From staff reports

David Whitaker will be East Rowan’s new boys soccer coach in the fall.

Whitaker is a product of South Davidson High in Denton where he was a four-year starter for the Wildcats and made all-region, all-county and all-conference teams.

He played for a year as a walk-on goalkeeper at Pfeiffer before being injured.

His first coaching job was with a U15 team for NCUnited Soccer Association and he had success as a middle school coach in Guilford County.

He started the soccer program at Chatham Charter School in Siler City where his team won the NCHSAA award for the state’s highest GPA.

The past two seasons, Whitaker has  coached the South Rowan jayvees.

Brian Moffitt resigned as East’s coach after last season. The Mustangs were 3-16-2  last fall and were 1-9 in the North Piedmont Conference.

Prep basketball

Salisbury, West Rowan, East Rowan, North Rowan, A.L. Brown and Davie County return to basketball action tonight.

Due to wintry weather that closed schools, most teams have been idle since last Tuesday.

Lexington at Salisbury

SHS junior Bryanna Troutman enters tonight’s girls game with 986 career points. Salisbury is tied for first place in the Central Carolina Conference.

• It’s also a big night for Salisbury’s first-place boys (10-1 CCC). Lexington (8-3 CCC) is one of the  challengers to the Hornets for the league crown.

Statesville at West Rowan

It’s a key girls game, as both teams are part of a four-way tie for first in the North Piedmont Conference with 2-1 records.

West sophomore Abigail Wilson (22.1 ppg) leads Rowan girls in scoring.

Statesville’s girls are good. They beat North Iredell, and North Iredell has beaten Carson and West Rowan.

• West also has the county’s top boys scorer in senior Caleb Mauldin (24.2 ppg).  The Falcons have won five straight and are tied for first in the NPC with Carson at 3-0.

N. Iredell at East Rowan

In the boys contest, someone is going to win their first NPC game of the season.

N. Rowan at N. Stanly

The boys game should be one of the best in the state in 1A tonight.

The Yadkin Valley Conference is a three-team race, with North Rowan, North Stanly and Albemarle as the contenders.

North Rowan already has beaten Albemarle twice, but North Rowan lost to North Stanly  in the first meeting of the teams. North Stanly’s only league loss  was to Albemarle.

Reagan at Davie

Davie’s boys (12-4, 3-0) are still unbeaten in the Central Piedmont Conference and are tied with East Forsyth for first place.

Concord at A.L. Brown

  The Wonder boys (1-2 SPC) are playing better lately. They’re  the only team that’s beaten Carson  and they took 3A defending champ Cox Mill to the wire.

Williamson to Duke

High-flying high school power forward Zion Williamson committed to Duke, giving the Blue Devils the nation’s three top-rated college prospects.

Williamson,  a 6-foot-6 forward from Spartanburg,  picked Duke over Clemson, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. Both of Williamson’s parents are former Livingstone College athletes.

•••

Carson senior Jamarius Hairston has received an offer from Lander, a D-II Peach Belt Conference program in Greenwood, S.C.

Prep swimming

The NPC Swimming Championships will be held at the JF Hurley YMCA on Wednesday.

Warm-ups are at 10 a.m. The meet starts at 11:15. Admission is $5.

•••

The CCC Swimming Championships will be held at Winston-Salem State University on Thursday.

North Davidson is hosting the meet.

 

Middle school basketball

Action resumed in the middle school tournament on Monday.

In boys semifinal games, top-seeded Mooresville beat No. 4 seed China Grove, 57-37, and No. 2 seed North Rowan won 42-29 against third-seeded Erwin.

Championship games are set for Wednesday at Southeast.

The top-seeded Erwin girls play third-seeded Knox at 4:30. Mooresville and North Rowan square off for the boys championship at 6 p.m.

 

Women’s track

Catawba’s Maddie Bohannon (Davie County) was 10th in the 200 meters in Saturday’s Wake Forest Invitational.

 

Women’s college basketball

Methodist freshman Tyzarea Alexander (Salisbury) scored six points against Pfeiffer on Saturday and had five on Sunday against Salem.

• Texas Tech’s Brielle Blaire (North Rowan) had seven points and three rebounds in Texas Tech’s loss to Texas.

• Alex Allen (Carson) had seven points and three assists for Lynchburg in a loss to Randolph-Macon.

Men’s college basketball

Malik Ford (North Rowan) had an alley-oop dunk and Michael Bowman (North Rowan) scored four points as J.C. Smith rolled against St. Augustine’s, 74-49.

• Tre Williams (Carson) had nine points and five assists in Claflin’s 97-82 loss at Clark Atlanta on Sunday.

• Cody Martin and Caleb Martin, twins who began their high school careers at Davie County and began their college careers at N.C. State, have helped the University of Nevada win seven in a row and improve to 18-3.

Caleb is the leading scorer. He’s averaging 19.7 points and 5.4 rebounds. Cody averages 12.8 points per game.

Caleb scored 28 in a win against Boise State on Saturday. Nevada plays at Wyoming on Wednesday.