his senior season.
Brewer will now get Cranford ready for his college career at Appalachian State.
“They said they wanted a 2 guard who could also play the point,” said Brewer.
n
SALISBURY HOOPS: It was a weird basketball season for Salisbury Hornets coach Drew Mathews in 2000-2001.
Most of his star players flunked off at Christmas and he was forced to finish up a 4-18 campaign with inexperienced freshmen and sophomores.
Things should be much better next season, but he adds, “We’ll still be young.”
Salisbury has played about 30 games this summer. Mathews said point guard Julian Greene, 6-5 center Magellan Stevenson, Brian Roten and Jack Campbell have excelled.
“I’m looking forward to the young guys coming back,” he said. “We have a world of potential.
“My goal next year is to win as many games as we lose. That will be an improvement from last year.”
n
BE WELL-ROUNDED: Mathews will end his career as a football assistant but has urged his basketball players to hit the gridiron, which most have done.
“I like them playing football,” he said. “That way, they have to maintain their grades.”
n
Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4256 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com
.
|
Today's News
