Staff report
West Rowan and Salisbury have been the dominant athletic programs in Rowan County for several years and nothing changed when the East-West All-Star teams were announced recently.
Five athletes and one coach will represent the county in three sports — football, basketball and soccer — during the July extravaganza in Greensboro and all are Falcons and Hornets.
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West will continue its rich football tradition under Scott Young in the July 18 game at Jamieson Stadium in Greensboro. Defensive lineman Greg Dixon and offensive lineman Mike Norman have been selected.
Dixon was all-conference and all-county. He was named North Piedmont Conference Defensive Player of the Year. He has signed with West Liberty (W. Va.).
Norman was also all-conference and all-county.
Adam Smith, the do-it-all quarterback from Davie County, is also on the team.
Other familiar names include C.J. Gibbs of West Iredell, Jalen Holt of South Stanly, Sha’Quann Johnson of Thomasville, Avery Sluder of Central Davidson, Charles Wilkes of Mooresville and Josh White of East Davidson.
East Davidson coach Bryan Lingerfelt is an assistant to head coach Mike Sexton of Asheville Erwin.
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A West Rowan coach and player will be in the East-West basketball game.
Mike Gurley, who has 433 career victories and three state champions, will assist West head coach Brad LeVine of East Rutherford. Gurley will be bringing along his star Keshun Sherrill, the North Piedmont Conference Player of the Year.
Sherrill has signed with Augusta State.
West was burned enough over the last few years by Davie’s super guard Nate Jones that Gurley made sure he was a member of the West team for the July 16 game at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Shawn Lester of nearby Mooresville is also on the team.
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It has been a while since Rowan produced a soccer all-star for the July 15 game but state champion Salisbury will send two: high-scoring Kenny Bonilla and goalkeeper Connor Miller.
Those two helped Matt Parrish’s team to a 3-2 victory over Carrboro in the 2A state championship game. Until this year, only three Hornets had been selected to the all-star game.
Bonilla was the CCC Player of the Year. Miller has signed with Old Dominion.
Both were named all-county, all-conference and all-region.
The West head coach knows each of them well. He’s Chad Hench of Central Davidson.