When North Rowan began those ridiculously long rides in the Yadkin Valley Conference a few years ago, the Cav coaches pretty much knew we weren’t going on the road when they traveled to places like Chatham Central or North Moore.
Tonight, we will.
North’s boys are expected to clinch another outright conference title at North Moore and the Post isn’t going to miss it.
When asked where North Moore is, I pointed toward Asheboro, and gave the instructions, “Go. Keep going. Go some more. And the town of Robbins is down there somewhere.
“And oh yeah, try to get back by deadline.”
The Cavaliers are favored by about 40 so a third straight championship should make our trip worthwhile.
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While North has the best team, the best player in the county is West Rowan’s Keshun Sherrill, especially after he lit up Carson for 41 the other night.
You’ll get no argument from Cavalier coach Andrew Mitchell. Sherrill lit his team up for 37 and 30.
The girls player of the year is pretty much sewn up as well. In fact, Salisbury’s Brielle Blaire is leaving everyone else behind in that race.
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If you want to see one of North Carolina’s best female players in action, Blaire and her Hornet teammates are home tonight against East Davidson.
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It’s a light Friday night with the only other area doubleheaders having Concord, the state’s second-ranked boys team, traveling to rival A.L. Brown and North Davidson going to Davie.
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As the regular season ends tonight and the conference tournaments begin Monday, it’s time to look back at the highlight of the season — the Moir Christmas Classic, which is, without a doubt, the county’s biggest sporting event of the year.
The Moir is held at Catawba College’s 2,600-seat Goodman Gym, but it usually swells to almost 3,000 fans.
That’s almost the number of dollar bills Catawba athletic director Dennis Davidson sent to each of the seven schools who participated.
Each school received $2,920. That’s like a million bucks to high school ADs who have to scratch and claw for enough funds to take care of their programs.
One AD said his money will take care of new volleyball uniforms and will help fund spring sports.
“It’s a record,” beamed Davidson, who has found a magical formula for putting on arguably the state’s best prep Christmas tournament.
The most interesting stats from the Moir is not about points or rebounds. It’s how much money was made on concessions.
The stats are in. Davidson reports the three-day event sold:
• 800 Chick-fil-as.
• 750 boxes of popcorn.
• 450 hotdogs.
• 450 slices of pizza (only sold at night).
• 350 Nachos & Cheese.
• 1,800 20-ounce bottles of Cheerwine.
• And the most popular candy at the Moir? Airheads. A total of 1,500 were sold.
“Actually ran out of those,” Davidson reports. “Could have sold lots more.”
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The Moir has become like Duke-Carolina. Every year, you think it can’t get better than the year before. And then, it does. Fans have already said they can’t wait until next year.
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On the air tonight …
Hall of Famer Howard Platt and the best basketball analyst around, The Coach, Bob Parker, will call Salisbury’s game at home against East Davidson on WSTP 1490 AM.
Go to a game tonight, folks. And be nice.
And buy some Airheads!
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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4287 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com.