West Rowan boys basketball coach Mike Gurley was named as the Homer Thompson Sportsmanship Award winner for District 6 by the NCHSAA.
Eight Sportsmanship Award winners were named statewide as “coaches who make a difference.”
Homer Thompson was a Salisbury native and Catawba graduate who played baseball and football for the Indians. He coached and taught for 38 years, mostly at Winston-Salem Parkland. He’s in the Catawba, NCHSAA and Winston-Forsyth halls of fame.
Besides being a good sport, Gurley owns more basketball coaching wins at a Rowan high school than anyone in county history. His record at West, where he’s coached since the 1997-98 season, is 353-126. He was 102-39 at Lexington before coming to West.
USC Upstate’s Ross Oden (East Rowan) broke the school record in the 3000 meters in the Carolina’s Cup event at Winthrop. Odeen finished fifth in a personal-best time of 8:45.60.
Alex Austin (Salisbury) competed for Sandhills Community College in the D-III Region 10 tournament held at Emerald Golf Club in New Bern. Austin shot 75-79 — 154 and tied for eighth. Sandhills won the tournament and qualified for the nationals in New York in June,
Sandhills finished third nationally in 2013.

Salisbury’s Eric Edwards will sign with George Mason this week.
The 18-hole CCC Championships are scheduled for Tuesday at the Country Club of Salisbury.
• East Rowan’s Logan Shuping shot 72-78 — 150 and tied for seventh in a Tarheel Golf Junior tournament held at Grandover Resort in Greensboro over the weekend.
The CCC Championships are scheduled for Tuesday at North Rowan.
The CCC tournament is scheduled to start today in Lexington.
Salisbury’s Alexandra Drye will continue her tennis career and education at Christopher Newport in Newport News, Va.
Salisbury’s Emalee Young is headed to Roanoke and will play on the lacrosse team.
Those stories are upcoming.
• West Rowan basketball’s Seth Martin is signing today with Catawba Valley Community College.
The McCanless Couples played on Sunday.
The team of Bev and Ty Cobb, Glenn Trexler and Jacob Durham took first place.
The etam of Ricky Honeycutt, Don Goodnight, Frank Foster and David Huneycutt finished second.
Sharon Miller won longest putt. Glenn Trexler won closest to the pin.
Kannapolis lost to Greenville 5-4 in 14 innings on Sunday. Kannapolis (4-7) was swept in the four-game series. Cleuluis Rondon had three hits for the Intimidators.
Kannapolis is at Hickory tonight.